Responsibilities | The Spread | Setting Up | Crowd Control | Promotion
Party Safe
- Close all access to your roof or cliff. Make sure no one
climbs over the fence to pee or "get a better view" because, as you may
well know, people don’t have great balance when they’re drunk. Try to
avoid being stuck in a very bad situation.
- If one of your friends likes to party too hard, let him or
her know that you don’t want to have to take care of them all night. No
one wants to embarrass
themselves or be a burden, plus they’ll probably have a
better time at the party
if they remember it.
- Be cautious of drinking games. There are many other games
you can play where the
main objective is not to drink, and they are just as fun. It
doesn’t mean you can’t
drink while you play them, but it will keep people from
drinking too fast and will
get people to socialize more.
- If you notice someone appearing very drunk early on, call
9-1-1, as s/he may have
been slipped a predator drug (e.g., roofie, GHB). Even the
biggest lightweight isn’t
going to be falling-over drunk after one or two drinks, so
make sure you keep an
eye on your guests’ safety.
- Remember over-indulgence of alcohol or any drug can lead to
risky situation (read
our information about serving alcohol and the signs of
alcohol poisoning).
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Responsibilities
- You are responsible for the safety and welfare of all your
guests, including the
random people that found their way into your home. You can
be held liable for anyone
in your home, so make sure everyone is alright.
- Keep in mind that drinking under the age of 21 is illegal,
so you might want to
check identification at the door.
- Be aware of who is in your house. Strangers are more likely
to start fights and
out-of-towners are more likely to over-drink, so make sure
you keep an eye on everyone.
- Make sure you know the laws that apply to you. If you can
prevent anything that
might attract police or get you into trouble, you have
probably thrown a good party.
- Keep in mind the restrictions on your lease. There may be
certain things that you
can’t do and if you get caught, you can get kicked out of
your house or possibly
fined.
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The Spread
- Provide food
for your guests. Food prevents people from
drinking on an empty stomach. Avoid salty food though - thirsty
guests tend to drink
more.
- Serve non-alcoholic beverages mocktails.
Try to buy quality non-alcoholic
beverages instead of the cheapest ones you can find. People should
not feel pressured
to drink only alcohol.
- When deciding on mixers for drinks, try to stick with
non-carbonated
bases like fruit juice, so the alcohol is absorbed at a slower rate.
And again,
make sure someone is keeping track of how much people are drinking
because mixers
obviously mask the taste of alcohol and may cause people to drink
more.
- Serve
alcohol in closed containers instead of large open bowls of "jungle
juice." It is
much more difficult for people to drug closed containers, keeping
your guests safer.
- If you decide to get a keg, make sure it has a registration tag
on it all the
time. Don’t tear if off, even if the keg is empty and your party was
2 weeks ago.
If found, kegs without the tag can result in hefty fines.
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Setting Up
- 21+ signs on the front door don’t help your case with the
police. You’re
not fooling anyone and a paper sign written in marker does not
absolve you of responsibility.
- Hanging a tarp and using it as a gate does not close the
party off to the police.
It is a violation of the fire code and the police are more likely to
approach your
party.
- If there is not a gate separating back patios from the
street, they are
considered public property. This includes those ocean-side patios
all along DP,
so keep that in mind when you are throwing a party.
- If a keg is visible from the
street, the police can enter your house under the party nuisance
ordinance. This
means that they don’t have to knock before they come in so don’t
argue; it won’t
help your case.
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Crowd Control
- Plan how people will be getting in and out of the party and
where you want them to be once they’re in. Restricting the entrance and
exit
to one door will make it easier to regulate foot traffic. Also,
section off the
parts of the house you want to keep private.
- Consider getting a bouncer. It will
keep away random party-goers and make the party safer and more fun. A
bouncer can
also keep track of who is leaving and make sure they have a safe way
of getting
home and are not too drunk.
- Instead of having guests mix their own drinks, have
a bartender mix them who can limit the amount of alcohol in each
drink. It will
make the alcohol last longer and keep the drunkest person in the
house from pouring
a red cup full of vodka. The drunker they get, the more it seems
some people want
to drink. Intervene if someone is overly intoxicated, hostile, or
loudly insulting
other people.
- Establish a set end time to the party. If you don’t, then
people
will stay as long as they want and no one wants to host a party that
they themselves
are tired of.
- Make sure to lock the doors when everyone leaves. Sometimes
you
get those strange guests that like what they see during the party
and want to come
back and take it when everyone has gone to sleep.
- Brainstorm an "evacuation plan"
in case your party gets out of hand.
- Give unwanted partygoers a warning first
and give them the chance to stop what they are doing. Just in case,
program the
Isla
Vista Foot Patrol (805) 681-4179 in your cell in the event you may
need backup.
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Promotion
- Don’t advertise an open party on Facebook. If your
intent is not to get tons of random freeloaders looking for some
free drinks, then
stay away from Facebook or make it a "closed" event. Odds are,
you’re not friends
with all your friends’ friends so don’t advertise it for them.
- Don’t make alcohol
the main theme of the event. People go to parties to socialize, not
to drink. If
you promote alcohol as the main reason for the party, then that is
what you’re going
to get. A party that no one really remembers will probably not be
remembered as
a good party.
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