A night to remember in a location students will never forget

Prom to be held at Causeway Bay under new direction

The lights dim and the music starts to play while students gather into the room for the “night of all nights”. For many years, up until this year, prom has been held at Holt High School under the direction of art teacher Patricia Pisano.

Under the new direction of counselor Nicole Lown, this is the first year prom is going to be held an off-site location. For prom 2019, it will be held at the Causeway Bay Hotel on May 18 from 7pm - 11pm with the theme of “The Great Gatsby”. Many things could spur a change in location, but Lown feels places that fit better with the theme create better memories.

Causeway Bay Hotel, on S. Cedar St., where prom is set to be held May 18th from 7-11pm. Students will enter from the west entrance, and be guided to where the dance will be held. | Photo Credit: Ines Tomic

“Prom is a special occasion that becomes more significant with the ambiance of a special venue. I wanted to go offsite for this reason. It is more rare for a prom to be held at a school than offsite,” said Lown.

As this is the seniors last prom, finding somewhere the night can be more memorable was one of the major goals in picking a location to Lown.

A good amount of locations were considered, but after inquiring about many of them, a majority of the venues were already booked for the date.

Said Lown, “I looked at other places like the Lansing Center and Lugnuts, but they were not available this year. I hope to book something like this in the future, depending on the theme.”

There are many chances in which prom could be held in the more well known locations, especially if it were to fit the theme that year, better than others. When it comes to what set aside Causeway from the rest, the major factor was theme.

It is also well known that “The Great Gatsby” is all about the sparkly lights and the over-the-top parties, so when it came to what was available, Causeway was what worked best.

“This hall fits our theme very well though. It has large chandeliers that work well with ‘The Great Gatsby’ theme,” said Lown.

With prom being held at a new location, students will be able to experience what the Causeway Bay Hotel has to offer, including fun attractions such as caricatures and professional photos.

While this can be good for the majority, some students are slightly taken aback by the change in location.

“It’s weird to have [prom] in a different location since it’s always been [at the school], so everyone just assumed it was going to be [at the school],” said senior Tatum Estes.

It would have felt normal to have prom be at the school again, since it had always been here so it felt like a norm, but as soon as word had gotten around that was when many felt puzzled.

Many are confused on the change in location for prom, while some could see this as a way to get out of the school and onto a larger dance floor. Moving prom to a new venue can help students get out of the school and provide for a new experience.

"Dances shouldn’t really be held at the school, even though it is a school function. It doesn’t make it fun to be at the school"

“Dances shouldn’t really be held at the school, even though it is a school function. It doesn’t make it fun to be at the school,” said junior Marissa Mongeau.

Although dances are mainly held at the school, it doesn’t always guarantee them to be a good time. As prom moves from the school to a banquet hall, students see this as possibly a better time than most other dances or even previous proms.

In the future prom could still be held at the high school seeing as this is just an experiment, to see how things will go as said by member of prom committee junior Nichole Palmer.

Chandeliers line the ceilings in the banquet hall, where the dance will be held, said to fit well with the theme of “The Great Gatsby”. | Photo Credit: Ines Tomic

“This is kind of just something to try out for juniors, and if all goes well it could be in a different location again next year,” said Palmer.

If prom night ends in a success, there may be another off-site prom in the future, for the future classes. This could create prom being in different locations more of a norm for the school, and make the different themes pop out.

As the dance rolls around the corner, there are many attributes that will put the night into full swing, the decorations being one of them which were worked so hardly on by prom committee.

Said Palmer, “We’ve been working on everything as soon as we found out the theme, 5 months ago, and we’re most excited for people to see just the overall theme, it’s gonna look great.”