Fairview’s theme for prom this year is “A Knight in the Sky”, based around the location of prom: the Wings over the Rockies Air and Space Museum. This location is a shift from Mile High Stadium, which is where prom has been held since the end of the 2020 pandemic. 

“Mile High was a three year contract which expired,” said Carder Squirrell, current Junior Class President. “I was told when I was a sophomore in the first semester to begin looking for locations.”

Squirrell, on behalf of Fairview’s Student Council, checked out several other locations for the 2024, and other future proms.

“We checked at the aquarium, we checked at the zoo, we checked at a bunch of venues, all around Denver. It turned out a lot were booked years in advance. We eventually settled on the Aerospace Museum just because we also heard other schools used it,” said Squirrell.

The venue that was settled upon for Fairview’s 2024 Prom was the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum. This choice, while surprising, has several notable advantages.

“I think one [advantage] is the fact that there’s a lot of really cool planes within the venue. So it does already add a good theme to it and we’re able to get a more on par theme instead of just being at mile high stadium,” explained Squirrell. “We also have a lot of space for dancing, and there’s a lot of extra perks such as the flight simulators and a blimp we can use to drop gift cards.”

One advantage that STUCO finds especially favorable is the amount of space mentioned prior. 

Squirrell commented that “What I’m really excited about is the space we have. We went down there as a class to go view it, and it’s tons of space. It’s gonna have enough room for a sitting area for people to get water and stuff, as well as for dancing.”

Such space, especially the ability for a comfortable sitting area, is something absent from Mile High, where seating and rest areas were small and in extremely close proximity to the dance floor.

However, this venue does have two distinct downsides: the location and the rules.

“Unfortunately, the rules of the venue are that we actually can’t put any other decorations besides, like, lighting for DJ and stuff like that. So we can decorate, I think, maybe in just an entry area. For the most part, we don’t have any decorations more than just the tons of model airplanes of the past century that they have there,” said Squirrell.

Furthermore, the museum is based in the district of Lowry, a suburb of Denver east of the city center. From Fairview, it’s roughly a hour long drive, a source of concern for STUCO.

“I think one of the issues is that it is pretty far away, it is all the way off in Lowry,” said Squirrell. “I think that getting there might be an issue that I could foresee happening. I also could just foresee an accident happening. Like, someone bumps into one of the planes or something goes wrong with the flight simulator.”

One other advantage to the venue is that it’s a museum by default, which means it has some facilities to entertain while also being able to function as a dance venue.

Speaking to museum volunteer and Air Force veteran Marcel Fouriner, he described how the Museum deals with large events such as Fairview’s prom. The museum’s workshop, classroom, and other unrelated rooms will be closed, but the majority of the space will remain as it is during normal operating hours. Parent volunteers, some police and some firefighters typically patrol the periphery of such events within the museum, near the walls, behind the majority of the aircraft.

The museum advertises itself as having the most advanced flight simulators available to the public in Colorado, and promotes its significant collection of historic aircraft, ranging from massive airframes like the B-1 Lancer supersonic bomber or the B-52 bomber, on display outside, developed in the 1950’s which is still in service today.

The museum itself is located within an old hangar of the Lowry Air Force base, located East of Central Denver, about an hour’s drive from Fairview. Nearby, literally across the street, are two restaurants: the Lowry Beer Garden, which largely serves American fare, and the North County restaurant, which serves Mexican fare. The museum itself has decent parking facilities, but it’s definitely advisable to arrive early, as parking should be alright, but it will definitely be… tight. 

This year’s prom, “a Knight in the Sky,” will hopefully be able to utilize the space and resources of the museum to the fullest, giving the students of Fairview a uniquely memorable high school experience.