The Winter Carnival Formal will return to the Collis Center tomorrow night after a one-year absence from Winter Carnival events. This year the theme will focus on Valentine's Day.
"It's not going to be just your run-of-the-mill DJ dance," Student Programs Coordinator Linda Kennedy promised. "We're going all out."
Kennedy, along with the Programming Board, has planned an extravaganza for the entire student body.
"There will be a band in the common ground, a string quartet in the lounge and jazz in the [Lone PineTavern," Kennedy said.
The Collis Center will also sponsor a billiards competition with a $100 prize. The Collis Center will also have a raffle with romantic items as prizes. The Class of 1995 will sponsor a karaoke competition between band sets.
Although the dance is called a formal, Kennedy said there will be no formal dress requirements.
"Everyone will be welcome," she said.
Kennedy said she hopes the formal will appeal to all student groups.
"We're trying to provide a place for a wide variety of people to go," Winter Carnival Formal Committee Chair Kerri Cavanaugh '95 said. "It will be somewhere to hang out before you go out to the frats."
Kennedy said she hopes about 2,000 students will attend the formal, which will be held from 9 p.m. until 1 a.m.
"The frat parties generally don't start until later and this will be starting early," Kennedy said.
Years ago the Winter Carnival Ball was a highlight of the weekend, Kennedy said.
"Typically, in the past, it has been more formal," Cavanaugh said. "The Winter Carnival is more than snow. It used to be very fancy and we're trying to resurrect that idea."
The idea to bring the formal back to Dartmouth came from speaking with her peers at other schools, Kennedy said.
The formal at Middlebury College attracts around 1,200 students. Kennedy said she hopes to get the same level of participation from Dartmouth students.
Uptown Revival, a Boston-based band, was selected by the Programming Board to play all types of music from the '50s to the '90s in Collis Common Ground, Kennedy said.
"We listened to a lot of tapes to select the band and this was the one that left everyone hardly able to stay in their seats," Kennedy said.
Kennedy and the Programming Board coordinated the invitations, posters and raffle prizes. It also contracted a professional decorator to set up the event, Kennedy said.
Kennedy said that she hopes student organizations will hold pre-formal events, which will allow groups of friends to go to the formal together.
"Since we now have Collis, you don't have to be a member of a Greek organization to come," Cavanaugh said.
