The first challenge then, is to create an
event that everyone wants to be at.
But if you are thinking further than your
nose, this very phenomenon is also your biggest threat in
the long term.
Maybe I should explain this irony.
The organisers of these parties have very
real financial implications to consider. It costs a lot
of money produce a really good party.
For various reasons, most of them inevitably get caught
up in the financial trap, and sooner or later, all they
really care about is making as much money as possible. In
some cases, all they can afford to care about is to not
lose money.
So you come up with an original, classy
and entertaining concept, and you attract a small but really
nice crowd of people. They have a great time and
start talking about the party, creating the elusive ‘word-of-mouth’
phenomenon. And the party grows.
But that word-of-mouth does not stop with the nice
people.
Sooner or later, dick tom and mary hears about it and also
want to be at the next party, and inevitably dick tom and
mary’s friends and their friends are all at the party.
But dick’s friends are barely 16-years-old,
tom’s friends are drug dealers, mary’s friends
steal people’s bags at parties, and they all get so
drunk that they puke all over the place, including on the
sidewalk right outside the venue. When they are blind drunk
they also tend to attack each other with bottles, broken
glasses and sometimes even tables.
So the nice people start staying
away, and soon your brilliant concept is more like Boxing
Day at the pavilion, and eventually it fizzles out, or the
cops close you down, or the drug dealers’ bosses offers
you protection, or you are simply bankrupt.
The Mo’City Style Party aims at avoiding
that cycle by producing a great party, with brilliant entertainment,
good service and a really really nice crowd of
people.
I don’t care if there aren’t thousands of people
at the parties, and I do not intend losing sight of the
goalpost.
So how am I going to achieve that you ask?
For starters…..
No ladies free until 11pm, no bring your own bottle, no
guest list, no rand-a-brand and no complimentary tickets
distributed en masse.
Then…….
Brilliant entertainment.
Not the stuff that you see at every club and party all the
time. Exciting and vibrant entertainment that is actually
entertaining to the ear, the eye, the body, the heart,
the soul and the dancing feet.
And then….
Instead of taking the sponsor’s money to entertain
the same list of so-called VIPs at every party - the same
lot who don’t go to any party unless they are on the
VIP list for free entry, free snacks and most of all free
drinks – I am going to spend that money entertaining
a different group of ordinary - nice - party people
at each party.
I am going to give them the royal treatment, the VIP invitations,
the wristbands, the snacks, the free drinks and the VIP
access.
Btw. I can define nice, but that
would take an entire post.
And, if you are not on the list, then expect
to pay to get in, and then you may just be on the list for
the next party.
When I set the cover charge at R80pp, everyone
- and I mean everyone - tried to convince me that I was
crazy.
The club owners, the sponsors and even my working partner.
‘People will never pay R80’ they said.
‘People are used to getting in free’
they said ‘The nice people don’t ever pay
at parties’ they said. ‘This is not
Joburg’ they said.
Well, if you want class, then be prepared
to pay for it Cape Town.
And if you are not prepared to pay, then by all means, pack
your cooler box, don your Man United T-shirt and Jack Purcells
and head for the Wicked Wednesdays, Thumping Thursdays,
Flirty Fridays, Sexy Saturdays and Sizzling Sundays that
are happening all over the place.
Just get there before 11.
Braveheart you say?
It takes balls to change things, but I am convinced that
I am not alone.
So, if you are out there nice people,
visit
the Mo’City Style group page on Facebook.
You may just get lucky and win VIP tickets to come and check
it out for yourself on Friday 29 October at Club 91, Stadium
on Main in Claremont.
As for the entertainment, I am a musician,
and I have been working with DJs in clubs for years.
Traditional Healer is going to rock you to your roots.
That’s a promise.
