One of the biggest lessons you learn in your second year of university is that the club really isn’t the be-all and end-all of a good social life. When the music is the same as it was last year, the drinks are two pounds more expensive, and everyone is younger than you, you start looking for something different, cheaper, and less… fresher. Enter the flat party. Friday. Marchmont. Bring your friends. Dress as a cowboy? That last part seems to be becoming a standard for flat party invitations – apparently, they all have a theme now.
The Wild West, under the sea, Y2K, and pyjamas are all themes I have heard floating around so far this year. Nobody seems to be throwing a flat party without some sort of gimmick attached to it. But why is this happening? One reason is the social benefits. Flat parties are naturally more intimate than the club, given that they allow for real conversation – don’t bother trying to get to know someone on the Bongo’s dancefloor – and a lot more alcohol for less, so a theme just eases the tension a bit. I know I find complimenting someone’s costume a lot less awkward than the standard rigmarole of asking them how they know the host.
The other reason is far more complex. As Gen-Z culture increasingly values performativity and niche references, themed flat parties might be its new victim. On TikTok, the trend where themed party attendees guess who amongst them will get the drunkest has become a standard video format; everyone will have seen a ‘dress as your favourite album cover’ party where ‘Animal’ by Kesha or ‘Born to Die’ by Lana del Rey was predicted to drink the most. What makes these videos so successful are the absurdly niche themes, meticulously detailed costumes, and performances of attendees which go beyond just dressing up.
There’s a concerning loss of authenticity here though. It’s all well and good getting a viral TikTok from your flat party, but should it really be the whole reason you throw it in the first place? Trying to live in the moment when the moment has been entirely manufactured is getting pretty exhausting.
It’s also expensive. Not to mention wasteful. For my Halloween costumes alone, I ended up buying three new tops, a rhinestone belt, a blonde wig, hair paint, and two sets of coloured contact lenses – none of which I have looked at since October. I even bought a 3D Printed Pear Phone for my Freddie Benson look. Admittedly, I didn’t get invited to any flat parties asking everyone to dress as iCarly characters – that was my choice – but the pressure to be original was certainly one I felt I had to live up to.
Maybe the flat party themes you’ll dress to this year won’t be quite as niche as some of the ones on TikTok right now, but the warning signs are definitely there. For now, reinventing a cowboy costume every semester is hard enough.
Image by Egor Ivlev on Unsplash