Hi, I’m DJ Blijwin. Every year I provide more than 100 group 8 discos, so I have a lot of experience in organizing such a party for this target group. Please share below 10 tips so that your son/daughter’s party will be unforgettable. These tips are relevant both if you hire me but also if you decide to take matters into your own hands.
1. Give one 8 group party
Group 8 is over, and then we need to celebrate. Before you know it, you have 6 barbecues, 3 disco parties and a sleepover. That’s a lot of arrangement for everyone (including the parents) and it just doesn’t fit all schedules. Result? Sometimes half of the girls are missing and other times the one classmate you had yet to ask to go steady because you’ve had a secret crush on him since the fourth grade isn’t there.
Therefore, try to combine parties. Have a party with all your friends and girlfriends and make it legendary. That way your budget is higher, you can schedule a date when everyone can n it’s easier to organize. Both for you and for the parents. And a barbecue is great to combine with a disco and a sleepover. Ultimate solution: make it a class scavenger hunt where you cycle from location to location: barbecue at someone’s house with a big garden, disco at someone’s house with their own business or at school and the sleepover…. which can literally go anywhere 🙂
2. Have the final party together
This tip continues where the previous class party tip ended: give it together.
A disco party can cost quite a bit: venue, DJ, food and drinks, decorations…. It will soon cost more than your parents are willing to pay. How do you solve that? By celebrating together. That way, your parents can share costs, your budget is higher and therefore your party will be much more fun. And the anticipation together with your friends/friends is priceless!
Free bonus tip: Use an app to easily share expenses, for example Slice or Prepay Together.
3. Buy a great outfit and make a great entrance
Now that you are going to organize your grade 8 disco together with your best friends/friends, you can take advantage of this nicely. Match outfits (you can wear the same outfit or all put on the same hat) and come up with an awesome entrance! While your guests are already waiting at the disco you are still hiding with confetti poppers at the ready. With the DJ you agreed on what music you would like to come in to. The music starts, you enter, there’s confetti…. and everyone is cheering!
4. Make up the best theme ever
Original it does not have to be, by the way, as long as it is the best theme. What works well? NEON, for example. Arrange a blacklight (Blijwin can provide one at the grade 8 disco) and everyone lights up. Not only that, if you decorated it properly everything lights up!
Cheap decorating? Tape off the room with garbage bags (then it’s dark right away) and paint on there with NEON paint, which is super cheap, you can paint anything you want and it looks super cool!
Bonus tip: don’t cut the garbage bags open but leave them closed. That way you can use them again and it will be extra dark.
5. Create an invitation with the perfect photo
Not unimportant of course, now that you are going to organize it with your group of friends it might get a little confusing for your classmates from whom the invitation comes and a whole list of names does not look so cozy. So take a fun group photo (preferably in your theme, of course) and use it as an invitation.
Extra tip: clearly put the times on your invitation! Some people always come too early (which is really not convenient, the DJ might still be building up) or way too late (and thus miss your perfect entrance). Not fun! Therefore, put on your invitation a walk-in time, a start time (and then you really have to be inside) and an end time. Do you like all the parents to be there as well? Then clearly put a time on the invitation. Because if all those parents are already there halfway through the party and you just want to go slow….. awkward!
6. Avoid the gift mountain
Is this grade 8 disco also your last children’s party? Then the kids might assume they need to bring a whole mountain of gifts for you and your friends/friends. That sounds fun, but you get all these little gifts that all have to be unwrapped. Did you know that unwrapping a gift takes an average of one minute? There goes half an hour of your fantastically put-together grade 8 disco. That really is a super shame! Therefore, ask for money and make a bowl, letterbox or something else for each birthday person with the birthday person’s name on it. That way you all get your own portion!
Would you prefer gifts anyway? On the invitation, ask your guests to write two names on the gift: their own and yours, the recipient. Create a beautiful gift table… After the party, the second party begins: you can open the presents! And because the senders’ names are on the gifts, you can thank everyone personally.
7. Keep your final party’s appetizers simple
Everyone stands screaming their lungs out and completely out of their minds. Of course, that makes you a little hungry. Most important tip: keep it simple. Two bowls of chips, a mountain of cherry tomatoes and 8 sliced cucumbers is enough! Most people are left with food after a disco!
8. Longer is not better!
A disco party is quite exhausting. The DJ will have you dancing, swinging and jumping throughout the party! How do you make sure that goes well from beginning to end? By not letting it take too long. A group 8 disco of up to 2.5 / 3 hours is the most fun. Long enough to dance to all the music you like, and not too long so that you have enough energy to dance to all the music.
Extra tip: Be sure to include fun disco games and group 8 battles during the disco! Are you hiring me? Then that’s completely taken care of, Blijwin’s disco is a combination of disco, battles and all the music you like.
9. The earlier during grade 8 the better
That, of course, is not about timing. In terms of times, for example, you can be fine with 8:00pm-22:30pm.
No, this is about date planning. The earlier you get there the more people can. And that’s important not only for your classmates (who all have busy schedules with sports, clubs, etc.) but also for, say, a DJ you need to hire. Did you know that last June/July, Blijwin had to sell no on a specific date 33 times? We don’t like to do that but full = full. Therefore, be early in planning your grade 8 disco; it is not at all crazy to start thinking about it now (February). Even if you don’t give it until May/June/July.
Also, you certainly don’t have to wait until May/June/July. After all, it’s super fun to be the first in your class to throw a grade 8 party (and if the first one is a success, more are sure to follow). Want to be sure of a year’s worth of partying? Then plan the disco party earlier in the school year.
10. Get everyone’s picture taken
A grade 8 disco is the beginning of your farewell or part of your farewell. Saying goodbye is never fun, but it helps to capture the memories!
Arrange for an adult with SLR camera…. or opt for a Photobooth (also read: Why your grade 8 disco can’t go without a photobooth).
Since at your grade 8 disco the whole group is present, this is the time for some fun photos!
Bonus tip: Leave phones at home!
And a bonus tip: leave the phones at home. Cell phones can be very disruptive to the atmosphere and involvement of the party: something you absolutely want to avoid. Two problems from phones:
- The kids have an escape; it’s very easy to just grab your phone and go gaming if you don’t like a specific song. That’s a shame, because even then nice things happen
- Filming/Shaming: Children may start filming each other while they are dancing making them feel insecure or watched. This is absolutely detrimental to the atmosphere.
These were Blijwin’s tips for your most awesome grade 8 disco! Maybe you can help someone with them, maybe they are super interesting for yourself…. Either way: the best grade 8 party you can book with DiscoDieren!
Perhaps you have additional tips of your own for a great class party? Please let us know.
Want to hire a DJ from DiscoDieren for your grade 8 disco? Please contact: team@discodieren.nl
