DANVILLE -- Three months of hard work will culminate Saturday with one of the glitziest Danville proms ever, complete with a red carpet-style promenade through downtown.

After several years of out-of-town affairs, the prom returns for the first time in recent memory to Danville, fully equipped with a jazzed out ballroom ready for roughly 400 high school students.

The excitement has been building, according to several juniors who have been busy this week finishing the decorations, since it was announced last year the prom would be held downtown.

"We only had about 250 students come to the prom last year (held at Bloomsburg University)," said Katy Armstrong, who was among the group of juniors in charge of organizing this year's event. "It's tough to describe how excited we are, but I'm sure it will be easy to see on Saturday."

Roughly 20 juniors have spent a bulk of this past week setting up the borough ballroom along Mill Street with cardboard silhouettes of jazz dancers, arches decorated with red lights, flashy gold-colored ribbons, and music notes dotted all over the walls. Initial preparations began in February during weekend work sessions at Sue Mazol's house. Mazol is co-advisor with Tammy Wislock for the Class of 2009.

By Thursday, there was little of the ballroom untouched, which is exactly what the students planned for, according to Kelsey Stayer, a junior.

"We thought it was important to bring the prom back to Danville, because we have a lot of pride in our hometown," Stayer said. "The ballroom offered more flexibility for us to decorate and organize activities outside the prom.

"We didn't have as many restrictions here as we did at Bloomsburg. We were able to decorate everything, including the walls and dance floor. I'm really excited to see all of our work finally completed."

Nathaniel Kronenwetter, a junior, said the first step was placement of a white vinyl cover draped over the dance floor. The students then turned to decorating the first floor walls in red and black with a gold trim, he said.

Portions of the first floor walls were covered by cardboard sections the students made to cover up exposed pipes and unneeded door entries.

"We're really excited about having the entire first floor as a dance floor," Armstrong said. "This is much bigger than what we had at Bloomsburg. Even though not everybody was dancing, there still wasn't enough room for everyone on the dance floor. This year, that should not be a problem."

Another unique feature of the layout, which was designed by Jen Raup, a Danville graduate, are the music notes decorating the balcony rail etched with the name of every senior.

"We wanted to do something to personalize the prom for them," Armstrong said. "This was a great way to showcase each of them. I'm pretty sure it will be one of their favorite things about the prom."

Other neat features, according to the juniors, include a ticket booth at the front door greeting students as they enter the ballroom designed to resemble an entrance to a jazz club and bathrooms decorated in jazz themes.

The party will continue outside, the juniors said, where tents will be placed in Canal Park for students to relax away from the dance floor. Jazz music will be played outside in the tent area, as well as through the downtown speaker system, which is one of the benefits of having the prom downtown, according to Rose McKinley, a junior.