Under colorful lights and grand chandeliers, an exciting Night in Rio awaits students at Palo Alto High School’s Prom on May 16 at the San Francisco Design Center Galleria.
According to Junior Senator Courtney Taylor, bus loading for Prom this year will be held at Gunn High School due to the BTS concert on the same night at Stanford Stadium.
“We had to move bus pick up and drop off to Gunn High School because of the BTS concert, which logistically made sense, as our parking lots would be full,” Taylor said. “There would be an excess amount of traffic, so Gunn was the place that ASB [Associated Student Body] thought would be best for drop off and pick up due to all the major complications that having it at Paly would have caused.”
Senior Senator Keerthi Raj said that while there was hesitation with the decision, hosting buses at Gunn allows Paly to earn part of the proceeds from the concert parking.
“We would be able to make a lot of money on our parking lot, and it would be so chaotic coming out of Paly with the buses, so we decided to move the buses to Gunn,” Raj said. “While this does get a lot of push back from people because Gunn is out of most people’s way, we want everyone to recognize that the reason the buses are at Paly is that we are trying to sell out our lot to subsidize so Prom tickets aren’t super expensive.”
According to ASB Director Alyssa Bond, students will have lots of activities to look forward to at Prom.
“We’ll have casino games, photo booths, great music, delicious food, plenty of dancing and lots of opportunities to socialize with friends,” Bond said. “The beautiful venue will help create a fun and memorable atmosphere for everyone to enjoy as we celebrate together.”
Raj said that all of ASB’s choices for Prom were made with the students in mind.
“We [ASB] spent a lot of time picking out the activities from a list that our Prom planners gave us to choose ones [activities] that would fit the best needs of the students and be most fun for the students,” Raj said. “For the food, we wanted to think of something that would be most versatile — we just wanted to adhere more to the student body especially.”
According to Raj, one new change for this year’s Prom is altering its length.
“This year we decided to make Prom an hour shorter,” Raj said. “We did this because while Prom is super fun and we fill it with a bunch of activities, foods and things that students can do, it can also be really, really tiring.”
Taylor said the Galleria will provide students with a high-end experience.
“To be completely honest, the Galleria is our most expensive location,” Taylor said. “We have a list of all potential locations that Prom could be at this year, and this one was on the more expensive side because it’s so beautiful and it’s grand and it’s luxurious, which I’d say is what makes it special.”
