I just hosted 350 people at a venue in Brooklyn for New Years and came away with a bunch of lessons. This is a mashup of what I learned.
TL;DR - the main ingredients for a true banger
- Unique/memorable event space - whether people admit it or not, the feel of the venue has a huge impact on people's mood. You need everyone's good moods compounding with eachother.
- People - obviously, you need high energy, fun people. The mix of people needs to be right so there is one cohesive 'good vibe' going and no one feels like an outsider.
- Size - small enough to create a large sense of energy. Big enough to feel grandiose. This is a balancing act, and it depends on nature of the event, the people attending, and the venue.
- Awesome 'Moments' - create snapshots that will last in people's minds (or on their instagram). Most of the night will probably be forgotten (especially if alcohol is involved) but ideally a few moments remain that make the night feel like a fever dream as its happening, and nostalgic when you look back on it. For New Years, its probably what happens at midnight.
- Exclusivity - people want to feel special. There are ways to make an event feel exclusive without actually needing to exclude anyone (ie, greet every single person individually at the door and remember their name)
Thats it. Obviously a lot easier said than done. And unfortunately, many of these ingredients here can frequently feel out of your control. But here are some inputs to point you in the right direction:
Lessons on how to curate the vibe for a banger:
- ask girls to have their friends individually RSVP, guys to just use +X for their other guy friends. Its a bit lame that this matters, but it does to enough people.
- Just have the venmo list as the source of truth for who is coming to the party. I was managing an RSVP list along with payments and it added a ton of overhead that took my time away from other things I could have been doing to make this event better.
- find the top ~10 high energy people you know and ask what price ticket theyd be OK paying.
- get TOTAL cost of the venue when negotiating anything. make sure you know all hidden fees and negotiate from there (and use the ticket price you got in the prior bullet to understand what venue price you can reasonably pay)
- get an initial base of people before you've even secured the event. this also helps litmus test if theres another party people are going to, if a surprising amount of people will be out of town, etc.
- Warm your relationship with the event owners as much as possible (ie hug them on every chance available)
- Add incentives for early committals (ticket prices will increase after X date, Y many tickets are sold, etc.)
- Add multiple hosts (they can be your friends) even if its just you hosting. Optimal number is just two hosts.
- multiple hosts makes the event seem more legit and well planned
- When you invite people yourself, it reduces chance of it coming across as 'I really need to cover costs'
- it invites the immediate network of every host to feel confident in RSVPing
- Specify who will play music. Ideally, have friends with stage names that sound cool even if theyve just mixed a few things / produced music casually
- Give yourself at least 2 hours to setup. Decorations, last minute details, and managing guest list takes a surprisingly long time.
- If you can, have someone greet people at the door. It immediately adds a level of intimacy and warmth to the event that is positive for vibe.
- Try to be visible with the benefits you are giving partygoers. Instead of buying drink tickets that go into a black hole, stand by the bar and pay for peoples drinks.
- People above age 25 really dont like partying with people 22 years or younger. Try to filter your guest list to people of a similar age category.
- Think about the most important / viral moments of your night. For new years, its the midnight countdown. Make sure you have an airtight plan for those important moments.
- It is actually not the best idea to give people straight hard alcohol. While you want people drunk and having a great time, giving a large party hard alcohol unregulated can quite often lead to someone getting too fcked up and throwing up, having a bad time, etc.
- Expect to not be able to 'find someone in 15 minutes'. If the party is big, you wont remember to go back to that person and continue your conversation. Expect to close off conversations in a definitive way - especially if you're hosting and many people are trying to get your attention.
- (partiful specific) have your friends RSVP with +5 (or even +9) to boost the number of attendees until you're approaching capacity, and then have people remove their fake RSVPs. Maximize the amount you do this up until people can really notice. keep the initial people cap lower than the actual capacity (ie if your space is for 300, tell people the cap is 200). Then, as you approach it, say that you talked with the venue owner and were able to negotiate it for 300.
- (partiful specific) Don't make the event open invite initially. It comes across as lame if discovered, and changes how the event is shown within the partiful 'upcoming' UI
- (partiful specific) Get early committals from people who are 'maybes' by telling them they can reserve a spot without paying yet, and you encourage them to do so to avoid the ticket prices going up
- Use playful language to make this seem fun and casual