Winter Warms Up: WPEA Winter Formal

Teetering in heels, dressed to the nines and clad in all-too-familiar bucket hats and floral shirts, crowds of students flooded Grainger last Saturday night to attend Exeter’s inaugural Winter Formal. The WPEA event was designed to give students the opportunity to get dressed up for an enchanting night of posing for photos, enjoying refreshments and dancing to the live band, Ready in 10.

Students arrived promptly at 8:30 p.m. for a reception and photographs, courtesy of upper Rachel Luo. A steady buzz of excitement built until the doors opened at 9.

General Manager of WPEA and upper Brandon Liu was an integral part of the planning of Winter Formal. WPEA started its planning fall term after hearing that students were interested in an increase of formal events. In past years, Exeter has never had a formal dance. They decided to skip a typical DJ after finding Ready in 10 through another school. WPEA was responsible for organizing, setting up and cleaning up the attractions at the dance, including the band, an ice sculpture and a photo booth. An array of high tables covered with white tablecloths were arranged across the lobby of the science building and wintery decorations such as snowflakes hung from the ceiling. Student performers played music during the reception. For Liu, the event was “fantastic.”

“The turnout was so great that the entire Phelps foyer was packed like sardines—people were literally unable to navigate the space by 8:55 p.m., Phelps was so full—so when we opened the doors to the dance everyone rushed in, in excitement,” he said.

Lower Emily Green echoed Liu’s excitement about the turnout and execution of Winter Formal. “It was probably my favorite Exeter event to date. I thought the band was really good and they played a lot of fun, upbeat songs. It’s always great to hear live music,” she said.

Some students, however, felt that Winter Formal didn’t live up to its expectations and anticipation. Prep Aaron Willard said that he “should have lowered [his] standards,” because he was disappointed by the event. Similarly, prep Ela Ferhangil had not been sure what to expect since Winter Formal was the first of its kind. Despite the excitement for another formal event, she felt it didn’t live up to its potential. “The music was too mellow and you couldn’t really dance to it,” she said.

Other students felt that they would have preferred a more casual dance like last year’s GLO. GLO has traditionally been WPEA’s dance, but was cancelled this year and replaced by Winter Formal.

Prep Christine Baker said that she really enjoyed the typical format of Exeter dances and wished that the regularly scheduled dance had gone on as usual, but she also commended Ready in 10 for exceeding her expectations.

“I thought the live band was going to be weird but I liked the songs they played. I’d rather have a DJ but they were good,” she said.

Prep Ashley Lin voiced similar sentiments and added that while “the band was better than [she] thought it would be, [she] would have enjoyed attending GLO more.”

Many returning students who had experienced GLO, however, felt differently. Green vastly preferred Winter Formal to GLO and other PEA dances.

Green felt that absence of grinding alleviated lots of pressure. The dance had an atmosphere where she could “let loose and have fun.”

Similarly, lower Victoria Glidden thought students who disliked grinding were more comfortable attending Winter Formal. She described the dance as “less frantic without grinding.”

The formality of the event also stood out to many people. Lower Ellie Lock said that the formality of the event contributed to the fun she had.

“It was more fun to get dressed up,” she said, “I don’t mind either way if people grind, but there was still a lot of energy.”

English instructor Becky Moore chaperoned the event and felt that students were very lucky to have experienced it. “I thought that the Winter Formal was really pretty special,” she said. “I thought it was nice because everyone there really seemed to have a good time. Most people got dressed up, and people wanted to dance.”

Overall, students felt that Winter Formal was a wonderful and enjoyable evening. Some students wished that it had been held in addition to, rather than in lieu of, GLO, but Winter Formal received a mostly positive reaction.

Senior Keji Oladinni summed it up. “It was like prom, but better.”