This Thursday at 17:00 UTC-8, Sara Mariano, Student Activities Director, declared that Saturday’s winter formal had been canceled. The reason stated in the announcement was as follows:
“…it seems that students’ interest and excitement for a large dance event have already been fulfilled for this semester.”
If you would like a refund of your, ticket, refunds are currently being offered at the Student Body Office (SBO), adjacent to the multi-purpose room.
Although only one explicit reason was given in the official announcement, Benna Edwards (2025), one of the students in the leadership team, was willing to elaborate on the email given to thousands of students yesterday. Unfortunately, due to California EDC ยง51512, no direct recording of the interview could be compiled. However, the general exchange was compiled below.
Brenna Edwards (2025): Around 100 tickets were sold, which is not enough. Sales were also slow, with not enough to compensate for the cost of the Winter Formal, let alone make a profit. Because of Homecoming during the fall, Winter Formal was too close to an already-popular event, which occurred two months ago.
Lazaro: I agree with you; I remember two years ago, when Enochs did a “Back in Black” dance during the start of school, followed by a Winter Formal during the end of the first school semester.
Lazaro: When talking about this, I was warned that people would be unlikely to talk about the event because it may be viewed as embarrassing for the leadership. I’ll ask directly: Is the cancellation of Winter Formal embarrassing for you?
Edwards: No. There was a consensus: no students wanted a Winter Formal; less than 100 tickets being sold was confirmation. It showed that we should have placed more creativity in the Winter Formal and marketed the Winter Formal differently.
Lazaro: You know, I believe Homecoming had much less decorations, with it being quite barebones in terms of a dance.
Edwards; Right. We were uncertain of its success, so we decided not to place much of their budget on the Homecoming. Its great success means that we plan on keeping homecoming. We may move Winter Formal to January next year. The dances’ closeness made the dances less exiting, multiple sports events occurred during the same time as well. People had other plans this December. These things made it an inevitability to pivot, but was not realized as such before it was cancelled.
Lazaro: Ok, well are there any plans for where prom will be?
At this moment Ms. Edwards hesitated, but she gave a combination of words ultimately ascertaining to this: This year’s prom will take place in a Downtown Ballroom in Modesto. She also mentioned that people liked Prom more because it takes place outside of the school.
Not mentioned in the interview, reporter speculation has also been added.
It is also worth mentioning that the final exams of this semester are less than two weeks away, meaning that stress could be compounding as well. Many students are anxious about the end of the semester around this time. The weather has also been quite cold, and sickness generally increases around this time of year as well.
