The End of Days: Throwing a great graduation party

How to throw a great graduation party

With everyone currently knee-deep in the mire of dissertations, essays, and the inevitable exam preparation, the idea of any kind of end-of-year celebration can seem like a mere caffeine-induced hallucination. But if you’re serious about throwing a massive party to celebrate the end of your time at university, it might be worth considering a bit of planning in advance, if only to avoid the potential of sitting in Platt Fields Park with a multipack of cider, facing the yawning risk of unemployabilty ahead of you. Here are a few things that you might like to consider

Whether or not to have a theme

As tempting as it may be to theme it an End of Days party, it might not seem so funny when everyone’s six pints down, have realised the gravity of the situation and are sobbing about never seeing everyone again. Themed parties where you make everyone dress up can often go one of two ways: Either everyone gets really into it or really can’t be bothered. Make your own mind up on what the mood is likely to be amongst your friends, but after a long period of work, don’t be surprised if your insistence for fancy dress results in some very grumpy looking ‘cereal killers’ covered in the contents of their recycling box.

Where to have it

This seems like an obvious one, since whenever anyone holds a party it’s generally at their own house. However, with everyone’s rent period coming to an end, most people will be subject to house inspections from their landlords and most likely will lose their deposit if there’s damage. Either you can be willing to risk the clean up, and could perhaps move some of your things out early so there’s more space, or you could ask some of your friends who are sticking around for another year if you could have it at their house.

Massive piss up vs ‘special occasion’

Since this is likely the last time that you’ll be able to fill a massive house with loads of shouting, hammered people who you vaguely know, you might want to make the best of it and spend the evening as you would any other house party. Someone will go home with their course mate, someone will vom in a bush out the back, and things will inevitably get broken. However, if you want to herald in a new era of sophisticated gatherings, then consider having some food on the side and maybe decorating a bit. Perhaps stick up some photos from your time at uni around the house.

To eat or not to eat

Leading on from the possibility of potentially having food, consider carefully what kind of food you would serve. A safe bet is to trek to the desolate wasteland of a retail park where Iceland is and end up with hundreds of cocktail sausages and scotch eggs, half-defrosted on the side and probably accidentally covered in someone’s discarded rum by the end of the night. Perhaps even more dangerous, though, is to get overly-invested in the notion of ‘being a grown-up’ in your culinary offerings and ending up with hummus, avocado, and prawn cocktail smeared all over your walls.

It doesn’t really matter what you decide to do in the end, ultimately it’s just an excuse to get together with all the friends that you’ve made in your time at uni and celebrate the fact that you’ve somehow managed to make it through to the end of this wondrous academic experience. See you at the Curry Mile Job Centre on Monday?