Light jazz spilled over from the Marriott hotel’s Regency Ballroom, jovial teacher volunteers checked students in with Art Deco inspired admission tickets and the lights of the glass chandeliers cast a warm light over the feathered table centerpieces. Over 600 students, staff and local police officers gathered to celebrate 2014 Dreyfoos Prom as coordinated by the junior class council in style of the roaring ‘20s- notably inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” Most awaited of all, however, Prom Queen and King were granted to dance senior Angelina Granitz and vocal senior Stanford Purnell.

This year marked the departure from tradition not only terms of venue but also in the night’s course of events which featured a sit-down dinner and crowd h’ordeuvres. Furthermore in adapting to the venue, the dance floor and the photography station were each granted their own rooms and trolleys were in place to transport students from the Dreyfoos student parking lot to the hotel.

After dinner the dance room was revealed featuring projections of Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, dessert and refreshment tables, and party lights. The room filled with the excitement of the rushing crowd and was also quickly filled with heat from dancing bodies- an ill to which students found refuge by lounging in the halls and courtyards. Despite this, as the popular Fergie song from the most recent film adaptation of Gatsby by Baz Luhrmann says, “a little party never killed nobody,” and prom continued through midnight until students left with their comically designed party favor cups that marked a memorable night with the phrase- “I partied with Jay Gatsby.”