How To Throw Your Own Rave Party

We may earn a commission through affiliate links in this blog post, but we only recommend products we think help you plan a rave.

Choosing a Venue

When considering venues for your rave party, you'll need to keep some essential things in mind. You will need to ensure there are enough bathrooms for everyone attending. People will be drinking pretty heavily, so bathrooms get backed up fast. Consider how many people will be attending, and plan on having at least two bathrooms for your guests to use. Why not consider renting a portable outhouse, aka porta poddy? It's also crucial that the location you choose is relatively easy to find and allows for plenty of parking. If extra parking is not an option, you may consider renting a small bus and hiring someone to run shuttle trips to and from a selected parking area. Start planning on your venue booking, accessibility, and party details before considering anything else, as many of your decorations will depend on the available space in the venue.

Getting Out The Invitations

You'll likely want to use several outlets to put together a guest list for a big party like this. While your do-it-yourself rave might not be quite as crowded as your regular dance club nights, you should invite as many people as possible for the best experience. After all, this is a party of the ages. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be free and crazy for one night. Why not go big? You'll need to cover all available platforms, including social media, local discussion, and some custom printed flyers or invitations. You can commission an artist or go straight to Amazon and order this party invitation pack to make it easy. When creating a social media post, it's essential to ensure you're using the right tools to ensure you have the best turn-out possible. One of these is a visual aid. Using the correct method, this simple tool will grab the viewers' attention and direct them to the text above, which leads to the next essential tool, the hook. This initial line is the opening statement and should make an impactful first impression. It needs to be eye-catching, juicy, and exciting. If you're featuring an artist or performer, it might also be beneficial to mention them in your statement and your visual aid. A brilliant idea for throwing a party this size would be to create a group and host a Facebook event for the guest list. This allows all your friends to respond whether they will be attending or not and easily share the information to spread the word. If you have no artistic talent whatsoever and need help with visual aids and party flyers, you may commission an artist with experience in creating rave and party invitations and visual aids. Examples are this Etsy shop that makes digital invitations or these cool custom lanyard invitations we found. A great addition would be to send out these lanyards accompanied with glow necklaces to serve as "tickets" to the party and give your guests something fun to wear while they party.

Rave Party Decorations

Decorating a venue this big can be overwhelming, but luckily you have us to show you the ropes. In no time, you will be a wizard at throwing lavish parties. Generally, it's an excellent approach to fill your party space with bright, neon-colored props such as banners, streamers, lava lamps, glow sticks , glow balloons, glow-in-the-dark posters, black lights , and a disco ball, and even neon chalk. You may also want to get some help from your friends since you'll want to lay the decorations on hard. You may also want to consider appropriate and fashionable seating, such as these super trendy inflatable bean bag chairs. Some rave parties even go as far as hosting a dance room in their venue/cabin. When it comes to lighting for this space, double down on the black lights, add in some colored string lights around the main stage, as well as laser lights, and strobe lights - check out these strobes that flash to the beat of the music.For that trendy underground vibe, add a fog machine - we love this one that outputs fog in 13 different colors. Now that you have set the perfect scene for your centerpiece, you can install portable dance poles to tie it all together. It's also essential to have a solid DJ system and high-quality speakers. As we all know, no party is a party without good music that you can really feel. The best approach for this would be to purchase a DJ booth of your own here or hire a local artist to come out and DJ for you. If you're featuring a DJ, it's also smart to decorate on and around your sound system since this will essentially become your main dance floor. You can buy some rocking bluetooth speaker with flashing LED lights, which dance with the music . Some music genres to keep in mind when selecting tunes include but are certainly not limited to Pop, EDM (Electronic Dance Music), techno music, rap, and more. The most popular music for raves has shown to be electronic music, as many people find it nearly psychedelic, so be sure to include at least a few of those in your playlist!

