According to many sources, last year’s Winterfest was not as good as many wanted it to be, on account of the lights being on during the dance, even though the lights went out periodically. Some people even resorted to leaving the school dance and going to the parking lot. The “parking-lot partyers” were told they weren’t allowed to, and they were given the choice of either leaving or coming back inside. Most of the people originally at the Winterfest dance left, leaving a small number of people dancing in the Field-House with the lights still on.

Some say that the people running the dance wanted to keep the lights on to spite the dancers, but Senior Asheley Carpenter Disagrees. “Nobody came to turn the lights off when they asked.”

But even with mass amount of people that didn’t like the dance and left, some were still satisfied, and said that Winterfest was really fun, besides the point that the lights were on.

But did this year’s Winterfest have the same outcome?

Student counsel leader Allyse Zondlak said this year didn’t have many problems, and they had more people go to Winterfest than they had expected. This year’s attendance was about 425, an average number for the dance, but it was less than last year. Also, there were no riots in the parking lot, so that made this Winterfest all the better.

Last year, Zondlak says, “I felt bad for the kids in last year’s student council because they couldn’t do anything about the lights, and they got blamed for the dance being so bad.” Zondlak says that administration wouldn’t let them turn off the lights. Student council wanted to turn them off but they wouldn’t let them, so the students got mad.

Zondlak says that the ideal Winterfest would be one where everyone has fun, the DJ and the lights go smoothly, and there would be no problems. Of coarse, Zondlak admits that nobody will ever be 100% satisfied with it, because everyone has different tastes in what the perfect Winterfest should be.

This year’s Winterfest had the 50’s theme, with decorations made up of groovy clothes and records. They also put in a sort-of walk-in movie, featuring “Grease” as their main entertainment. The dance itself was in the Cafeteria, which some people thought of being a nuisance with its small size, which provided people with another reason to believe this year’s was going to be a flop.

Sophomore Lexii Nelson did not go this year, but she did go last year. She said it was really fun after the mass of people left, when there was nobody left in the gym. Nelson did not go this year because none of her friends were going, and she believed it wasn’t any better than last year, account of what she heard other people say.

Lexii also gave an example of what would make the best Winterfest dance ever. “It would be awesome if a good DJ or artist showed up. Like Wiz Kalian, or Drake, or Lil Wayne!”

Carpenter thinks differently. “It would be way too expensive to bring in somebody like that. It would take the entire school’s cooperation with donations to make that happen, and not everybody likes the same artist.”

Junior Jonelle Lee did not go to Winterfest either, and she didn’t go to last year’s, but from what she’s heard the “parking-lot partyers” seemed to have the most fun.

Jonelle might go to Winterfest if an artist like Lexii mentioned were to be there, and if they were allowed to stay later.
Junior Katie O’Connor went to last year’s Winterfest, and she went to this year’s too. She said last year was only as fun as you can make it; you have to make your own fun. It helps if there are friends! But only you decide if the dance is fun or not. Personally, she thought it was fun and awesome.

Katie said that this Winterfest was just as good as last years, maybe even better. “I danced so hard, my legs were sore for days afterwards!”

Katie said it would be completely awesome if they actually got a band to play, but she knows that would be too difficult. It would be way too expensive to hire them to come.

Even though there were a lot of posters around the school promoting the dance, sadly there seemed to be less people at this year’s than last year’s Winterfest. The cafeteria was only half full. Katie says it was smaller than last year, even when all those people left.

Asheley agrees with Katie on some points. As mentioned earlier, the cost of artists would be worth more than the actual music they play, and for only a couple hours! Also, not all the students would like the one band or artist, so they would dub the dance a failure because they’re favorite band wasn’t picked to play. She also agrees that the amount of fun you have at the dance depends on how much you can imagine, along with your outlook.

In comparison to last year’s, the students at Milford High agree that this Winterfest was better. But whether or not you had fun last year and this year depends on how you view it.