In the mid-2010s, celebrities such as Khloe Kardashian, Rihanna and Floyd Mayweather Jr. socialized at Lure Nightclub in Hollywood, drawing TMZ photographers and star-obsessed onlookers to the venue’s curb. Inside Lure, the now-shuttered hot spot offered a menu brimming with expensive drinks like a $70,000 Champagne bottle.
But on a spring night in 2014, a vastly different clientele descended upon the rented-out, 18,000-square-foot venue: high schoolers. “Sometimes I drive past it and I’m just like, ‘Oh, my God, my prom was there,’” said Tiffany Behnam, a Milken Community School alum, of the scene-y club. In Los Angeles, where the yearly price of tuition can rival the cost of a new convertible, some private schools go all out when booking venues for the spring bash.
While public schools sometimes splurge on prom venues too — in addition to hotel ballrooms and sprucing up their gymnasiums — some of the city’s most elite schools regularly opt for world-class museums, studio lots and nightclubs, giving teenagers only-in-L.A. prom experiences.
Booking these event spaces — not including decor, DJ and other amenities — can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $35,000. Prom ticket prices have ranged from around $115 to $175 over the years. “I was like, ‘Of course our prom is going to be there,’ because Milken is quite a prestigious school and they always strive to give us the best,” Behnam recalled.
Immediately after the prom at Lure, Behnam and her classmates.
