Photo courtesy of fremontslo.com 

It’s that time of the year: prom.

Prom is taking place Saturday, May 21 at the Fremont Theater in downtown San Luis Obispo. 

Prom is available to every class, except the freshmen. 

Students are excited for this special opportunity and are glad that the highly popular prom is now available to them. 

“I’m excited to be with my friends and dress up fancier and have a good time with them,” said senior Lindsay McKee. 

This year’s prom is taking place at the Fremont Theater in downtown San Luis Obispo, rather than Mountainbrook, where it has taken place for the last couple of years. This historic venue can host up to 900 people and will provide a nice place for students to have prom.  

“We’re very excited about having a downtown venue instead of Mountainbrook Church. You can walk to any restaurant you want to have dinner. You can come downtown and park in a parking garage or on the street. It should be a fun downtown thing,” said ASB Advisor Jim Johnson. 

Last year, COVID-19 affected prom in many ways. 

“We were lucky to have a prom last year. We had to have Covid testing and it was also an outdoor prom,” said Johnson. 

However, this year, prom will return indoors, unless there is another surge in COVID-19 cases. The Fremont Theater, like many businesses in San Luis Obispo, will not require masks, a negative covid test, or proof of vaccination. 

“All indications from the district office and the state health department is we will be able to have an indoor prom. But, if it does surge, we got problems ” said Johnson. 

However, prom is not going to be canceled even if the COVID-19 cases surge. 

“We will not cancel prom. We’ll figure out something else but it will not be canceled,” said Johnson. 

Students are excited to experience prom because for most of them it is their first time going because they couldn’t go last year due to the Coronavirus pandemic. 

“It was definitely upsetting that I couldn’t go my junior year because they prioritized seniors going. But, I’m super excited that this year we’re getting back on our feet and doing prom again,” said McKee. 

This year’s prom will have a variety of cool events and will be the night to remember. 

“They’ve got a great party planned out. The sound system is going to be incredible. We have a sound engineer and a light engineer. We’re gonna have some student DJ stuff going on, but also have a professional DJ backing us all up,” said Johnson. 

Prom is a topic that is widely talked about by upperclassmen and many students look forward to it each year. 

“The upperclassmen definitely talked a lot about prom. I knew freshmen weren’t allowed to go. So, I didn’t necessarily think about it until my junior year but COVID happened,” said Mckee. 

Prom would not happen if it wasn’t for the junior class officers, Mark Rourke, Stella Tabuenca, and Carmen Joines, who are working hard to put this dance on.

“They have set the budget, they’ve set ticket prices, they’ve decided the theme. They’re the ones that decided to go with Fremont instead of Mountainbrook. It’s all them,” said Johnson.  

Tickets are 35 dollars a person, 70 dollars a couple. 

Sources: fremontslo.com