Aliso Niguel High School held its much anticipated Homecoming dance on campus, on Saturday, Oct. 19. The dance began at 7 p.m. and had students lining up to be let in nearly an hour before the dance was set to start.
Students were greeted by colorful decorations and bright lights, while in line to get their wristbands to enter the dance.
Ticket sales began with a flash sale from Sept. 16 to Sept. 18, starting at $55 with an ASB card and $65 without one. As the dance approached, ticket prices were raised.
This year’s theme was “Musikfest,” an American music festival held in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Each grade was made to represent a different music artist. Freshman had Taylor Swift, Sophomores had Drake, Juniors had Pitbull and Seniors had Bruno Mars. During the Homecoming Football games, Sept. 18 each grade performed their annual halftime show based on their grade’s theme.
This year there were two rides, different from previous years, available to students. However, there were many complaints from students about the way the lines for each ride were handled.
Amanda Elkins (9) said, “The lines were annoyingly long for such short rides,” and went on to say, “Security for the dance stopped letting students near the lines towards 10 p.m. and it was way too hard to just get to my friends.”
The dance provided snacks and refreshments free for all students in the Freshman lunch area, they also had air hockey and foosball tables set up for students to play. They also included a karaoke machine, where students could pick songs to sing with their friends.
Ridima Kazi (10) described the karaoke machine to be an “obnoxious experience but it seemed really freeing for the people who were…brave enough to do it.”
An anonymous student complained that the music “had super weird transitions and it just made everyone less excited.”
Students also said the song choices were not satisfying because they were not fun to mosh to and were not good picks for a school dance.
However, like every year, students still enjoyed a mosh pit on the dance floor, Elkins saying, “It was definitely an experience.”
The dance this year featured a coat drop-off in the gym. They also had seating for students to rest and a coffee truck for any students who wanted to warm up with a hot drink.
Tata explained that “because the dance was outside, at night in October, of course it was…really cold,” and she wished that the school “would provide some type of heating.”
Many students came to the consensus that there wasn’t much of anything for people to do at the dance. Complaints of the cold, poor music and the overall lack of entertainment seemed to taint the night.
But the time spent on making the night special was not lost.
Shiley Moeinzadeh said, “Dances are such an important part of [the] high school experience and I had such a fun time making memories with my friends.”
