Resurrection of Samo's Winter Formal falls short

After over a decade without a Winter Formal, Associated Student Body (ASB) reintroduced the event on Saturday, Feb. 7 at the Marina del Rey Marriott. The event, which was intended to raise money for future pep rallies and other school events, fell short of expectations in ticket sales.Unlike the well-attended Homecoming dance hosted by Samo earlier in the year, the semi-formal featured food catered by the hotel itself, a dance floor and a free photo booth. Despite these features, the dance yielded a net loss of an estimated $8,000, acc0rding to ASB adviser Bryn Boyd.According to Boyd, students encountered difficulty in advertising the event. Despite being open to all grade levels and lowered ticket prices, the lack of familiarity with the dance hindered potential profit.“We haven’t had a winter formal in at least ten years ― and it could be longer ― so it was a new event to bring back to school,” Boyd said. “Since kids hadn’t heard about it or done it, it was kind of hard to rally kids to buy a ticket and go.”In comparison to Prom, the Winter Formal was more accessible on many fronts, according to Boyd.“Well, the price of a Prom ticket is way more than the price of a Winter Formal ticket was,” Boyd said. “You have to pay for pictures at prom, whereas [at Winter Formal], the pictures were free. There was more of a variety of food than there typically is at Prom. And the location is closer, being at the Marriott versus the Hilton or the Century Plaza.”These discrepancies led to mostly positive results, besides turnout, according to ASB President Brian Matusovsky (’15).“People loved the food; they even said it was better than the food at Prom last year,” Matusovsky said. “The photo booth was also a popular part of the dance. And we had a pretty good number of people buying [tickets] at the door.”The photo booth in particular was a hit with the attendees. With a wide variety of costume accessories, the line for the photo booth remained lengthy throughout the event. In terms of lessons learned, however, ASB noted much room for improvement.“We’d probably rent a cheaper venue ― though we did get an awesome deal on the Marina del Rey Marriott,” Matusovsky said. “We’d also try to get a new DJ.”According to Matusovsky, the DJ was supposed to take song requests after his set playlist ran its course, but his playlist ran through the entire event. Other students also voiced discontent with the DJ.“Personally, I didn’t think [the music] was the best because I felt like there should have been more EDM,” Lisa Takahashi (’15) said. “A lot of music played was old pop songs.”As the event progressed into the night, however, administration monitoring the event became aware of intoxicated students, or in one case, student possession of alcohol. Matusovsky also noted the disciplinary action taken against such delinquent activity. He said that the breathalyzers were used to ensure the safety of students. Parents of drunk attendees were called to pick up their children to prevent drunk driving. These students faced more than a ride home with their parents, however.“Unfortunately, some disciplinary action was taken by the administration against some of the students who had been drinking. The consequences were necessary in order to show that they are in fact serious about upholding the no-drinking policy,” Matusovsky said.The unfortunate side effects of the Winter Formal notwithstanding, Matusovsky has optimistic hopes for all the school events to come.“I think that a lot of people had a lot of fun, but there are still a lot of ways we can work to improve the next dance,” Matusovsky said. “Next time we have a school dance, I think it will be much improved.”