What visual aspect of parties tickle your fancy the most?

[NHL Guy]

Nostalgic. We are soul mates i swear it! If you are in Sydney (as i am 'kinda guessing' U R..) we should go Bad PArty Bashing together s/time..
The following is a letter i wrote to 3DWORLD, (it wasnt published of course or i wouldnt be putting it in here) but it showcases why I despise the kind of people responsible for SHITE NITES like RushHour, the following was in answer to a pice in 3DWORLD a week earlier by a guy named Harlequin...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Which event was Harlequin talking about in Under the Mirror Ball? Cos it sure as shit was NOT RushHour.
"If you ever wondered what a rave was,..." then you were probably leaving Sydney Showground, at 7AM, Sunday24thJune, rather scattered and angry. My sincere congratulations however on so effectively describing the *BIGGEST* COCK-UP of people (mis)management I've seen this year as a positive thing: "Humongous lines of people all eager to get in…"? I mean c'mon, of course we were bloody 'eager' to get in. It was like -3Million degrees outside, and for every 1 person who actually joined the unbelievably long queue there were 10 of their inconsiderate friends who casually jumped/'joined' (which ever you prefer) a little further up. We arrived at 10:15 and didn't cross the security gates til 12:05.
There are many reasons why there was "plenty of room… to sit and chill out": -1) the much advertised "bonfire" and "jumping castle", that 'never were', left quite a bit of space for us to fill, -2) most of the thus-dissappointed, and slightly frozen ravers had left by 3AM, -3) those of us that stayed were PACKED into the, (and I'll HAVE to agree with you here), really badly decorated arenas, for fear of being transformed into frozen peking(peaking) ducks outside, if not for lack of options.
"If you didn't find something to dig then there is no pleasing you…" I'm sorry, (actually I'm NOT but its a nice phrase), but the only thing I found to 'dig' there was the fact that my friends were there. Yeah, 'Groovy' huh.
"[RUSH HOUR]was true rave style and everything promised was delivered. Well worth the entry fee 'cos the free rides were fab..." No, actually it wasn't. As I've already established, not everything promised was delivered. And the rides were freezing. It was a glorified night at sublime for me except @ X3 the price.
MODSQUARD I'm sure were 'laughing all the way to the bank' with my hard earned $53 that I'm quite pleased to announce was most decidedly the BIGGEST waste of money I've EVA had the displeasure of being parted from in my raving career. I WILL NOT be attending any RushHour, Hyperspeed, or MODSQUARD promoted events ever again. I'm on a break from the bikkies now as we all eagerly wait for UTOPIA, cos "RushHour" was f**ked more ways than a two-bit Bankok hooker.
-I found my dog… …it was making waffles.-
=K9=
[email protected]

 

[Pigsney]

Ok don't laugh but I have been thinking, how cool would it be to have a May Pole like structure at a partee.

 

[Airwalk]

I forgot one thing. I hate and I mean I really hate smoke machines. The smoke smells, gets in your eyes and just generally pisses me off everytime one goes off anywhere within 50m of me.
------------------
Reality is for those that cannot handle drugs!

 

[BigTrancer]

Here's my opinions:
If it's a cheap party (ie. $0-$10) among friends or a small crowd, I'd be happy to see a single spotlight and the decks set up on a sheet of corrugated iron balanced on 2 wheelie bins, whatever quality of sound is offered.

It's been done before, and it gives a real feeling of underground secrecy to the party.
If it's a more expensive gig (maybe $15-$30) with a larger crowd, say 500-1000+ then I think the organisers need to show some more effort. I think video screens are effective, either showing snippets of cartoons, or computer generated graphics. Visualiser style graphics that are connected in some way to the music (levels, bass, volume) always seem to work really well. Everyone seems to love lasers too. Few decorations around, maybe some banners with the name of the party/crew that's hosting it (so when people take photos they can remember which party it was at by seeing the banner in the background

)But that's about all I'd expect, even $30 isn't that expensive.
For a big party (say $40-60) then it's important to make people happy, and for anything $70+ with thousands of people, then go absolutely all out. Visuals are a must, lasers galore pointing at mirrorballs and reflective stuff, heaps of shit hanging from the roof and walls, DJs that have so much talent it's scary, and cameras projecting their images overlaying the computer visuals. Fluro stuff for the people that like fluro, industrial art/decor for those people, performance artists walking through the crowd, making it a huge production that people will say "I got my money's worth". That way the big dollar party with heaps of people can become a little world of it's own for 12 hours, an alternate reality to escape the real world.
In terms of decor, I like the idea of a real bomb-zone industrial disaster area. But that doesn't seem to fit very well with fluro decor and blacklights. Cold colours and twisted metal decor (which would be expensive no doubt). Even normal styrofoam cutouts of whatever is appropriate for the theme or event, wrapped in aluminium foil and then spraypainted black, grey, khaki, rusty brown, blue. To my mind that mood would create a hard-edged feeling of industrial abandonment that might be something different to the normal. Might scare some people off tho

BigTrancer

------------------
Load universe into cannon. Aim at brain. Shoot.

 

[[serotone]]

Kandeman: nah deal fell through...we're still most likely getting one though

Umm smoke machines are needed, thats what makes lasers look so good. Unless the air is dusty or smokefilled anyway, u won't see beams from scanners or lasers. I hate thick smoke, but thick smoke disperses straight away anyway....so yeah sorry about that. smoke machines will ALWAYS be there to annoy u. they piss me off too, but 10 seconds of annoyance is alright considering the effect theh fog in the air gives. HAze machines are much more discrete, and give the same effect and lasts much longer, but the fluid is expensive!
Umm also, lasers don't actually light up a room, contrary to popular belief. The brightest laser u'll ever see indoors will probably be 20 watts, and even thats crazy if you don't do it properly. that will be powerful enough to burn thru metal if focused, but its only in a beam. So you can have a dark room and a powerful as fuck laser but you it won't help you see anything much......it's the _other_ lighting effects like scans and moving heads that lighten up the room...oh and ultraviolet lighting too!

 

[Munchee]

Strobes... love dancing in strobes.