How To Throw a Legendary Black Light Party

Out of all the different types of parties I’ve had the pleasure of attending, black light parties are easily one of my favorites. A black light party is exactly what it sounds like: you walk through the front door of a house or apartment into a room lit almost entirely with black lights. Luminescent partygoers dressed in all manner of glow-in-the-dark clothing and accessories shuffle around with neon drinks in hand while loud electronic music blares from the speakers. Inevitably, a friend of yours spots you and rushes up to draw on the back of your white shirt with a highlighter (don’t worry, it washes out), loudly assuring you that he’s not drawing anything lewd (pro-tip: they always are).

At some point, you may take a neon shot, dance in a swirl of lights and colors, or perhaps even try your hand at a game of glow-in-the-dark beer pong. Meeting people is incredibly easy at these things; there’s no better way to break the ice with someone than to go up and draw a luminescent masterpiece on their shirt.

All that being said, black light parties are a great deal of fun, but are they easy to throw?  For the absurdly high amount of awesomeness they provide, they’re surprisingly easy to put together. Below, I’ll detail a couple easy steps for how to throw a black light party.

Step one: Inform the guests!

Promotion is arguably one of the most important steps to throwing a successful party. Blast out a text, make a Facebook page, send out custom invitations, whatever. Be sure to do it all well in advance of the party. Include all the awe-inspiring details to hype it up, maybe a few pictures, and be sure to tell everyone to bring glow sticks and wear neon or white clothing for maximum black party awesomeness.

Step two: Gather Supplies

Every black light party requires the following: alcohol, plastic cups, highlighters, music & speakers, some neon tape, and of course, black lights. Depending on how big your party location is, you may need to buy more black lights; a small apartment could probably get away with two. People always seem to have one or two of these lying around, so ask your friends.

               

Alright, so you have the basic ingredients for an awesome black light party, but what things can you add to the mix to spice it up a bit? Tonic water should be first on your list – the stuff glows under the black lights! You can use it to mix alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. And of course, brightly-colored neon cups to go along with them would be great. If not, at least get clear plastic cups so people can actually see the liquid glowing inside.

              

The next step up the stairway to party heaven is to gather the necessary items for glow-in-the-dark drinking games. Beer Pong and Rage Cage are two of the mainstays, but you can get as creative with this as you want. You already have neon or clear plastic cups (get the big ones), so now you’re going to need glow-in-the-dark ping pong balls. You can find a pack of these at almost any Party City for about three bucks. Of course, you’ll need a surface upon which to play these games. That means some sort of table; one of your friends is bound to have one. In times of desperation, you can always detach your closet door and lay it across your kitchen counter.

               

These last items are the icing on the cake, the cherry on top of the sundae. With what you have so far, you can already throw a black light party to be remembered (or not), but add these in and you’re well on your way to becoming the next Van Wilder. To surpass the final rung of ascension to party godhood, you can add a fog machine, a laser light machine, a disco ball, and a couple strobe lights to your pre-party shopping list.

               
Alright, so you’ve gathered all the supplies for your black light party. Now, what to do with them?

  
Step three: Preparation

               
 First off, for the sake of preventing confusion you’ll want to use your neon tape to point people in the direction of the bathrooms. Place the tape on walls, tables, and corners to make them more easily visible and to prevent people from running into things. As with any party, I’d advise you to take anything valuable that can be broken or stolen and lock it up in one of your rooms. Set up your speakers and clear the floor in whichever space you’d like the dancing to happen. Next, you’ll want to cover all the windows with heavy curtains or black paper. You want the rooms to be as dark as possible to maximize the effectiveness of the black lights. You will then want to hang the black lights in strategic locations so as to maximize the amount of area they cover. If you must, tape the cords against the wall to prevent people from tripping. Lastly, scatter your highlighters around the room so people can draw funny pictures on each other!       

                 
 The next step is to start mixing drinks and setting them up somewhere where people can easily access them. Check out a couple fun alcoholic tonic water recipes; gin and tonic is the classic, but there are many more recipes that might be tastier. To save time, money, and effort, you might even go the glow-in-the-dark jungle juice route. For non-alcoholic drinks, you can simply mix tonic water with sprite or regular filtered water. This step can be done either as you’re setting up, or you can wait until people start arriving.

               

The lights are up, the windows are covered, the safety cautions are in place, and the drinks are mixed; now it’s time to set up your drinking games! For either Beer Pong or Rage Cage, line your table or playing surface with neon tape. You can as creative with this as you want; perhaps decorate the table with some glow-in-the-dark paint, or use the tape to outline the section of the playing surface in which the cups reside. Next, take the necessary amount of glowing drinks and set them up in whatever configuration your game requires.  Lastly, break out the glowing ping pong balls and get to playing!

               
If you decided that you wanted to go the extra mile and throw the black light party of the century, now you’ll need to set up all your extra lighting and equipment. You’ll want to put the fog and laser light machines both in the same room. If you’ve ever been laser tagging, you’ll understand why – with the fog in the room, you can actually see the lasers beaming through the air! As for the strobe lights and disco balls, the best place to put those would be wherever the dancing is happening. Once all is said and done, you should have a pretty luminous ambiance in your apartment.

  
Step four: Rage!

               

Your space is all set up – now the only thing left to do is wait until the guests arrive and have a blast! Be sure to have a few responsible people staying relatively sober to keep an eye on things and you’re set!

If you have any questions, comments, or ideas for how to make a black light party better, leave a comment below. Also, subscribe to my blog for more awesome content!