A couple of years ago, freshers’ parties were all about fun performances by seniors and classmates, games which made getting to know each other easier, some delectable snacks and good music, either in a classroom or at the college auditorium. But today, things have changed, and how! Seniors now book a venue outside the campus — from lounges to hotel banquet halls- and hire professional DJs to welcome their juniors in style.
However, not many are as keen about having a freshers’ party at the club or an extravagant venue. Interacting in the dimly lit nightclubs hardly give them an opportunity to get to know each other on a personal level. Despite having clicked selfies in the clubs, people fail to recognize each other in the campus the next morning. Here is a guide for the seniors to retrieve the old-school freshers’ party with some new-age ideas.
Decide on Games that Everyone can Enjoy.
Games in freshers’ parties are supposed to act as ice-breakers and might lay good foundation for friendship between juniors and seniors and also amongst the juniors. Make a group of 2-3 freshers and give them a difficult pose to perform and hold that pose for thirty seconds. This freshers’ party game shows teamwork among the students. Who knows, maybe this games is where they will find their partner for a class assignment or project.
Performances and Hosting:
Assign a person the task of hosting the event. The host has to keep the atmosphere light and funny, and must keep everyone at ease. Ensure that the host does not emphasise on dramatic rhetoric and keeps his/her oration as casual and natural as possible. As for the performances, you may decide on 3-4 dance performances on upbeat tracks, or any singing or stand-up acts. If you have a lengthy array of performances, the freshers wouldn’t get an opportunity to interact with each other and that would defeat the very purpose of holding a freshers’ party.
TItles:
If you plan on giving titles, choose titles that anyone and everyone would have an equal chance at winning. The problem with a ‘Miss Best Dressed’ or a ‘Miss Beautiful’ is that while the former induces unhealthy competition in students who are fresh out of school, the latter complies to fixed standards of beauty established by society. Following are few examples of some interesting titles for a freshers’ party:
– Alice in Wonderland (keeps wondering)
– Arya Stark (little but fierce)
– Joey (loves food, has pizza on his/her mind)
– Monica (obsessed with cleanliness)
-The Biggest Bumble Bee (Flirt)
– Miss Daffodil Dewdrops (someone who is gentle and quiet)
– Twinkle Toes (someone who is up and about all the time)
– Mr./Ms. Frenzy (someone who is always in a frantic state)
Theme and Dress Code:
Gone are the days when freshers’ parties would be themed around Harry Potter or Halloween. You can get a lot of inspirations from Bollywood Movies for the freshers’ party. You can either do a quick search on movies that are trending and copy their themes from props to fashion, or you can go back to the classics- Harem pants of Kareena in Jab We Met and GAP hoodie of Shahrukh Khan in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.
Sure about becoming an Engineer? Or a Businessman? Let the freshers think about their future roles and dress accordingly. One can either take it seriously or find a hilarious costume to make someone laugh. Another interesting theme can be that each guest dresses as another person they know (a friend, a professor, or a senior), and emulates their characteristics for the day. The trick would be to guess who has come dressed as who. To make your party one of the most elaborate ever, you can also put in some effort and arrange different areas of the venue as different parts of the world (e.g. if the area adjacent to the water cooler is arranged as China, the seating arrangement can be done in exclusive Japanese traditions) and ask the guests to dress according to one of the places, and serve drinks and play music that is specific to that place.
While organising the freshers’ party, make sure that the activities you choose are such that they keep the freshers in the spotlight and help them realize that the rest aren’t strangers, just friends yet to be discovered.
Feature Image Credits: DU Beat
Vaibhavi Sharma Pathak