By Justin Wang
The Class of 2020 gathered for Junior Prom at the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose, an outside venue chosen in an unprecedented move, on April 20.
“There was a great turnout at Junior Prom! We had around 170 attendees, including staff. In regards to choosing our location, all we knew was that we wanted to do something by choosing an outside venue,” said Class of 2020 Treasurer Melina Tran.
The choice of the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose for the venue proved to be a successful one, in terms of the finances.
“Picking an outside venue was quite risky and something no other class has done before, but we ended up making a good amount of money for our class and Junior Prom was overall pretty successful,” said Melina.
Students were allowed to explore and use a photo booth, a water themed area and a Vietnamese-learning area.
“They had the photo booth upstairs, which had a long line the entire night, the water area, bubbles, and the Vietnamese learning areas were all open for us to explore and play around in,” said junior Joey Orzoff.
However, some felt that sticking to the L-Building would have been the better choice.
“I think that the location was a fun change of pace. However, I do believe that the L-Building would have been a more appropriate venue,” said Joey.
The DJ was met with mixed reactions. Some liked the DJ’s choices of music.
“Good DJ too. The DJ was fun… they played a lot of classic songs, lot of good party songs,” said junior Ryan Norton.
However, some felt that the choices in music was unfitting for Junior Prom.
“The DJ would occasionally play songs that nobody would dance to, and the dance floor would clear out. The music was not slow for a lot of the prom, in total there were about two songs that were meant for slow dancing, and they were both quickly overshadowed by bass boosted rap and hip hop,” said Joey.
Even those who raised complaints enjoyed the night overall and were happy with their experience.
“All in all, Junior Prom was still a blast, despite any setbacks and the odd choice of venue, and I’d recommend that all PHHS students go to their proms,” said Joey.
Whether the Class of 2021 is also going to choose an outside venue for Junior Prom is yet to be seen.
“It really depends on the 2021 officers and what they think. When people found about our venue, most people were very surprised, including staff,” said Melina.