Saturday, 17th of June was definitely a night to remember for our senior students. Although the weather decided to play up and give the area potential flood warnings, the students still turned up and had a great time. 

We were ready for the weather with umbrellas for all the students, running them back and forth as students arrived so their fancy clothes weren’t drenched. RiverRidge retreat (the venue) was absolutely beautiful with lights and greenery everywhere, it looked just like an enchanted garden. 

Some highlights from the evening was the DJ dancing to the music more than the students, and Gangnam Style dance at the end of the formal where all the students and some kitchen staff were out of their chairs dancing. 

This year The Catlins Area Schools formal King and Queen voted were Blake Affleck and Amelia Morrison, and the best dressed boy and girl was Hadley and Jade Gutsell. 

The formal committee would like to thank our kitchen staff, Emily Currall, Kerri Nakajima, Robyn Lietze, Mrs Bichan and the students who helped, Milly, Astrid, Austin and Liv. They made some of the best formal food ever and without them there would have been 35 hungry and complaining students.

Also to the other teachers that came to support us, being body guards, greeting people as they came in and overall just monitoring the night. We really appreciate how you kept the students safe and made sure their night was amazing while also hopefully enjoying yourself as well. 

Big thanks to the photographer, Kassandra Lynne for coming out in the cold weather and taking our photos for us. The photos look really good and allow us to look back on the night for the rest of our lives.

We would also like to thank the public who still came out despite the drive and the horrible weather to come watch our students arrive all dressed up cheering them on. We hope you enjoyed seeing the students all dressed up not in uniform for once, and hope you didn’t get too wet watching.

Lastly we would also love to share our appreciation to Adele for letting us use the River Ridge Retreat as the venue for our Formal and making the night absolutely amazing. Adele helped with a lot of the setting up and decorating, and was even running a bar on the night where she would make whatever drink you wanted. For that we are very appreciative and thank her very much, for without her generosity and expertise this event would not have been as epic as it was!

Mia Cable