What To Serve To Guests

Food and drink options will be the highlight of your party night. Everyone attending will be expecting a variety of alcoholic options as well as waters and punches. Generally, ravers tend to lean towards an open bar. However, we found some super cool drink options from the Tipsy Bartender for you to try out, such as this small budget Jungle Juice ! Not sure you're equipped to stock a full bar? Supply some of the essentials, including Vodka, Tequila, Rum, orange juice, Pineapple Juice, Grenadine, etc. Be sure to buy plenty, as this will be the secret to keeping your guests partying hard all night long. You may want to hire some help to serve alcohol, make fancy drinks, and check IDs, guaranteeing that everyone of age is getting a fair and safe amount of alcohol. For food options, consider options like pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries, etc. Most people can get behind these options, and they will provide a solid base for all of the alcohol your guests will soon be consuming. Be sure to have food available before guests start drinking heavily to avoid any downfall later. (Guests may become sick from alcohol faster if they drink on an empty stomach.) It's also practical to keep this in mind when setting up the general area for foot traffic, so make a point to put an open trash can in each room that guests will be dancing/celebrating in to ensure as little cleanup as possible. One super beneficial tip is to keep some tums/antiacids on hand for those with sensitive stomachs!

What to buy

As we mentioned above, you will likely soon find yourself at the store, looking to purchase party supplies of all sorts. Here, we have laid out a basic list for you to stick to, but keep an eye out for new and exciting props and decorations that will bring more life to your rave party! For decorations and music, be on the lookout for glow sticks, glow necklaces, strobe lights, dance floor props, a disco ball, fog machine, neon lights and posters, string lights, laser lights, bubble machines, black lights, lava lamps, glow in the dark decorations, bean bag chairs, disco pool lighting (If there is a pool at the venue), and more. Your best bet is to go to a party store and start from there, moving around the store and identifying what would look good as you see it. For cheaper food options, we recommend ordering pizzas, but be sure to stock up on fruit and vegetable dips for those who may have allergies or issues digesting cheese and bread. Fruit and vegetable trays can get very expensive, so it would be wise to make your own. If you don't know-how, we've included a link here to get you started.

Who To Hire

Hiring help for your party might be one of the most critical tasks for throwing a rave party. One necessary position is a door guard, especially if it will be a private party with a large guest list. Any time large gatherings take place with this much alcohol, fights tend to break out from time to time. You need to make sure that people attending are not bringing in any weapons to keep the environment safe and friendly. Have at least one person at the door, checking tickets and patting down for weapons. It's also smart to make sure a few bigger guys (or gals) can intervene and physically remove people if things start to go south between party-goers. As previously mentioned, you will also need people to serve drinks and check IDs. Plan ahead and have all of your staff ready to go before the day of the party to ensure that nothing goes wrong when the day arrives. If you're having trouble finding people to work these positions, you may find that going through a catering business will at least supply you with people who will serve food and drinks. As for bodyguards, you may try a third-party website like LSN and create a post hosting your position. These days, everyone is making music, so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding someone to DJ for your party. [However, if you're completely lost, we recommend this local artist:] If you have a high budget, you might even consider reaching out to other artists, such as pole and fire dancers, hoop girls, and other entertainment staff. Raves tend to have lots of flashy activities and live music and club-like lights, giving off a dance club impression. It's important to check off all of these boxes if you're looking to throw the party of the century, but luckily we have everything you need here in one place. Follow these rules and ideas we have laid out for you, and you'll be partying like it's 1999 in no time.

Time To Throw The Rave Party

Ready for an at-home rave party but not sure where to start? Maybe you want to go big and rent a venue for your event? We hope that this blog post has given you some helpful party ideas to throw your own rave with the right underground vibe. Invite your friends for the dancing event of the year. Certain aspects of rave parties are very pertinent, like the disco ball, strobe lights, electronic dance music, black lights, glow sticks and a fog machine. Don't forget to hire a cool DJ and someone for crowd control. Throwing a rave party with techno music and bomb lighting is a great way to bring your friends together!