Apple Blossom Cotillion shakes up seating chart

This year, the event will return to an earlier tradition of limiting spectators to one set of bleachers.
http://rutlandherald.com/article/20140501/NEWS02/705019923

Kevin O'Connor / Staff Photo Springfield students young and old rehearse for this week's 58th annual Apple Blossom Cotillion. Published May 1, 2014 in the Rutland Herald Springfieldcotillion shakes up seating chart By Kevin O’Connor Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — Looking for good seats to this week’s 58th annual Apple Blossom Cotillion? You’ll find a great selection if you arrive the night before. Local high school students have welcomed spring with the state’s oldest and only continuing cotillion since 1957. About 1,000 people are expected to squeeze into Riverside Middle School gymnasium Saturday for a queen’s crowning that caps the two-performance Springfield Hospital fundraiser. In the recent past, organizers have accommodated the crowd by seating it on both sides of the dance floor. But this year, the event will return to an earlier tradition of limiting spectators to one set of bleachers. “That was the way,” said cotillion co-director Lisa Rushton, who was a student in the event in 1980. “It felt that the whole town was there.” The arrangement allows the cotillion’s 14 teenage couples to focus their attention on the same side of the room. It also means spectators won’t have to navigate a back set of bleachers with wobbly railings. “It’s not that we can’t use them,” Rushton said. “We just thought, ‘Let’s play it safe and not worry.’” The cotillion is set for Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Organizers are encouraging people who don’t care which night they attend to try opening night, which features not only the full performance but also discounted tickets for $10 in advance (at Tina’s Hallmark Store, Boccaccio’s salons and the hospital registration office) or $12 at the door. People with a preference for the crowning ceremony can purchase tickets for $15 in advance or $18 at the door. (They also can view portraits of past queens and a collection of gowns at Springfield Health Center in the 100 River St. building.) “It might be a little cozy, a little elbowy,” Rushton said of the new seating pattern. “But we feel really comfortable it’s going to be OK.”