Grad Bash
Ending senior year with a bang at Grad Bash
Emma Aviv '24
Website Designer
This year's Grad Bash, hosted at Universal Studios, was definitely one to remember. The day started off with the Louisville seniors entering the park at 4 pm. However, at 6 pm, the park began to close for regular park goers and only remained open for seniors attending grad night with their chaperones. Each person was given a wristband to make sure they could stay in the park. Our lovely chaperones Mr. Wilson, Mrs. Hetrick, Mrs. Barel and Mx. Hernandez, were there the whole night with us enjoying all of the attractions, rides and food.
Seniors Veronica Leidy, Janelle Andrada, Chloe McBride, Tati Tolentino, Ila Kreischer and Brooke Freyer at the entrance of Super Nintendo World
Throughout most of the night the wait time for rides were fairly short considering that Universal experienced a larger number of schools and students than in previous years. Every attraction and ride stayed open the whole night, even until we left at 1 am. Throughout the whole park there were areas with signs that read “Grad Bash” or “2024” for people to take pictures.
In addition to all of the rides, Universal offered other activities for students. The most popular being a DJ in the lower park where there were massive mosh pits and plenty of dancing.
The other activity was a silent disco above the Sprite Lounge near the Jurassic World ride. While not as popular, it was equally as fun. Each person was given a pair of headphones with three different channels, red, green and blue. However, nearly every person seemed to be on the same channel, which played songs like “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar, with the exception of the occasional channel switch for a break.
For how many people were there, it was not crowded at all, however, wait times for rides began to rise as the night ran later, with the Mummy ride having a wait time of 85 minutes nearing the end of the night.
Decor for the class of 2024 Grad Bash at Universal Studios
This year, there was also the fairly new addition of Super Nintendo World. This new addition to the park had features for the games of our childhood like Bowser’s Castle and little question blocks that made a noise when you hit them.
Overall, the whole night was amazing from beginning to end. While the class was given the option to attend Disneyland instead of Universal Studios, Universal was definitely the right move. Grad Bash is an event that many underclassmen look forward to, and this year’s came through. This nine hour night was a good send off for senior year.