Is there prom in UK or other European countries?.
We have them too in Austria/Germany lets call it central europe Czech, Hungary are no different.
It is a different event. Prom for US is just a student event. In our school it is an event organized by the graduating class (seniors) but relatives, friends are all invited. It is some huge ball ours had a total revenue of some 40.000 Euro for a school of 800 pupils. With mostly only the seniors attending so just 200-300 + relatives and friends. Public school btw.
It is just like every ball. Fancy dressing, some cake, food, drinks. Dancing lessons before. It is also not in the school but ours was in a rented ball room. At midnight there is on every such prom a special event, a show or something choreographed with the participation of students and teachers. Ours was awesome because we had cool teachers and a fun headmaster that weren't shy.
In most of central Europe prom is more of cultural event that pretty much everybody goes to regardless if you have date or not. Not going would be seriously weird. Would almost be like not showing up to a US graduation party.
Afterwards it is after party in some bars for those that want which was only graduating students. Our parents left between 1-2 am but most of us slept in the school and didn't go home until there was school next morning. And yes we do drink alcohol at this event in full view of our parents and teachers but our drinking age isn't 16 to 18.
I think it is sad how some people are so anti party. Parties are socialization and if you don't have complete idiots as friends nobody needs to drink. When you hang out with students there is often this or that guy that has to get up early, or do some homework who doesn't get drunk. Yes people expect it in our cultures but very few people really force it on anybody if one firmly says no, the only thing that matters is that ones isn't a complete bore. Nobody knows what to do with shy people that don't ever say a word.
Not socializing makes people miserable and boring. It is also a great way of letting of some steam for getting back to studying. People that always stay at home because they feel they have so much work usually just work way to inefficiently.
In our droms we also put in coffee/tea breaks almost every day. Somebody wrote a mail. Hey guys I made some coffee (tea for the health conscious). Then some of the studying people take a break for half an hour and go back to work.
I don't think there has to be an alternative to prom. Every gathering where people are allowed to go nuts for a while is great. That includes going swimming and doing stupid stuff. Too much seriousness is emotionally unhealthy. The best & nicest people I know are those that are good at just letting go and turning loon. You don't need drugs but you need some activity and some environment that says hey go have fun (safety rules are a deal breaker, young adults don't want to be treated like stupid children and rules of any but the most basic kinds kill the setting). BBQ, swimming, highland games. Actually among the physical stuff the best is just seriously mentally insane games. People are too serious about soccer or football and all the established sports but give them some game they all suck at and nobody every played, thats a fool proof way for fun.
Girls want to dress up and dance. I am the wrong guy to ask for tipps in that regard. Costume and theme parties are probably the way to go.
: Let's at least attempt to be realistic here if we're going to answer the OPs question.
