For most university students, prom is a distant memory of big dresses and awkward dancing. While high school students are gearing up for their big day this spring, 22-year-old Carleton University student Allison McLean is preparing for a different kind of grad celebration.
“I’m going to alter my old high school prom dress to make it shorter, and I just dyed my hair platinum blonde. It’s going to be a really great time.”
McLean is attending the fourth annual PROMdemonium, an alternative prom event that raises money for local grassroots organizations. Billed as “Ottawa’s radical, community-oriented, gender-bending, bike-loving, enviro-humping, queer-diggin, slow dancing, big dress wearing prom that you never had,” it will take place this weekend at the National Arts Centre.
PROMdemonium is an all-ages, hyper-inclusive event that allows people to attend their ideal prom.
“We’re trying to create something folks haven’t experienced before,” says Matthew Pearson, co-ordinator for PROMdemonium. “We want people to have the prom they never got to have; to take whoever they want to take, judgment free.”
For Pearson, the event is primarily an excuse to have fun.
“The aim is to give people a really good time,” says Pearson. “It really helps to create a vibe in the city that you don’t normally see every day of the week.”
The proceeds from PROMdemonium are placed in the PROM fund, which is then dispersed among local community groups.
Some of the 2011 recipients of PROMdemonium funding include Books to Prisoners Ottawa, which delivers books and other materials to inmates, and POWER, an advocacy group for sex-trade workers.
“I went to prom last year, and it was amazing,” says McLean. “Knowing that the money is going to support really excellent causes makes me that much more excited about it.”
In keeping with the alternative motif, Pearson says the PROMdemonium committee tries to award funding to groups without official charity status.
Pearson says this is an effort to give money to organizations that may not be able to find funding from more traditional sources.
“We keep it really grassroots and really local.”
PROMdemonium also attempts to be inclusive to all attendees, including an accessible location and an LGBTQ-friendly atmosphere. It’s attracted a lot of attention from the Ottawa community.
“Our Facebook and Twitter accounts have been filled with people asking questions and talking about how excited they are,” says Pearson. “We’re selling tickets at Venus Envy and Octopus Books too, so that’s really cool to include them. We all just can’t wait.”
Participants agree.
“My favourite part is going to an event with like-minded people,” says McLean. “It’ll be the prom I always wanted.”