Chelsea Hoag, Campus Carrier Managing Editor

Formal, held at Oak Hill Saturday, was filled to capacity, dealt with fake tickets and transportation difficulties.

Oak Hill had a capacity limit of 600 with the usage of a rental tent placed outside in the lawn.

KCAB used two small Berry buses and a large charter bus to transport students from the Cage Center to Oak Hill to ensure none of the grass at Oak Hill would be damaged.

Jason Huynh, Photojournalism Editor Janna Johnson, lecturer of mathematics, gives out wristbands for entry into Saturday’s formal.

“We thought everyone would show up as they normally do as a trickle effect throughout the night, but everyone got there at the same time at the beginning,” KCAB president senior Brittani Farmer said. “Usually at nine o’clock, we are like ‘Oh, there are two people here.’”

“Usually, the big crowd comes around 10 to 10:30 p.m., but this year there was a line around 8:15 p.m.,” vice president of marketing and promotions of KCAB senior Baileigh Kirkpatrick said.

Junior Lainey Battles said she “appreciated the service, but my friends and I waited longer in line to get to formal than we actually spent at formal.”

Assistant director of student activities Lydia Gordon and sophomore Lori Blosz both said this was probably due to a rumor and panic circulating that only the first 600 people were allowed into formal. Some students also sold and bought fake tickets.

KCAB found out about the fake tickets as soon as the tickets sold out April 8.

The real tickets were printed on cardstock with glossy ink. Kirkpatrick said the real tickets were printed on an ink jet printer and cut at the printing shop at Berry. She said that KCAB saw a variety of fake tickets the night of the event.

“We pretty much saw everything from different types of paper and discoloration,” Kirkpatrick said. 

“Some person just taped two regular pieces of paper together, glued them and tried to pass it off. Some people didn’t even try to cut it, but just ripped it off,” Blosz said.

Kirkpatrick said people were not happy when they had to deny several students with fake tickets, but she understands if they honestly thought the tickets were real.

KCAB is looking into ways to prevent counterfeit tickets by embossing, sealing or highlighting the person’s name like at football games.

Gordon said she doesn’t want people to think making and selling counterfeit tickets is OK.

“This only causes corruption and confusion within the Berry Community,” chief of campus police Bobby Abrams said.

Campus police haven’t received any police reports concerning the creation and distribution of fake tickets.

Both Gordon and Abrams said they encourage anyone to come forth with information they may have about the fraudulent tickets.

Fraudulent tickets might have been made due to high demand this year and at spring formal in 2014.

Last year’s spring formal broke attendance records at Burk Farms with more than 1,000 students attending that night. 500 students bought tickets the week of the event and the rest of the 500 bought tickets at the event.

Kirkpatrick said, “We were not prepared for how many people showed up (spring formal 2014). There was an incredibly high turnout for what we normally get.”

Farmer said she thinks the reason so many students attended last year is because “people really liked the location.” She said KCAB also thinks the culture surrounding dances has changed as well.

“Students who are coming out of high school now have gone to all four proms and that’s just what they do and what they expect,” Farmer said.

Junior KCAB programmer Joshua Willis said that recent large freshman classes, football and more male students attending Berry have also been a factor.

KCAB usually begins planning for the next year’s formal in August, but Farmer said they contacted the Forum after spring formal 2014. However, the Forum was booked during late March and all of April 2015 due to high school proms in the area.

Blosz said, “No one would want to pay $7 to have a dance in Krannert Ballroom where a lot of school dances are free. Personally, no one is going to want it at your own ballroom because it’s not exciting.”

Kirkpatrick agreed that most people wouldn’t enjoy having spring formal on campus.

“It’s like going to a dance in your school gym,” Kirkpatrick said.

Farmer said she researched other places where this year’s formal could have been held and none of them met KCAB’s standards.

“We researched a place we really liked that could hold 800, but it’s 30 minutes away and we don’t want to make students drive that far,” Farmer said. “We thought about having it in front of the Hoge Building but there are power, bathroom and even sound issues of bothering faculty and staff who live nearby.”

KCAB considered places on campus like Winshape.

“We even thought about the outside pavilion at Winshape, but would have similar issues,” Kirkpatrick said.

Next year’s formal will be held at the Forum in downtown Rome off of Broad Street.

“I feel that this is a good move on KCAB’s part, as it is much closer to places people can eat at beforehand, as well as parking would not be an issue due to the public parking decks that are typically free on the weekends and are capable of holding a multitude more than Oak Hill could,” Battles said.