{"id":353056,"date":"2026-06-09T12:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/353056\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T12:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:58:12","slug":"sold-out-bart-prom-gets-bay-area-moving-transit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/353056\/","title":{"rendered":"Sold-out BART Prom gets Bay Area moving | Transit"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a moment last Saturday night, BART ran back in time.<\/p>\n

BART\u2019s first-ever prom, themed after the 1980s, drew hundreds of denim, neon and silver-pleather-decked transit fans to Rockridge BART station in Oakland. Promgoers filled out a checkered dance floor, bought BART merch, and meandered around on BART-blue carpet. The total ticket sales for the event, which sold out within minutes, hit 1,200.<\/p>\n

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Ajith Araiza-Singh | Staff<\/p>\n

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Celia Clark | Staff<\/p>\n

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Celia Clark | Staff<\/p>\n

An AC Transit bus strolled through the crowd, and Luigi, donning his iconic cap, hit the dance floor. One man was dressed as Poseidon, sporting ripped jean shorts and a fanny pack, \u201ca night to remember.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rockridge station lies within the BART section internally known as the C line, which inspired the second theme of the night, under the sea.<\/p>\n

Jaymee Rayford, a senior marketing representative at BART, decided at the last minute to bring her 5-year-old daughter, Seniyah, to the event after seeing the other families there. When asked how long she plans to stay at the event, Seniyah said until her bedtime.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can kind of tell all the effort that everyone put in, and I\u2019m just really proud and really happy that I can come back, and my daughter gets to enjoy it,\u201d Rayford said.<\/p>\n

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Celia Clark | Staff<\/p>\n

Recent high school graduates Lucia Harper and Jasmine Orozco both asserted it was better than their own senior prom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DJ is better \u2026 The food is better, better vibes from people, people are actually dancing,\u201d Orozco said.<\/p>\n

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Celia Clark | Staff<\/p>\n

People went all-in for the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was worried people were gonna not step out, but I\u2019ve been seeing some really cool outfits,\u201d said Rosie Bultman, a multimedia journalist at KALW. \u201cI think it\u2019s like showing the quirky side of the Bay Area that we all know and love.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Celia Clark | Staff<\/p>\n

The prom was kicked off with the crowning of the BART Prom court, where Mermaid-themed couple Wendy Reyes and Porfirio Rangel stole the show, walking away with the coveted BART crown.<\/p>\n

Prom guests came from far and wide. Cameron Phillips, a self-described \u201cbig transit nerd,\u201d traveled from San Jose to attend. Yoo-Yoo Yeh from Union City said she was the only public transit nerd in her friend group and came to find more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to find my people, and this is definitely my people,\u201d Yeh said.<\/p>\n

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Luca Vicisano | Staff<\/p>\n

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Luca Vicisano | Staff<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople turned up,\u201d said Jay Sathe, a graphic designer at BART, who was outfitted in his dad\u2019s old tuxedo serving punch. \u201cI think it\u2019s hard to find a place with a better vibe in the Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Celia Clark | Staff<\/p>\n

BART chief communications officer Alicia Trost praised the event, describing it as a way to bring revenue to this system and rebuild trust with the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want families to come back to our stations and see how clean and safe they are,\u201d Trost said. \u201cA lot of people have ideas and misconceptions about what transit looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

BART Prom comes at a time when the financial future of its host is uncertain. The November ballot will feature a measure to fund BART, and failure to pass it could lead BART\u00a0to close<\/a> 15 stations and lay off 31% of its staff.<\/p>\n

After the initial batch of a thousand tickets sold out quickly, event staff Sathe said organizers had to go to the fire marshal to find ways to increase capacity, allowing 200 more tickets to be sold.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love that it\u2019s like all ages, there\u2019s everyone, all kinds of people pulled up,\u201d Harper said. \u201cI feel like that\u2019s kind of representative of the Bay Area, for real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson Woodward contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

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Celia Clark | Staff<\/p>\n

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Celia Clark | Staff<\/p>\n

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Celia Clark | Staff<\/p>\n

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Luca Vicisano | Staff<\/a><\/p>\n

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Celia Clark | Staff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a moment last Saturday night, BART ran back in time. BART\u2019s first-ever prom, themed after the 1980s,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[32931,144180,3767,184,34061,144167,144177,105770,144172,144179,144169,144174,30525,144171,144165,11053,143,145,144,144176,144166,3276,144173,88,144170,144181,144168,43205,144175,144178],"class_list":["post-353056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-ac-transit","tag-alicia-trost","tag-bart","tag-bay-area","tag-bay-area-rapid-transit","tag-c-line","tag-cameron-phillips","tag-fire-marshal","tag-jasmine-orozco","tag-jay-sathe","tag-jaymee-rayford","tag-jesse-gerwein","tag-kalw","tag-lucia-harper","tag-luigi","tag-november","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-porfirio-rangel","tag-poseidon","tag-rockridge","tag-rosie-bultman","tag-san-jose","tag-seniyah","tag-super-mario-bros","tag-under-the-sea","tag-union-city","tag-wendy-reyes","tag-yoo-yoo-yeh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}