Hindustan Times
The magic of a good party
Everyone knows the difference between a good and a bad party.
But few of us know how to make a party good – as a host. Now that it’s party time in Mumbai and the ‘season’ has begun, there are plenty of parties to attend. But how can we make sure the ones we hold are good?
A good party is one that you remember for years, had chemistry and a magic that is difficult to describe…(a bit like a good relationship).
A bad party is one that didn’t meet your expectations, where you were bored and spent it wishing you were at home…
Actually, many parties fit the latter category.
So what on earth is the magic ingredient?
I saw Taking Woodstock, the latest film by Focus Features, directed by Ang Lee, at the weekend. And weirdly it had a lot of the answers.
You see most people would agree that Woodstock was the ultimate party. This is what the film taught me:-
A good party is one with little or no hype.
Woodstock was intended as a party for a mere 5,000. No one anticipated it would attract half a million people.
The festival was organised in an underground manner. There was little hype, unlike many New Year’s Eve parties I have attended over the years…which have not lived up to expectations – despite the promise…
NY Eve 1999 was the biggest disappointment on the planet. Apart from the fact the world was supposed to end, and computers crash (neither of which happened), the parties in London were overhyped and did not deliver.
I will never forget discussing NY Eve 1999 for hours with my friend. We went to the Thames in London to see the fireworks.
The atmosphere was non existant
There was a crowd of strangers. Noone spoke. Midnight came and went and nothing happened.
No one kissed us or offered us a drink and we were just caught in one mad crush.
I have been to several parties and events in Mumbai like this that have been overhyped…When you get there, there is no ambience…..and you wonder what you paid Rs1,500 plus for..
Tip: Never promise anything e.g do not say ‘it will be a party you won’t forget’. Just announce a date and time and leave the rest a mystery (as Woodstock kinda did)
It is not overtly commercial
Ideally the organisers make no money out of it. How many nights out have you had ruined because the bouncers didn’t let you in; you were forced to queue; or you or your friend got beaten up? So many nightclubs in Mumbai and London have forgotten the point of partying is to enjoy oneself and instead made it downright miserable..yet if it wasn’t for us the partygoers, they wouldn’t have a business!. Woodstock was about people meeting people and meeting minds. Yet some organised parties in Mumbai have so many commercial sponsors, they are ruined from the outset. There is no spirit left in then.
I have been to parties in Mumbai where I can’t get anything than beer or vodka (owing to whoever the sponsor is) and I trip over huge cardboard cut out adverts of brands the minute I enter. Hardly hip..
On the contrary, I recently organised an expat paty in Mumbai with a friend. It was a huge success, surprisingly so. More than 500 people came. We promoted it on Facebook and a few social networking sites and that was enough to pull the crowd. Some people said we should charge next time….And I refuse..The minute you start trying to make money out of having a party the vibe is lost.. Forget about making money, a party shouldn’t be a commercial exercise – a commercial party is an oxymoron.
One of the best parties of my life was during a trip in Morocco when a friend and I hooked up with some Moroccoans. We took some drums, guitars, hip flasks and hookah pipes to a piece of land near a riverbank. We stayed up all night singing to music, smoking hookah, laughing and drinking. There was no DJ, no nightclub and no entry fee.
A good party often evolves into something it wasn’t intended to be at the outset
This is exactly what happened with Woodstock; with the famous parties in Goa; with the so-called rave parties in the UK in the 80s (please note the word rave does not refer to drug-taking but an undergound party movement . It took off in the UK in the 90s and referred to large parties held in fields and warehouses there, (as opposed to nightclubs) , that were spread through word of mouth or mobile phones and people only knew of the venues a few hours in advance. The word is completely misused in India); the first few Glastonburys fitted this mould, but now Glastonbury has become more commercial.
Remember the secret of Woodstcok was it a seed that sprouted…Don’t try and control everything.
Tip: Invite 10 times more people than you want and cater for and expect 10 per cent of who you invite to be there.
It is not about the music or entertainment, but the personal experience each guest has (which is probably more about who they met/pulled and how they felt)
This is where the film Taking Woodstock excels. It does not cover a single band that played at Woodstock, even though music is allegedly what Woodstock was about. Rather it focuses on the experiences of individuals there – inside their tents, smoking, chatting, meeting new people, the mud, the toilets, getting lost – those are what most people spend their time doing at rock festivals (even at Glastonbury) rather than diligently following the programme and going to watch bands perform. In fact it is only if that experience (the tent and chatting one) was good, you go away enjoying it.
