In the mid-2010s, celebrities like Khloe Kardashian, Rihanna and Floyd Mayweather Jr. socialized at Hollywood's Lure Nightclub, drawing TMZ photographers and star-obsessed onlookers to the venue's sidewalk. Inside Lure, the now-closed popular spot offered a menu full of expensive drinks, including a $70,000 bottle of champagne.
But one spring night in 2014, a very different clientele arrived at the rented 18,000-square-foot facility: high school students.
“Sometimes I walk by there and think, 'Oh my God, my prom was there,'” Tiffany Behnam, a Milken Community School student, said of the scene club.
In Los Angeles, where the annual price of tuition can rival the cost of a new convertible, some private schools go all out by reserving spots for Spring Festival. While public schools sometimes splurge on prom venues, too (in addition to hotel ballrooms and renovating their gyms), some of the city's most elite schools regularly opt for museums, lots of world-class studio and nightclubs, giving teens unique prom experiences in Los Angeles. . Booking these event spaces, not including decor, DJs and other amenities, can cost between $10,000 and $35,000. Prom ticket prices have ranged from $115 to $175 over the years.
(Amir Mrzae / For The Times)
“I thought, 'Of course our prom will be there,' because Milken is a pretty prestigious school and they always strive to give us the best,” Behnam recalled.
Immediately after prom at Lure, Behnam and her classmates ventured to Bootsy Bellows, a velvet-roped club in West Hollywood, which Milken's student organizers had reserved for the school's after-prom party. Bel-Air. Bootsy Bellows is popular with celebrities like Drakeand it turns out that some private school graduation committees in Los Angeles. Crossroads School, a Santa Monica high school, held a prom at Bootsy Bellows a few years after Milken's event.
“It was a nightclub that no one had been to, but I had heard about and people were curious,” said Molly Cody, a Harvard-Westlake graduate whose friends attended the Crossroads prom. “People could walk into a nightclub that they would normally never be eligible to go to.”
When Cody was a senior in 2017, his Coldwater Canyon High School held its graduation party at the Skirball Cultural Center. A popular destination for graduation parties at both public and private schools, the Jewish cultural institution has also been booked for weddings and galas. Cody said that because her private school had almost 300 students per class, she reserved a large spot.
“It had to be more of a convention center than a nightclub,” he said.
In 2025, Harvard-Westlake plans to hold its graduation party at the Petersen Automotive Museum. Jasmine Gonzalez, Petersen's director of events, said schools reserve dates nearly two years in advance.
While some have an annual tradition of holding their prom at Petersen, others reserve the space every other year to give students different locations for their junior and senior proms. The site's popularity among Los Angeles schools has meant big business for the museum. “We host between 15 and 20 graduation parties a year,” Gonzalez said, adding that renting space at the museum can cost up to $35,000. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum did not host any graduation parties. The following year, it hosted a few, including Harvard-Westlake, which was held outdoors. By 2022, Gonzalez said, the museum's graduation party business had returned to normal levels.
With thousands of students packing into the Petersen wearing bright suits in April and May, spring visitors sometimes notice remnants of graduation events as they tour the museum. “When you walk into our elevators, you'll see some sparkles and that's because of the dresses,” she said, noting that the space now requires dull decorations and dresses.
Maddy Glick, a Brentwood School graduate who attended her graduation party in Petersen in 2018, said the festivities were surrounded by “beautiful cars.”
“It was just a really cool space,” he added. Petersen's extensive collection includes classic vehicles such as a copper-colored 1959 Chevrolet Impala lowrider and a black-coated 1932 Ford Roadster.
In addition to Brentwood School and Harvard-Westlake, private schools such as Campbell Hall in Studio City and Milken Community School have also booked graduation parties at Petersen.
It's not just private schools that rent cultural institutions for their graduation parties. Some public schools also organize their festivities at the museum, González said. But smaller privates can opt for a catered dinner, adding at least $4,500 to the bill if they use Someone's in the Kitchen, one of Petersen's preferred caterers.
(Amir Mrzae / For The Times)
At the Grammy Museum, groups that use the space work with their exclusive catering partner, Wolfgang Puck Catering. (They both refused to share the cost of prom catering.) This year, the Marlborough School for Girls in Hancock Park plans to hold its prom on the venue's rooftop terrace, which overlooks the iconic Hollywood sign and rents for at least $10,000. Rita George, director of programs at the museum, said schools are increasingly turning to the museum for prom.
“We definitely do more now than ever and the first one was probably a good 10 years ago,” he said. “I think it offers a more elevated experience, perhaps, when it's in a museum.”
George said schools can also book the museum's exhibits, such as the Shakira exhibit, giving students the opportunity to tour different floors during the event.
Prom organizers sometimes choose production studios for the rite of passage. Last year, Chaminade College Preparatory, the private Catholic school in West Hills, held its graduation party on a soundstage at the Jim Henson Co. Lot in Hollywood, where shows like “Perry Mason” and “Adventures of Superman” were filmed. . The company did not respond to requests for current pricing, but a 2015 flyer showed renting its soundstage and patio cost between $8,000 and $13,000 at the time.
For a change of pace, Brentwood School, whose alumni include actor Jonah Hill and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, hosted its 2019 senior prom in a nondescript indoor-outdoor space in Hollywood. But student planners added accessories like a wood-fired pizza oven and a taco station.
For these students, the location of the prom mattered less than enjoying the revelry. Glick, who planned the event with four other students, said organizers toured many locations and ended up choosing a “less sophisticated” space to spend more money on the event itself.
“Prom was so much fun. People had a great time,” she said. “Or at least they told me they had a great time because I planned it.”
