Sydney Life

I'm slightly hungover - mainly with glee and Christmas cheer - after hosting an awesome party at our sharehouse last night. I've been perfecting the art of the uni student party for four years, and last night went off like a dream.

Ingredients
1 crowd of diverse uni types
1 inclusive, raucous, topical theme – left open to interpretation
4 distinctly created party space areas
4 or 5 key talking points
2 culinary surprises
Choose-your-own-music stack of CDs near a CD player
200 fairy lights, give or take
4 hosts in creative costumes

Directions

1. Diversity is the key. Without a doubt, the most important thing at a party is the people. All the other bits are extras to make the people happy, but the most essential element is a crowd of diverse types. Living as one of five in a progressive student sharehouse is a guaranteed way of getting some great diverse and fun types. Also doing a combined degree (I do Arts/Law) means you have two tribes of very different people to draw from.

2. A party needs to be marketed through clever invitations. You have to brand your party as unique, ‘party-of-the-year’ potential. Our invitations had a political, satirical slant to them – which is perfect for the market we were trying to attract: cool, chilled-out, clever and open-minded fun types. Boring invites bring boring people!

3. Word of mouth marketing is still your best way of promoting the party. Apart from your friends, most people need to get excited about a party before they consider coming to one. Set the ground work with email invites well in advance, so that people keep the night free. Then follow with email-reminders and SMS invites. But the key is to be social before the party so that you can talk to people face-to-face. You need to start people talking about the party with others, so that they know that others are coming, and therefore making them not want to miss out on the action. This is the key to a good party – and also its greatest paradox. To get a lot of people wanting to come, you have to have get a lot of people coming. The beginnings of a great party is in pre-party excited chatter.

4. A theme that is open to interpretation is essential. Themes can be daggy, but consider their positive features. Firstly, when you have a lot of different people coming from all corners of your life, a theme gives a common start for conversation: “so what did you come as?”, “that’s a great costume” etc. A theme must allow diverse people to interpret it in diverse ways. The shy ones need to be attracted to the theme as much as the loud ones! We had a “politically correct” theme for this party, as most of our friends are keyed in on topical issues. We invited people to come dressed in a satire of the year’s political events, from Cronulla Riots to certain “uncovered meat” comments by a certain religious leader.

5. Make sure that all your hosts are dressed-to-impress to theme. Some clever, creative costume-making will ensure that when you open the door to a guest, you get them in the mood to chatter, laugh and be festive. Hosts should dress in two ways: provocative/controversial or humorous. The hosts are the essential party starters as they are the connections for the social relations in the room, therefore a wicked costume helps people identify each other: “I’m a friend of {Housemate 1}, he’s the one in the fluffy g-string” – that sort of thing.

6. Invite a good few gay people. A stereotype no doubt, but really gay people just know how to party. We are much less inhibited to dance and much more likely to get into costume.

7. Let people bring along extras or come in groups of friends. Although this will definitely increase the size of the party, letting people bring their friends/grandmas/who-ever makes it a much more social event. Tribes of people are more confident and therefore more likely to chatter with others, interact and summon the courage to dance.

8. Create chill-out zones as well as dancing areas. Space is so important at a party and allowing people to steal away with friends for a while is important for party stamina. Unless people are comfortable, they will leave early. Also, expect guests to congregate in the oddest places – hallways, stairwells and small rooms in the house.

9. Self-prepared food is important and appreciated. Try cooking something simple for people to enjoy. Oven creations are great as they can bake in the oven for 40 minutes while you mingle, but make sure you don’t forget them! Try Ricotta and Spinach Puff Pastry Triangles and mini-pizzas (don’t forget to cater for vegos!). Cook to reflect who you are, especially if you have special food from your cultural background. People like to feel welcomed and one great way of welcoming them is to introduce them to different aspects of yourself; one of which is your culinary talents.

10. Decorate to promote mood and atmosphere. We wanted people to be festive and amused, so we developed the politically-correct theme with politically-incorrect pictures and humorous talking points. We decorated our Christmas tree entirely with bows, lamenta and packets of condoms. We put up kitsch religious iconography that didn’t quite fit. We put up humorous posters and images. We put up 200 fairy lights and tinsel. Think visually attractive and engaging. Something to get people laughing and add talking points to a party.

11. Music adds soul. Music is essential and people have very different tastes. My suggestion: a stack of very different CDs near the CD player and allow guests to choose what they like/want to dance to. We had loungey music, alternative music, Arabic music, dance music, pop music and R’n’B. Enough to cater all tastes, genders and sexualities.

Now go off and create your own super uni parties! Soon you’ll be known as party central.