In the same way someone sightseeing who sees every sight, will not have a good time. But if a tourist hooks up with cool people, and has fun, albeit drinking coffee in a coffee shop all day, and does not see a single sight, they will go away having had a good holiday.
This is all covered in the Hollywood flick My Life in Ruins.
Deep down everyone wants to be wild – to flirt, dance and so on – make sure that happens. Single people want to go home with a phone number.
At Oxford there would be these annual balls and people would push tickets and sell them to all the students.
I frequently went but never really enjoyed myself. Sure there were all these activities like funfair rides, massages, ventriloquists, bands… but not enough fun…not enough connecting….
Yet the first time I went to Glastobury aged 15 was amazing….and it was all about getting drunk, cooking on gas canisters in our tent, wandering around at 5am, getting covered in mud, queuing for the disgusting toilets…not the bands….same as Woodstock.
It is also about the crowd
I don’t mean the beautiful crowd, but the interesting crowd.
A friend of mine in Mumbai went to a house party at the weekend and left early.
He was bored. “I’m sick of that post partying crowd,” he said. “None of them are interesting.”
I remember once too growing tired of the partying scene. There was a certain group of people that looked good but were not interesting.
I have discovered you have to hunt out your own niche places and circles in Mumbai….
Don’t underestimate the power of the mobile on the night
At the expat party I recently organised with a friend in a bar, we had no idea how many people would show up. We didn’t really promote it that much and didn’t say too much about how it would be…we subtly promoted it though on various expat websites…and finally about 500 people came, lots of known faces, and everyone had an amazing time…There was that magical chemistry there….How did we do it? I don’t know. If I were to hold another, it could be rubbish…But I do know that lots of people there were texting friends to come…The power of the mobile phone cannot be underestimated in Mumbai.
…If a party is good, people text their friends…and vice versa… hence why places fall empty.
Have surprises
Have surprises e.g. a live band/discounted drinks and other entertainment. Don’t tell people everything on the flyer. For example, have champagne as a surprise – don’t tell people in advance. Make them feel like they leave having ‘got a good deal.’ And be hospitable. You are in the hospitality business when you throw a party after all.
By the way I am yet to work out why there has not been a Woodstock in India? There is a rumour of one happening every year in Goa – but it remains just that a rumour.
I-rock is hardly comparable: it is a single day event held on separate days and ends at 10pm
A rock festival means you camp for three days, get covered in mud and stare at the stars – that is what I want to see in India. Anyone know why there isn’t one…?
(7 votes, average: 2.86 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Naomi Canton on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Filed under Mumbai · Tagged Ang Lee, hindustan times, London, Mumbai, news, NY Eve 1999, party, Taking Woodstock, thames, ultimate party
Woodstock sounds amazing. Obviously I don’t have any answer to your question but yeah it must be a fun altogether. But you know what I feel, is that, what makes a party amazing is the company of the people you are with. If you are going there just for the sake of going there without having the company of your friends who are of the same frquency as you are, no matter how amazing the place is, and how amazing the party is, you are not going to enjoy. I really enjoyed my stay in wisconsin, though that place was pretty small and not many clubs but we used to enjoy like anything as all of my friends were like me, fun loving, flirt loving. But now m in Phoeninx which is a big city unlike Appleton having some amazing clubs, but I don’t have any good company here, so I feel so lonely even amidst a huge crowd.
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Naomi Reply:
October 15th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
where is Wisoncsin? Is it in the USA? Where is Appleton?
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Mick Reply:
October 15th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
I met some people from Wissconsin and I asked exactly the same tongue in cheek loverly people.
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Sharat Reply:
October 16th, 2009 at 1:58 am
yup, Appleton is the City and Wisconsin is the State, Its famous for three things namely Cheese, Beer and Lots of Snow
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mick Reply:
October 16th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
American beer is a poor imitation of PEE except an IPA brewed in Alaska called Alaskan Amber. This is in my opinion as good if not better than any English IPA. I also met an old guy from the I think S Carolina who made his own cider I didn’t relise this sort of thing went on in the states.
Hmm as to why there hasn’t been a woodstock in India is probably because there could nver be another one, we did it with two Isle of Wight’s I went to the second where the ambience was as close as was possible to experiencing something completely new. I suppose where/when ever you do it you expierence that freedom but glastonbury is to controled that spontinaity is not there anymore. But I really don’t think it would work in India just look at Goa my impression of a lot of the westerners there are one that I would avoid at any festival anywhere. I think the East Anglian fairs were the best thing to come out of that and once again the sort of people who get to Goa spoilt them. Oh and to hear the Chief Counstable of Hampshire say that they the police had had less trouble with the 500.000 of us than they had with a normal Saturday football match at portsmouth was pretty good almost as good as Jimi Hendrix.
