Low sales cancel Sadie Hawkins
Students receive refunds after sales fail to cover costs of the annual gym dance.
March 22, 2017
Though revived as an annual event just three years ago, the Sadie Hawkins dance has seemingly already lost its novelty at Diamond Bar High School.
After months of preparation and weeks of askings, this year’s Sadies has been cancelled.
To have gone through with the dance, 200 to 300 tickets needed to be sold to cover event expenses but only about 40 were sold to the dance scheduled for March 17, according to Activities Director Janna Van Horn.
The first year of its return, 500 to 600 tickets were sold, but sales began to decline with each following year, bringing in 200 sales last year and 40 this year, according to Van Horn.
“One of the major factors that contributed to the conflict was probably the SAT on Saturday [March 18], and that’s a big impact for the juniors…also maybe students not knowing what a Sadies is, and USB could have promoted and advertised and promoted it more,” Van Horn said.
The vendors for the planned dance were able to provide USB with full refunds, leaving no net loss from the abrupt cancellation.
Students were also refunded for tickets they had already bought.
“I understand that students don’t necessarily see the benefit of spending money to go to dance in the gym, but at the end of the day it does cost extra money to have a DJ and extra lighting and those are all expenses,” Van Horn said.
As of now, there are no plans for rescheduling the dance, and whether Diamond Bar High School will continue holding Sadies is still in discussion by USB.
Full refunds were given to students in the USB room.
“We want to provide activities that our students are excited about and that will create fun experiences, and it’s reflecting on what students want,” Van Horn said.
