On Sept. 27, Lemont High School hosted their annual Homecoming dance. This year’s Homecoming dance “Rio Carnival” was held from 6 to 9:30 pm in the gymnasium, featuring photo ops, karaoke, a DJ, photo booths and food from Kona Ice and Taco Madre. Tickets were $35 and came with shaved iced from Kona Ice.
This year, the theme of “Rio Carnival” was showcased all throughout the Performing Arts Center (PAC). Upon entering, students found a festive photo booth, a karaoke machine and countless other bright and colorful decorations. After entering the gymnasium, a stage for the DJ surrounded by lights was set-up in the center.
“[The stage] brought a lot more liveliness to the dance,” senior Greg Kasper said.
Overall, this year’s theme received more positive feedback than last year’s “Nashville Nights” theme.
MC Nook EX from Bizar Entertainment DJ’d got positive feedback, with many attendees impressed by the music choice and how it contributed to the atmosphere.
“I like this year’s DJ [ …] because he was better at hyping up the crowd than last year. Also, I felt like he played more music that we liked,” Kasper said.
Although one of the main places for the dance was the gymnasium, most students moved outside of the building by the food truck area. This area had tables and cornholes, making it an attractive area for students to gather. This left only a few students inside the gym with the DJ.
“I was outside by the Kona Ice and the food truck,” freshman Adrian Sciubisz said.
Due to the sheer number of student attendees by the food trucks, the lines took up a lot of space in the already crowded outdoor area.
The main issue of last year’s 2024 Homecoming dance was attendance. Very few students attended last year’s dance. So, this year, the goal was to significantly raise the number of students in attendance.
This year around 700 students attend the Homecoming dance. While this number is higher, an issue that occurred at this year’s dance was the amount of time students stayed at the dance.
“I stayed at the dance for an hour, I had dinner reservations at 7:30,” freshman Alex Sulzberger said.
Attendance was up, but time spent at dance has been continuously on the decline. With students planning activities to celebrate homecoming outside of going to the dance. It creates a less populated Homecoming dance. When planning next year’s Homecoming dance Lemont hopes to bring in more students for a longer period of time.
