How To Party

A party (noun) is a gathering of people to have a good time. To party (verb) is to have a good time with other people. What many do not realize, is that partying is actually a skill - you have to know how to party to start a good party. In this post I will dispense some party theory that I have developed from my experiences at burning man and other similar events.

A party is a gathering of people having a good time. The first thing to note, is the degree of good time, you might be having. A party can be high energy or low energy. A low energy party can still be very nice, but the interesting thing about a high energy party is it's ability to grow. If you can get a couple of high energy party people other people coming near them will start laughing and having a good time. This will have the effect of further empowering the engines of your party, and hopefully also raising the energy to such point that the guests could continue partying even with the original party starters removed (or passed out - please remember partying too hard can be hazardous)

The another aspect is the openness of the gathering. If the party is at your house or apartment, the guests are probably the people you invited and their friends. But at an event such as buring man, it's possible to have a mobile party. This gives you the ability to move around and find new "guests" and absorb them into your party, increasing it's power, and thus it's ability to swallow "guests". If you have enough party power to absorb a gathering of at least three people at once while staying recognisably the same party, then arguably your party just ate another party!

Mobile parties can merge together, or become stationary if they find some really fun immovable object. Parties can also split, but usually this is to be avoided, although it may be necessary to bud a sub-party off, for example to gather party supplies. Just be careful they do not get captured in another party!

A party is not all fun and games! The are certain technical requirements to having a good time! The guests will require food and drink to maintain their energy levels and they also must not get too hot or cold! Of course, someone getting hurt can also ruin a good party. Running a good party requires some degree of planning and logistics and a healthy degree of improvisation once the party has started (and is now successfully out of control)

Burning man is a fractical party. There are 70,000 people, but it does not feel like they are all at one party. Instead there are many parties. There are a few parties with thousands of people, and thousands of parties with just a few people. You can move between parties and they can dynamically combine. Something loud and fun can cause thousands of people to gather (such as a band playing) then when that ends that energy dissapates and those party people flow out and become entangled in other parties.

If you have thousands of people at your party you will need electrical generators and sound systems and lighting and paramedics, if you have just a few people you can improvise everything and have a few snacks.