In fact, if you are organising one, you can start planning right away - beginning of course, with the theme. Your theme will dictate your menu, music, cocktails and your décor. Here are five trends we think will be influencing summer parties in 2020.
A Festival-Themed Extravaganza
The great Glastonbury Festival turns 50 this year. Which means it’s a good time to get stuck into a festival-themed party in earnest. Build a main stage and plan your headliners. Create festival posters or flyers to send out as invites (digital preferably) - with bands and DJs billed. Order in some hay bales and LED festoon, string up your fairy lights and install a fire pit. You can hire in a bar - or set up some batch cocktails in kilner jars and a keg of local beer so guests can help themselves. To decorate, think bold colours. Bunting, parasols, tassel garlands, lanterns and LED trees. A disco ball or two in the trees or above the dancefloor is a must.
Top Tip: Two areas of music will add a festival dimension - even if it’s simply a main stage by day and a marquee for late-night dancing. Multiple chill out zones, nooks and cosy, beautifully lit places to relax will enchant your guests.
Where The Wild Things Are
A natural - that is biophilic - theme is highly effective and very achievable. Surround yourself with nature for a natural high. It’s been proven that including elements of nature in the design of our surroundings can have a hugely positive impact on our wellbeing, creativity, productivity, health and happiness. The closer we are to the natural world, the happier we feel. So adorn the interior and exterior of your marquee in greenery and foliage. Hire in a few high impact plants and trees if your location isn’t blessed in the tree department. Day beds draped in plants, vines, air plants and climbers will make beautiful nooks for your guests to congregate in.
Top Tip: Weave in rustic elements of earthiness: hessian, raw cotton, sheepskins and pallet furniture, knotted, wany-edged wood, sprays of foraged dried herbs and flowers, textures and materials that reflect the natural environment.
Sci Fi Black Tie
Give your sci-fi theme a black-tie twist. Think futuristic glam; a party where nothing is quite as it seems. Think Cantina Bar meets Groucho’s. Swish and suave and slightly other-worldly. A lounge with LED bar and light-up dancefloor where robotic techno hypnotises your guests. Encourage fancy dress. Mulder and Skully would fit right in - as would the Stranger Things cast and the Men In Black. Think silver décor and interesting, futuristic lamps on low tables. Flying saucers and dry ice. Project some weird images onto canvas walls and even trees to cast an alien landscape.
Top Tip: Serve a batch of drinks which glow in black light. (Tonic actually glows under UV…)
Neon and UV
This theme relies on excellent lighting. Install a neon centrepiece, preferably spelling out something cute, under which your party will glow and effervesce. This theme also relies on full involvement from your guests’ in their attire. Neon bright dancers will be a shining example as they twirl under the UV lights. Mirrors and lasers, white furniture and a light-up bar. EL wire is a staple of the biggest neon party on the planet: Burning Man. Look to the desert at night for inspiration.
Top Tip: You can now source biodegradable glow sticks!
Arabian Nights
Transport your guests to an Arabian Palace. A plush and atmospheric haven filled with the scent of hookah pipes, where lanterns burn on tables draped in mirrored fabrics and velvet; a bohemian paradise where time loses all meaning. Our Arabian interior is a bold and exotic red patchwork evoking the warmth of the Arabian desert. It was designed to feel as if you’re inside a giant mirror ball, with thousands of mirrors bouncing light from the ceilings and walls. Simply add plants, incense and music.
Top Tip: Allow The Arabian Tent Company to transport you…