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Naomi Reply:
October 15th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Right now there is a serial killer in Goa who has so far killed 10 people….That state is getting ruined by all these crimes…
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Mick Reply:
October 15th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
whats that got to do with music
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Naomi Reply:
October 15th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
I agree Glastonbury is losing its soul. When I first went to it, it was full of college students and hippies. Now it is just advertising executives and investment bankers, as they are the only ones who can afford the tickets.
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Mick Reply:
October 15th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
I should have looked at this before writing the below.
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Might want to check out this – Dhanaulti Rock Fest – Held in a town called Dhanaulti in my home state Uttaranchal…. i havent been there but heard a lot about it… believe its organised by a Brit… and is quite like India’s Woodstock..not too sure if it still continues…but you might like it
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Small is the way to go with this sort of thing 50-100 thousand, but then you have the ticket cost, at todays exchange rate a weekend ticket to glastonbury would cost 9000rps and thats with only ONE really big name. So i doubt there are many teenage Indians who could aford that, also there’s the consessions with a one off you don’t have to worry, but give it a couple of years and you get people who “Do festivals” and given enough time and this is dominated by fast food sellers, speaking from experience organising funding and working on the East Anglian fairs it takes about 4yrs for good small ethnic people to be driven out by Burger sellers some with green efforts made but at the end of the day the great god profit and the wrong friends these sort of people eventually take over. I expect the same would happen there. But don’t let that stop people trying, I think it’s had it’s day here Glastonbury is pathetic the people who buy out the tickets within 24hrs arn’t the hippies of woodstock/IoW or the 67′ summer of luv but are the cluded up product of them hippies etc, they are clean and organised I had to comment on a pic being used on Virgin media homepage regarding “revellers, mud and Glastonbury” this group of scantilly dressed younggirl appear to be having a problem crossing this muddy patch unfortunatly one of these girls appears by the hand marks just to have had mud smeared over the front of her you can see the finger marks and there’s no attempt to conceal this staged pic. Anyone who understands a little about dairy farming also knows that it’s not possible that those fields are back in production before the next mass invassion. If it wasn’t for that festival Mr Evaes? would have left dairy farming years ago, if not then certainly this year. Oh and don’t get me started on the reunions that seem to happen in the run up to the Festival season god they were no good in the first place, now it’s coming up to Christmass and please I know you won’t believe this but there’s rumours of another reunion of the Spice Girls, and on that note I will go and have alie down in a dark room
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I don’t know what to call ‘Woodstock’. You certainly can’t call it a party. It was a phenomenon which can happen only once in a lifetime sort of a thing. You cannot replicate it after forty years. In the aftermath of Woodstock not every person had the same thing to say about the event. It may have attracted half a million people but more than ninety five percent of the people were high on eiter ganja, THC or heroin. More than seventy five percent of people slept through the event and can’t remember what happened. Pandit Ravi Shankar, one of the participants, said he was disillusioned with the event. Jimmy Hendrix, synonimous with event commited suicide within a year of it. As mentioned by Mick, there cannot be another Woodstock. You cannot replicate it anytime anywhere. Why single out Goa ? What made it an event that it was, can be more than a topic for post doctoral thesis. The good music it produced will always live. Good music lives inspite of the event.
As far as a good party is concerned anything pleasantly surprising will always click !
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mick Reply:
October 16th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Course it was a party, a slightly better one was held in Norwich between 1979-1985 in a street called Argyle St. 62 houses approx 200 squatters now that was a party.
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that should be Love, peace & GOOD music
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OK that’s really all that needs to be said about Woodstock except he’s a misunderstood little bird and i can’t understand why he likes perching on a kennel.
