Homecoming has stood as Burlingame’s most widely attended dance in recent years, and it’s paired with a preceding week of spirited activities and the highly anticipated Little Big Game. On Saturday, Nov. 9, 973 students — roughly two-thirds of the entire school — gathered for Burlingame’s Ibiza-themed homecoming dance. For such a popular event, it begs the question: what goes into planning a school dance?

The answer, for Leadership and the Associated Student Body (ASB), involves months of planning, organization, and student leadership. It involves a fair share of logistical struggles and over $40,000 in ticket sales; it includes finding venues, caterers, DJs, decorations, games, and equipment — all culminating in a week of pre-dance activities, setup, and, of course, stress.

But before most of that can happen, leadership needs an idea.

Homecoming planning is largely in the hands of the ASB committee, a subset of leadership students that works to plan all the major school dances. This year, they decided on the theme for Homecoming using an idea board: during a brainstorming activity at a monthly student council meeting, a number of people suggested the theme ‘Dancing in Ibiza,’ a reference to the small tropical island in the Mediterranean Sea known for its nightlife.

“One of the most popular [ideas] was Ibiza. Under the sea was another really popular one that people liked, but we thought [Ibiza] was a pretty unique and fun idea that we didn’t think a lot of other schools would do. We thought, ‘why not have this chance to do something new and unique, and take our own spin on it,’” ASB treasurer and senior Reiter Madden said.

Given that Ibiza is a location rather than a conventional theme, the ASB committee had to think outside of the box to find decorations and activities to suit it. They eventually settled on a mix of things, taking artistic inspiration from disco parties and tropical decorations.

“Our decorations were split: one half of the room was tropical Ibiza, and then the other side was a party or nightlife. We kind of tried to get both aspects of Ibiza to show the different sides of it,” ASB secretary and senior Momoko Egan said.

It also wasn’t entirely clear how to best integrate activities into the theme. ASB vice president and senior Billy Song, who focused on organizing the games, ended up using general-purpose items like arcade machines and an air hockey table. Other festivities included a live DJ, a ‘silent disco,’ and lots of dancing. In all, the games, audio equipment, decorations, food, and music service cost roughly $7,000.

While that may seem like a dauntingly large sum, the cost was covered nearly six times over with $40 per ticket and almost 1,000 sales. The remainder of the money is used by leadership to plan future dances, rallies, and school events.

According to Madden, Egan, and Bennett, the hardest part of organizing this year’s dance was finding a venue.

“The venue [was] the most difficult part for us because I think we just started doing that too late,” Madden said.

Homecoming is traditionally hosted at the school due to the idea of ‘coming home,’ but since Burlingame’s gym is still far from completion, leadership had to look elsewhere. Unfortunately, they faced a wave of rejections.

“We have a designated area where we’re allowed to get venues from. And so I contacted every single one in our area, and they all rejected us because [they were] too busy or it was just [out of] our budget,” Egan said.

With over 20 venues called and out of the question, Madden said leadership considered: using the football field as a last resort for their tidal venue.

“At one point, we were considering hosting it on the football field, because finding a venue was just really, really hard. [We would] put tents up as a structure to house people in,” Madden said.

Finally, leadership managed to secure the Grand Bay Hotel San Francisco in Redwood City roughly a month before the dance, leaving a pretty tight timeline for the rest of the planning. As a silver lining, the venue’s cost was covered by district funds due to the lack of a school gymnasium.

Homecoming week, packed with rallies and events, is one of leadership’s most ambitious projects. The time is stressful for many, but it also creates an appreciation for all their hard work that makes it feel especially rewarding.

“It’s something that I look forward to every year, because it’s such a physically and mentally draining — [yet] really fun — time where you just get a lot closer to all of the leadership students,” Madden said. “Especially this year, as someone who’s taken more of a leadership role than in past years being in leadership, I found that it’s been really rewarding to see a lot of the effort that I put into this event be kind of transformed into … happiness. I felt excited to see stuff that I’ve thought about in my head and imagined come to fruition.”

Leadership advisor and math teacher Erik Bennett agrees that the hectic week is a testament to all the students involved in making it a reality.

“[My favorite part is] the lack of sleep,” Bennett said, jokingly. “So when you see all of the efforts of the band, the cheer squad, the football team, the leadership class, journalism, and yearbook, and you see all of those groups kind of coming together to create a week long experience … it just really brings me a lot of joy.”