How could anything possibly be better than prom? Prom is the quintessential element of the high school experience! I love prom as much as the next nerve-wracked, hoping to be asked girl, but at my school there is something that I can count on to be the best day of the year every year, and that is my school’s annual Global Festival. Every year, the festival follows the same general pattern: various country booths featuring trifles and food are set up in front of the theater, there are cultural performances in the theater, which are then followed by a fashion show featuring colorful attire from all over the world, and then we all go home.
I have performed in each global festival (except for one year due to surgery) since the tradition began, and each time has been greater than the last. The sheer amount of diversity and representation seen at these festivals is unimaginable unless you have been there to see it. Whether you go for the educational opportunity, to see your friends perform, or to just get swept up in all the color and music, you will not be disappointed.
Personally, Global Fest is very important because it has helped me progressively get over my stage fright, and it is how I came to know my best friend. Of course, it is much more personal and special if you are one of the student organizers or performers, which I have had the privilege of being as I mentioned before. Many of my friends and those around me feel the same way I do about this festival and feel that it is the culminating night of the year. There is one moment that is especially fulfilling: when we are all on stage in the clothes of our ancestry after the fashion show and the president of the club that sponsors the festival says “and that concludes our Global Festival”. It’s comparable to that moment in the evening when you leave the dance floor with your prom date and take one last picture with your friends and are satisfied with your evening.
However, the thing about prom is that it is generally predictable and often leaves a good majority of those attending (and more often than not those who did not attend) at least partially disappointed. It’s only so many of us that get a date, or the perfect dress, or a non-conflictual prom group. There is so much riding on so much room for error. That is not to say that my celebrated festival does not have its flaws. In fact, this past week was this year’s festival and it was accidentally ended before the fashion show. We did not get the big moment we all were waiting for, and the premature “that ends Global Festival” left us all dumbfounded and panicking.
That’s just the thing, though; with prom, it’s the moments and the aesthetics that determine the quality of the evening, but with Global Fest the moments are just a bonus. The moments are the sprinkles on top of a great spectacle of a sundae that celebrates all the elements of the world. Our job in putting on such an event is not primarily for self-fulfillment or promotion of our own self esteem as is so with the prom process and antiquated rituals. The purpose and pride in our festival is one of our school, our community, and our entire world; both may occur one night a year, but what one represents will last forever.