Obviously the crowd problems and security are a problem as is the logistics of such an event. Before i go further I will explain why Glastonbury has become the sellout thing it is and i mean sellout in the worst way. We had shall we say a sort of tradition that some festivals were free in every sense of the word they weren’t that good but there was a place at them for the sort of people who object to paying and usually have long winded vocal reasons that they will share with all and sundry. As you can imagine there was a lot of drugs at these and other festivals. Enter the Peace Convoy a group of people who were the dregs of the drug culture who lived in buses and trucks and they would invade peoples property with their buses etc. In Wales there was a guy and his friends living in Teepee’s in a valley they had been there for years. The peace convoy which went from festival to festival decided to over winter in this welsh valley within a few weeks they had caused big problem and all of these people were run out of wales basically at gun point I’m not kidding. So there was a famous battle between these people and the police it is known as the Battle of the bean-field. After this Thatcher passed a law called the public order act. This is a law that covers just about anything. This was/is used along with the health and Safety laws to stop festivals in this country. About this time just after in-fact Thatchers minions went and had a chat with Mr Eveas at worthy farm basically telling him to cease and desist from putting on festivals He said once again this is the gist of it **** OFF I own this land and I’ll do what i like on it. This is why they have miles of big fences and why the tickets are sold as they are. The media said all of this is to stop gatecrashers that’s rubbish it’s punishment for defying Thatcher. So basically if you want to put a festival on here you need either to own the land or have a very sympathetic landowner. Would I want to put on anything of that size in India in a word NO. Just imagine half a million people with Delhi Belly. Now something like the best East Anglian fairs now that would be good and interesting.
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Nutsure Reply:
October 16th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Talking of the festivals we have Kumbh Mela. 70 million people visit the place. It rotates between Prayag, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik. There have been times when 5 million people have visited on a single day. The atmosphere is very charged. You will find people on drugs but they are a miniscule minority. Music, dance, street theatre is present but not on the scale of Woodstock. Arranging Kumbh or Ardha Kumbh is an act where almost people from every sphere are involved. Over the years it has gathered monumental proportion. No ownership of land is required. It is a public affair with tacit support from the local and central administration. I will disagree with your last line about putting anything of that size in India. Kumbh will be held in Prayag (Allahabad) in 2010. India has that tradition. Kumbh became a noun centuries before Woodstock. It is a party where everyone is invited without tickets.
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mick Reply:
October 17th, 2009 at 11:29 am
I’m aware of the Kumba mela but that is a religious festival we were lucky enough to have the BBC film the main 12yr? one. But the local entertainer of all sorts and local people with locally produced crafts is the way to go small the fairs I have talked about are lucky if 5-10 thousand over the weekend go but this is the easiest to control and set up still take time and experience to do this. There used to be a book in print called “Build your own Barsham” this was written in the early 70’s I think. Also there’s a book called “The sun in the East” written by R Barnes this just about explains it. If I may quote from the opening. “I looked to the East, to the high sun and saw a tower on a toft, finely built with a deep dale beneath, a dungeon there and deep dark ditches, a dreadful sight…
Between them I found a FAIR FIELD (my caps). Full of folk, of all manner of men, the mean and the rich, working and wandering as the world demanded.
From William Langlands(1330-1370) “Vision of Peirs Plowman”
But nutsure the main thing is to have vast amounts of fun without harm to any living thing and by this fun enrich the lives of others. Our fairs will go down in history as doing just that my small part in them is just part of life’s rich tapestry. Yes I know the Melas have millions attend them. But I was meaning lots of western festival goers.
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Naomi Reply:
October 17th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
You are probably right that the Kumbh Mela is the closest thing that Mumbai has to Woodstock. Interestingly, I went to the Pushkcar camel fair the other year – and it was amazing! I reall enjoyed it and it was pretty well organsied, with plenty of police, fire engines and ambulances parked near the ground, as you would find at festivals in the UK.
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mick Reply:
October 17th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Saw a thing about that on tele a while ago. Yeah but put that sort of effort into building a small festival with outlets for artists and craftsmen mix travellers with these people get ideas lots of travelers are creative.
mick Reply:
October 17th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
I was in the middle of writing that and it posted it concluded. Just for the young though I don’t know how that would be tolerated.
Good things are never planned… they just happen !!… similarly in my opinion good parties are never planned. They just happen… like Woodstock was never planned the way it turned out to be.
Cheers
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I recently interviewed Brian Tellis, chairman of event management company Fountainhead, about Woodstock. He went to the 30th anniversary of Woodstock held in New York state in 1999.
He said: ” Iwent to the 30th anniversary of Woodstock in 1999 at the Griffith airport space. There were two main stages with bands on at until midnight and lots of breaking acts playing until the morning.
Headline acts include Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Everyone camped outside, just like the original Woodstock, for three days. People partied all night. Of course, there were some drugs, but it was not about that – it was about the music and the experience, bonding and hanging out together. There were lots of topless people and wet T shirt contests but it was about meeting new faces.
