As Sept. 28 draws near, many students are deciding whether or not to attend this year’s homecoming dance. Many factors, including the DJ, the theme, and last year’s HoCo experience will help students make their choice. With several changes being implemented this year, Student Council hopes to make this one even more memorable than the last.

“Over the years we have revolutionized our way of doing Homecoming,” NC Student Council Vice President James King ‘21 said. “[Changes over time] have allowed us to invest more in DJs and the overall experience.”

After trying out a new DJ for the 2018-19 homecoming, Student Council voted to bring back the former DJ due to his popularity and familiarity with the students.

“We thought [DJ Flipside] would be a fresh face, but it didn’t really work out,” Student Council President Macy Siegfried ‘19 said.

After using DJ “Big Daddy” for several years to perform at homecoming, students had gotten used to his style of mixing music.

“Flipside used more radio edits and changed the songs often,” Siegfried said. “Big Daddy understood that LT students wanted to hear most of the song [before it was changed].”

Along with providing the music, Monster Entertainment helps plan items such as stage placement and set-up, lighting and the balloon drop, Siegfried said. 

In addition to the comments about the choice of DJ, input was received about the movement of the stage from the middle of the field house bleacher wall to the far right side of the field house.

“We received student feedback [from last year’s dance] saying the placement of the stage [on the right side] created traffic by the entrance,” Siegfried said. “We plan on going back to the bleacher wall to decrease traffic.”

As far as other decor changes, there will be the addition of CO2 cannons.

“[CO2 cannons] help the lights look more visible and help create a better visual effect,” King said. 

Unlike last year, the fog machine will not cause a fire alarm to go off as long as the proper detectors are turned off, Geddeis said.

At the start of last year’s homecoming, the haze from the fog machines in the fieldhouse caused the particle detectors inside of a fire alarm to go off. The students already at the dance had to evacuate. With the addition of CO2 cannons that also create haze, it will be even more crucial to prevent build up.

“We have used [CO2 cannons] before, but it has been a few years,” Student Activities Director Peter Geddeis said. “We plan on going easier on the haze earlier on in the dance so it doesn’t build up and making sure the correct particle detectors are deactivated.”

Outside of the field house festivities, gyms one and two used to house student bands that played throughout the night, King said. This year they will be eliminating the performances and replacing them with a large version of Just Dance.

The night itself is not the only thing changing. Due to the cancelation of the variety show that would have taken place the Sunday before homecoming, Student Council has arranged for an outdoor movie night on Bennett Field on Sept. 22. The student body had a chance to vote between Mean Girls, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Spider-Man: Homecoming in a poll that was available on their desktops through Sept. 13.