Entertainment takes many forms, but people get tired of doing the same things over and over, so they stop coming over. Why not spice it up with a new way to entertain your friends/guests to keep them coming back for more? A dance party is nothing fancy, but throwing a dance party radically different than anything they’ve ever seen before will keep your friends coming back and wanting more. So how do you throw the ultimate dance party?

Step 1: Ideal Location

First, you need to have a venue that is inviting and exciting. You could just use a house or a basement, but why not try something new? Check out if there are any ballrooms or empty office buildings that you could use. There are a couple of staple necessities for the venue. Electricity. Make sure you have adequate and accessible outlets. You need to make sure nobody will complain about the loud noise, so check out sound ordinances in the area before you get in a lot of trouble and create an awkward end to such a hyped-up party. You also need a bathroom for your guests; it’s just convenient. It gets overwhelmingly hot in a cramped space, so make sure the venue has access to windows and doors to keep air flowing through the dancing space. Another major necessity is plenty of parking. People can’t come to your dance party if they can’t get there, so make sure your guests have adequate parking room. Lastly, make sure that your venue is not too small, but also make sure you invite enough people to make it full because a lot of extra space is awkward.

Step 2: Spread the Word

Knowing your venue space will tell you how many people you should invite. The people make the party a party, so know your crowd/audience. There are many ways to invite people with the internet. No more handing out flyers or advertisements, simply put it into an evite. In this evite, make sure you include all the information so your invitees know exactly what you are doing. And if your venue is exciting, then they need all the information because they are yearning to come to your party. The product will speak for itself on most occasions, so make you invitation attractive. You could even add a promo video to keep them satisfied and entertained until the actual party.

Step 3: Playlist

This is arguably the least emphasized and acknowledged, but easily the most important aspect of throwing the best dance party. Music is what will set your party above everyone else’s events. Finding the right music takes time, so you should start putting some playlists together a couple months ahead. It is easy to tell whether a playlist was thought about or thrown together. Your guests will feel more special and included if they know you put a lot of thought and preparation into your playlist. Make sure to include new songs that are fun, along with a decent amount of throwback songs that everyone will love. Mix up the selection with songs everyone can sing out loud, then switch to a song that they can dance to. There is an absurd amount of accessible music for you to choose from, so it is worth the time and effort to make an excellent playlist catered directly to your guests.

Step 4: Lighting

Lighting is another important tool to make your party stand out above the rest. You don’t need the light show of a professional DJ to blow the crowds expectations, all you need is control. If you can control when your lights turn on and off, you can control the energy of the dancefloor. Instead of just leaving the lights on or flashing the entire time, try to feed them all into a controllable power strip. For dancing songs, they want to see themselves and watch others dance, so for this you want some laser lights, or a beam light. For any song with a drop, you want to casually black out the lights on the buildup, then as soon as the drop hits, you introduce some strobe lights, and the crowd will go nuts. You just took a normal dance party to the next level, and people will notice that. It’s little triggers like that that influence your friends to come back and to want more.

Step 5: Audio/Speakers

Your music needs to be loud to pump up your crowd. Again, you don’t need expensive DJ equipment to make it loud, all you need is creativity. There is a way to hook multiple speakers together or you can send your output to multiple systems for simplicity. It is essential that the speakers are strategically placed around the room. The dancers will gravitate toward the speakers, so placing them up front is another way to control the energy of the crowd and keep them close together. Spreading the speakers out all along the front will ensure that every person in the crowd can hear it clearly and loudly from anywhere in the venue. Surround sound is not the ideal setup for a dance party. You don’t want to cause feedback in the speakers and hear that piercing screech, so keep it simple and face all the speakers in the same direction toward the crowd.

Step 6: Entertainment

This party is entertaining, but people get tired, so make sure there are other amenities available for your guests when they take breaks. In another room, or even outside, you should place a table with an assortment of snacks or drinks. One way to make it known is to hook a microphone into your system. From the front, you can communicate to the crowd where the snacks are or where the bathrooms are located. Use your microphone strategically to entertain the crowd. In between songs, you can use it to hype up the next song, or to fit in a joke. This is not the most important part of your party, but it can take a normal party and make it amazing.

All in all, you can go as simple as you please with a dance party, but these six steps transform your party into something they’ve never experienced. It takes a little more work and set up then a typical party, but your guests will feel loved and important when they know that you put time and effort into entertaining them for a night. They will come back for more if you let them know how special they are to you. Use these steps, and your own creativity to throw the most exciting dance party for everybody you know.