About this event
The Albanian Student Organization at Seton Hall University runs this gala every November, and it has grown fast: about 200 guests at the first one in 2024, close to 300 and a sellout in 2025. The third annual lands on Independence Day weekend, celebrating the 1912 declaration that made Albania a nation. You do not have to be Albanian, or a student, to come.
The Essentials
- Date: Saturday, November 14, 2026
- Time: 5:00 to 10:00 p.m.
- Place: Bethany Hall, Seton Hall University, 400 S. Orange Ave., South Orange Village, NJ 07079
- Cost: Ticketed. Recent years ran $10 for high school and college students, Seton Hall alumni, faculty, and staff, and $25 for everyone else. Prices have risen year to year, so confirm the current figure with the Albanian Student Organization before you go.
- Weather: None to worry about. The whole night is indoors in Bethany Hall, rain or shine.
Getting There, and the South Orange Catch
Seton Hall sits on South Orange Avenue, a straight shot from the Garden State Parkway (exit 145) or I-280. The catch is parking. Campus visitor lots fill on an event night, and the streets around South Orange run on meters and resident permits with real enforcement, so leave time to circle or plan to walk a few blocks.
The train solves it. NJ Transit's Morris & Essex lines — the Morristown Line and the Gladstone Branch — stop at South Orange station, with direct trains from New York Penn Station. From the platform it is about a three-fifths-mile walk up South Orange Avenue to campus, ten minutes on foot. If you are coming from the city or northern New Jersey, the train beats hunting for a space.
What to Expect
This is a student-built party with a program behind it. A live DJ carries the night alongside traditional Albanian music and instruments, and the floor opens for valle — the linked-hand circle dance that pulls strangers into the same line within a song or two. If you have never done it, someone will show you; that is the point.
Expect cultural performances, a photo booth, and raffle drawings threaded through the evening. The room mixes students, alumni, faculty, and families from the wider community. Nancy Kajo, a political science major, founded the organization and runs the event as president; the group's faculty adviser is Ines Murzaku, a professor of religion who chairs Seton Hall's Catholic Studies Department. What started as one student's idea now fills a hall.
The Food
Come hungry. Past years served Albanian food, drinks, and desserts, and the table usually runs to the classics: byrek, the flaky phyllo pie layered with cheese, spinach, or meat; qofte, the seasoned grilled meatballs; and often tavë kosi, the baked lamb-and-yogurt dish many families treat as the national plate. Save room for dessert — baklava and syrup-soaked sweets tend to close the night.
Bring cash. Raffle tickets and door pricing move faster with bills, and a card line is not something to count on at a student event.
New Jersey's Albanian Community and Why This Night Matters
New Jersey holds one of the country's larger Albanian-American communities, with long-rooted pockets in Paterson, Garfield, and the towns around them. A gala like this is that community's next generation deciding the culture is worth carrying forward in public, on a university campus, under its own name.
That visibility is the whole fight. The U.S. Census records about 224,000 Albanian Americans; the real community — counting Kosovar, Macedonian, Montenegrin, and Çam heritage, and the grandchildren who no longer speak the language — is closer to a million. The National Albanian Registry is the community-led count that runs alongside the Census to close that gap. The Census stays essential; NAR is the parallel record beside it. Every room like this one is a reminder of how many of us there are, and how few of us are counted. If the night moves you, getting counted takes about two minutes.
The gala also gives back. Recent editions raised money with Emina's Hand Foundation for a 24-hour center serving children and adults with special needs in Vlorë, Albania, and for families across Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and the Presheva Valley. A ticket is a night out and a contribution at once.
What to Bring
- Cash — for the door, raffle tickets, and anything sold on site
- A student or alumni ID — if you want the discounted admission
- Shoes you can dance in — the valle line does not sit still
- An appetite — the food table is not a garnish
- A friend who isn't Albanian — everyone is welcome, and this is the easy way in
- A little patience for parking — or the train schedule on your phone
Where it is
Seton Hall University - Bethany Hall
400 S Orange Ave
South Orange Village, NJ 07079
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