BVN prom has been held at Hilltop since 2021, despite its divisiveness among students. Of 113 people polled on @bvnnews on Instagram, 68% voted that they do not like having prom at Hilltop. While the majority of the school seems to not like the prom venue, Senior Amelia Goettsch’s opinion differs.
“[Hilltop] was a bigger space, and since all the other dances are at BVN, it was nice to have a change,” Goettsch said.
Homecoming and Sweetheart are both held at the school in the commons, so prom is the only dance that is held somewhere other than BVN. The reason for this could be the time and money it takes to rent a different venue. Junior Student Council Secretary, Delaney Stout, discussed how BVN could go about renting a different venue.
“[The process] would just look like finding a venue within our budget… and having previous fundraising to be at that point, which is incredibly significant,” Stout said.
While other fundraisers are done throughout the school year, prom tickets make up a big portion of the prom budget.
“Ticket sales do pay for the majority of prom, so the attendance really helps with making prom better,” Stout said.
If prom were to be at a different location, these ticket prices could go up as BVN currently doesn’t pay to use the Hilltop venue.
“I want to say [ticket prices would be] almost double, just because most venues for this type of event, where it could range anywhere between 200 and 300 guests, for a nicer venue, it’s somewhere between $5,000 to $12,000,” Stout said.
Prom tickets were $40 last year, and if BVN were to hold prom at a different venue, they could be somewhere around $80. Seeing as ticket sales fund most of the dance, there could be a question of how many people would attend if the location were changed and the prices were raised.
“I’d say [I’d pay] $50,” Goettsch said.
While students may want to have prom at a different venue, they may not be willing to pay the price it takes to do so.
“Attendance really helps with making prom better,” Stout said.
Regardless of students’ opinions on the venue, prom is still being held at Hilltop this year, and the Junior Student Council has been working on making this year’s dance.
“Our junior class has done a lot of t-shirt sales, so we did the homecoming shirts last year and this year, and we found that to be really fun and successful,” Stout said.
In addition to shirts, they have been fundraising in other ways, too.
“Recently, we did something called a school funder, and we were really successful with that and able to raise a lot of money and we were super grateful for all those donations,” Stout said.
With this money raised, they have been able to splurge on things besides the venue.
“We have put a down payment down for about $9,000 for a DJ,” Stout said.
Additionally, Stout sees benefits to having prom at Hilltop besides for the financial aspect.
“[Hilltop] makes [prom] super convenient, because it’s in an area that everyone’s familiar with,” Stout said.
