Decked out in groovy tie-dye clothes from the ‘70s and iconic neon colors of the ‘80s, more than 200 students filled the Small Gym in anticipation for the Spring Fling Dance last Saturday night.

With a Roaring Twenties-themed photo booth, curtain lights strung across the walls and cardboard cutouts representing different decades, the gym roared with throwback music blasting and students dancing the night away to kick off Spring Fling week.

Since the Dance Commission and Homecoming/Spring Fling Commission struggled with promoting the annual Sadie Hawkins Dance in the past, the commissioners this year decided to rename the event to the Spring Fling Dance, eliminating the perception that female students are required to ask male students and attend the dance with dates.

In recent years, instead of being in early March, Sadies has only been a few weeks before Junior Prom. Since juniors have been securing their prom dates earlier than Spring Fling week, Sadies became one of the least popular dances on campus. In fact, in 2014, Sadies was canceled the day before the dance because fewer than 100 tickets were sold.

Knowing this, the commissioners decided to change the way they advertised the dance to keep reigniting the student interest and excitement that have reached a peak in the past two Sadies dances.

Dance commissioner William Chen said the commission intended to organize the Spring Fling dance so that it was similar to hosting a second Homecoming dance, except that for this dance, the commissioners “aimed to get everyone hyped up over the weekend prior to the spirit week instead of after it.”

Keeping features from casual dances such as a live DJ, an open-air photo booth, theme decorations, a popcorn machine and a cotton candy machine, the Spring Fling Dance created a significant increase in attention and support from previous years but still fell short to the Homecoming dance.

Even though the overall student enthusiasm with dances this year has increased, with at least 500 attendees for both the Homecoming and Winter Formal dances, the Spring Fling Dance was still seen by students as a “more low-key Homecoming Dance, and not many people knew how many of their friends were going,” junior Sahana Sarin said.

Chen believes that the commission could have done more marketing to further publicizing the event, such as filming a promotional video on top of promoting through social media and posters.

“Everyone was already hyped for Homecoming Week, so we didn’t need to do much to advertise except making sure everything ran smoothly at the Homecoming dance, which was the icing on the cake,” Chen said. “For Spring Fling, the dance is buried underneath the prom hype, so we have to be in people’s faces.”

Nonetheless, the revenue generated from this year’s dance almost doubled from that of last year, with revenue jumping from $1,322 to $2,352.

The dance, along with the Lip Dub on Monday, kicked off this year’s Spring Fling “Travel through the Ages” spirit week. Corresponding with the overarching Decades theme, students dressed up as representations of memes on “Meme Tuesday,” wore bandanas and cowboy hats on “Western Wednesday,” imitated 1950’s fashion style on “Rock n’ Roll Thursday” and wore tie-dye on “Groovy Friday.”

“We planned this week so that it turned out to be more successful than in previous years, as we made the spirit days more accessible so that people find clothes to wear from their closets,” head Spring Fling commissioner senior Megana Saripella said.

Furthermore, because lunch is closed campus today for the Powderpuff football championship, the Leadership class, along with some clubs that need to raise funds, are holding a Class Office and Commission Rush, where they will be selling food and drinks like Jamba Juice, In-N-Out Burger, Chicken McNuggets and Quickly Pearl Milk Tea on the Benny Pierce Field.

According to ASB Board Representative junior Nathon Chin, Homecoming/Spring Fling Commission worked nonstop to plan the spirit week and has done a “spectacular” job.

“I always look forward to an entire week jam-packed with spirited Powderpuff players and cheerleaders, lit music and good vibes,” Chin said. “Spring Fling week has always been a fun week of entertainment, and we were glad to see participation in the Lip Dub, Powderpuff dances and spirit day dress-ups from all grades.”