By Staff Writer: Tricia Tucker

As a new student at Howell High School, I was curious as to what Winterfest would be like. Would it be as it was at my old school in Marine City, or would it be completely different?  I heard many rumors; some said Winterfest wasn’t worth the money, and some that said it was a blast.  Well, this year, I decided to take a shot at Howell’s Winterfest.

Since Winterfest isn’t as formal as homecoming, I decided to swap dresses with a friend.  Before the dance, I went to a friend’s house with a group of people; we ate dinner and took pictures before we departed for the dance.  I was surprised when I found out that the dance was in the commons, rather than the gym.  At this point, I was thinking that the dance wasn’t going to be that great, since it was in the middle of the school.  I’m proud to say that I was wrong.

As I walked through the hall to the commons, it wasn’t even recognizable.  There were colored lights flashing everywhere, balloons flying through the air (which I wasn’t a fan of when I popped them while I was dancing), and music blaring from the DJ.  It’s unbelievable how a group of students and some decorations can change the entire layout of a room.

The DJ was placed at the top of the stairs in the commons, which I liked a lot; that way he was visible to everyone on the dance floor.  Another plus to this was that students would go on the stairwell and do a solo dance, which was sometimes extremely entertaining.  This made me laugh because it was just so fun to watch.

The worst thing that can happen at a dance is when the music isn’t good, or it’s all dub-step, which is difficult to dance to.  But I have to give props to whomever chose the playlist because I knew almost every song that played; and it’s always fun to be able to sing to a song while dancing to it.  This is the main thing that was talked about after Winterfest: the music was right on.

“I feel like, since students knew the majority of the music played, that it kept everyone interested,” says Howell High School senior, Kaitlyn Allison.

The one thing that could have made Winterfest better was if there had been more students present.  I think this is mainly because students felt that they have wasted their money on previous Winterfests that didn’t reach their expectations.  But really, each year the dance is organized by new students who aspire to make it the best that they can.  So, I really wish that students would have given it more of a chance instead of just throwing away the consideration of going.

“With Winterfest, only the people who really want to dance go, so it’s nice that everyone who shows up is actually dancing rather than standing there,” says Allison.

With more people, it’s more crowded and therefore more fun to dance however you want.  It’s kind of awkward to be dancing with four or five people when there’s nobody around you and you’re in a big area filled with nothing.

Winterfest was much different here than it was at my old school; and I liked it a whole lot more.  However, one thing I liked more at my old school was that Winterfest wasn’t a “low-formal” dance.  In fact, students didn’t dress up at all.  We would have a theme each year, such as jungle, which was my freshman year theme.  Here, I wore a zebra printed dress while my best friend wore a leopard skirt with furry boots.  And my sophomore year the theme was Hawaiian, so the boys wore Hawaiian themed shirts and the girls wore straw skirts with a flower in their hair.  I thought this made Winterfest a little more interesting.  This way, instead of just pulling out an old dress, you could be creative and decide how you were going to fit into the theme.

Overall, I was fairly impressed with the way Winterfest turned out.  Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much, but I was really glad that I went.