High school graduation goes on in the dark after balloons cause power outage

Graduation is supposed to be a special moment in the spotlight for high schoolers, but at Georgia's Winder-Barrow High School Thursday's ceremony was exactly the opposite after a blown transformer left students to graduate in the dark. 

Students and family members quickly took to social media to share photos and videos of the ceremony, which took place outdoors on the high school's football field, where cellphones lit up the event like a concert after the outage. 

In one video, Winder-Barrow High School principal Al Darby can be heard declaring that the graduation would go on in the dark. 

"Our thought is, we're going to continue to call names," Darby said as the crowd erupted in cheers. "And I never thought I'd say this as the principal of Winder-Barrow High School, but thank goodness for cellphones." 

The power outage apparently occurred after balloons flew too close to the transformer, several attendees wrote on social media. 

One attendee reported the graduating class size was about 400 students, and judging by the fact that one video of the outage starts with last names in the C's, it doesn't seem many students were able to walk before the transformer blew. 

Understandably, not everyone was thrilled about the graduates receiving their diplomas in the dark. 

At least Winder-Barrow's Class of 2016 can be certain they went out of high school with a bang. 

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