Some sleep it off; some go for a night out with friends or simply hang out at home. But what they all unanimously enjoy is going to parties. [break]
Youth culture has always been an important part of any youth’s life, a part that they feel the most close to and connect to the best, and partying has blended in with the most recent youth culture.
With Kathmandu experiencing parties every week and the young crowd happily embracing them, there seems to be a new revolution in the party scene in Kathmandu.
Music has always helped shape minds. The older generations of young people loved Rock or Metal while R&B and Hip-Hop dominates the scene today.
And with music that works on heavy beats, R&B is the kind of music that makes people want to move to, and with young people connecting more with electronic club music, parties turn famous.
“The main attraction of these dance parties are the DJs and their music,” says 17-year-old Riaaj Narsingh Thapa, a student at Kendriya Vidhyalaya and an avid party organizer.
“The music has to be right; the people have to love it for the party to be a success. I think the rise in the party culture is because of the youths’ taste in R&B and hip-hop music,” he adds.
Social energy also comes into play while partying. These partygoers have a lot of social energy that they like to spend making new friends on the dance floor.
A time to make friends, these young people are always looking for new people to befriend and expand their social circle with, and meeting friends of friends can always help.
Dating also takes a vital role in the youth social life and people tend to attend parties also to find dates. What school fetes were for the 80s and 90s young, parties are for the current generation.
“People attend parties for various reasons but one of the main reasons is meeting the opposite sex,” says 21-year-old Samit Gurung, a graduate of A-Level from Chelsea International Academy.
“We don’t have a specific reason why we go to parties. It’s just a way of blowing off steam and meeting new people. Guys go to parties to meet new girls and girls attend parties to meet new guys and we end up making new friends,” he informs.
Another important part of youth culture has always been fashion, and parties provide the perfect platform for these youngsters to dress up.
Young girls tend to shop weeks ahead of scheduled parties, finding the perfect dress and the perfect look to flaunt. Guys have jumped on the fashion bandwagon as well, creating custom jewelry for themselves and designing original party clothes.
Parties, among other attractions, also give this informal fashion runway for young people to flaunt their clothes as well their bodies, not drifting too far from their comfort zone of close friends.
“We organize parties so that people have fun. Young people go through a lot everyday and partying is the easiest way to have fun,” says 18-year-old party organizer Bicky Shrestha, currently studying at Ace Institute of Management.
Like most of all youth-run events, parties work under personal contacts. Young people, usually having a large social circle, pressure each other into attending a friend’s party and since party organizers offer incentives to their friends, like a 10-ticket sale is subject to a free ticket, these parties seem to be packed to the brim with young people.
“When we organize parties, we put our social connections to the test. We don’t have any formal ways of advertising. We use our contacts and get them to bring their friends to the party. I tell one of my friends, he tells more of his and the chain grows. So many people come just from personal contacts and I think this is the reason for the blooming party industry, the youth energy and the youth community,” he adds.
Parents still seem pretty restrictive when it comes to parties and staying out late. But youngsters seem to find their way around. Some lie their way around it while others spend the night at a friend’s with liberal parents. Either way, the youth seem to find ways to get to a party that they really want to attend.
“I tell my parents I would be out on an official assignment from work or would spend the night at a friend’s house,” says 22-year-old Bhavana Joshi, a student at IEC School of Art & Fashion. “My parents let me stay out till nine at the latest, but parties won’t even have started up until then. So it is a norm for us to find ways around it,” she adds.
However, drinking and partying can sometimes turn ugly as well and these innocent young dance-parties can sometimes spiral into a drunken brawl.
Many parties at clubs on Durbar Marg end with swollen fists and broken jaws. Many of these fights result from indecent behavior to a female friend or a bloated ego.
“I’ve seen many dance parties ending in very serious fights but that’s just because people tend to drink at parties. Drinking is the primary cause why these young people fight against each other. But since most of my parties consist of my friends or friends of my friends, we just send someone who has drunk too much home. We’ve never had fights at any of our parties and I guess if you know how to handle the situation, you can control it,” says Bicky.
There may be various reasons for the boom in the party culture within the Valley but the primary reason remains the youth subculture.
Parties blend almost all of the interests of the new generation of young people, from music to fashion, and in a comfortable space.
The youth will always look for a culture that they can call their own and connect to the best, and partying just seems to be the culture for these young partygoers today.
“I think this party culture came to Nepal from the western countries,” says 30-year-old Prabudha Jung Khadka, Managing Director at Red Carpet Nepal, adding, “When the partying trend first came to Nepal, there weren’t any decent clubs or DJs who could perform well. It started when Nepali youngsters living abroad saw this culture, exposed themselves to it and decided to bring it back home. The culture here is highly influenced by the western party culture although there are a lot of restrictions getting implemented now, like the restriction on partying after midnight or the campaign against drunken driving. All these restrictions are bound to affect the party culture here.”
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