So many acts were born at the original Woodstcok like Joe Cocker and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. At that time there was a spirit of rebellion whereas India was still very much a closed mould but the music of peace knows no boundaries
I believe there have been a couple of efforts to hold a Woodstock here in India but I don’t know why it hasn’t taken off. I remember in 1971 soon after Woodstock there was a festival in Malavli, near Mumai. But Orange Juice and Fountainhead are planning an Open Sky Festival next year , which will be a camp-out festival….”
I also spoke to Anuradha Pal, the Indian tabla Player, who performed at Woodstock 2008 in Poland, of all places.
She said: “I performed at Woodstock last year in Poland in a tiny place called Kostrzyn and played to 4.5 lakh people.
I think I was the first Indian woman to ever perform at Woodstock. It was an incredible experience. We were the only group from India playing and when we went on stage we got such a wonderful response, despite the fact it was an uninitiated crowd. We even did an encore and I cried. Everyone was camping with friends and partying, although I stayed in a hotel! They were all rolling in mud and beer. I think it had the same spirit as the ’69 Woodstock.
That festival was important for Indian musicians as Ravi Shankar and Ustad Alla Rakha, played at it.
It was about the whole environment that was created and the culture of music. In terms of similar festivals, well there hasn’t been anything like the 69 one in terms of size here in India, nor have we had world music festivals, but there are many good Indian music festivals such as the Doberlane Festival in Kolkata; the Sawaji Gandharva Festival in Pune and the Kalidas Festival. I would say our freedom struggle was greater than any rebellion anywhere. We don’t need a musical revolution either for two reasons. Firsly, we have great music festivals across the country and secondly our music is not about rebellion
In India we have a long-standing tradition of organising music festivals actually, but in the last 10 years, especially since 9/11 they have been seriously hit by security issues. When I was at school and I went to the Pune Festival, there were 40,000 people and now there are 10,000. So the reason is security and not any lack of interest. It used to be all night and now it ends at 10pm. The music that developed in the west tended to be about rebelling and reflect frustration whereas in India we are a very resilient nation and we look at life spiritually So, for us music is a spiritual element of life. It’s about lyrics connecting you with God, so we don’t have rebellion in music here. I don’t know why they hasn’t been a Woodstock in India yet.
Maybe it’s because the country is so highly populated and so it’s difficult to find the space so many people can come to, and there would be logistical problems getting all the infrastructure to the outbacks.
In India we have a long-standing tradition of organising music festivals.
People used to camp but now they don’t for security reasons. I think camping could work: it depends on how you manage and organise things. Indians are very participative and love that special feeling you get from a festival.
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With such a big country customs etc differ but with such big urban centres it’s difficult for me to visualise the sort of nakedness and free love there was at Woodstock but hey who knows theres lots of very beautiful women over there so if someone does discide to emulate Woodstock could yu let me know. Ta
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Well the people you interviewed were referring really to that part of the 60’s between 67 and Altmont when everyone looked at the diamond sky with one hand waving free. Yes it was nice love and peace while the good music was written. Then Manson all this against the background of Vietnam. In England we drifted into the strike and union ridden mid to late 70’s, still a few festivals but the god profit and the rise of the criminal element in the drug scene, gave way to what I described earlier. Dennis says earlier that good things are never planned, well Dennis some of the best fairs and festivals I’ve worked on or attended as a punter I know took at least 12 months of planning it is that that makes things just right for the epiphany that Naomi experienced.
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Been busy on this thing all day so might as well end with a memory from the last fair i work on. We with the land owner used their 13 acre garden from the family old house that long ago was demolished 1948. It had a walled garden with 500 other acres of prime north Norfolk form land.
Anyway this site was laid out for horse grazing with groups of trees mixed pine and broad leaf. We had done this before then we look at one of these groups and thought that if we jacked up this big branch that horses used to scratch their backs on there would be enough space for a small stage with built in solid tables and a kitchen plus bar which is what we did with the right site crew you can do anything. So on the first day I any standing in the doorway with a pint of beer cause my work is done listening to peoples comments when two young couples came in and one guy said look they have cut that big branch off another tree and nailed it up on this one” well I did explain how we had done this and that it had taken a week and both afternoons there would be acts for kids and families and evening and later for grownups. Yes it makes the effort worth while but for me that was part of 6 weeks work living in a field.
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Naomi thanks for a chance to wallow in nostalgia but I think it’s time you did something that I might not have an opinion or know something about. just one last thing I think this must be true to all music lovers every were whether it is Beethoven or Oasis there are some pieces of music that for you define an era and you just have to hear it and you get goose pimps. For me the some that sums up the Woodstock era is “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane the opening bars heard unexpectedly can cause a distortion in the warp and weave of time it’s self!!
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