How do you have an awesome party?

Have someone cater it, or someone to help you with the food and drink and clean up.

Music is great, but also have areas people can get away from the music and talk without screaming.

Have a variety of music. I’m annoyed when I go to a dance party and all the music is music I hate. (I assume there will be dancing if you are having loud music).

If you want people to dance, be ready to get out there on the dance floor to get things started if no one is getting out there.

Don’t make the music so loud that people can’t talk – or have a room available that is more quiet. Be a good hostess and circulate. If you see someone that isn’t connecting to anyone, introduce them to a friend of yours or stop to chat with them. Make sure that liquor is around.

You don’t mention how well the people know each other, but if there are a lot of singles try to do a little match making, nothing overhanded but introduce the women to the guys so that the guys’ natural reluctance to speak to someone will have the ice broken and they can ask girls to dance. If you introduce three girls to two guys, a third guy will usually show up pretty quickly.

@janbb ” Make sure that liquor is around.” Good advice for a 16 year olds party :P

My motto for hosting parties is “Have something for everybody” A spot for the drinkers, the dancers, the loners, the lovers, the movie-watchers and video-game players, etc, etc. And yeah, some kind of catering would be great for 100+ people.

If you make it just one loud conglomerate of people drinking and dancing, a lot of others are going to feel uncomfortable.

Learn to control it too. Unless you seriously don’t care. But it’s no fun when people get hurt/dangerously intoxicated. It would also be a good idea, with so many people, to have a couple close friends act also as “semi-hosts” to help you out of something gets out of control.

What not to do:
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/south_bay&id=9134384

By having really awesome foods. No matter how great a party is, it seems that people will down grade it if the food is crappy. Have a huge selection of finger foods with great desserts.
I use to do that when my kids were growing up and their friends were not the dancing kind so food and games was always a hit. Even with adults.
Ever played the game spoons? It is an easy game to learn and relies on quick reflexes. Also a hit with adults and teens. No one ever wanted to leave so long as the game and food was still going on.
If you ever decide to play spoons, there is a quicker way to play. Do not have a card pile in the center. Simply have the same number of set cards as players and hand 4 out to every player. It takes to long to play the original way.

@uberbatman Oh – I meant “isn’t” around! That’s what I get for Fluthering after no sleep!

Usually when I’ve been too parties before , there’s never any proper food , just finger food so I don’t think I’d be getting any catering services! The same with having a section for people playing video games or something, Id want people to be social , that’s what parties are about and a lot of people will be drinking. A few of my friends are going to help me out and my brother and my parents are going to be there , but how do I make them keep to the background as much as possible? People are going to be smoking and all sorts and I don’t want them seeing that !

You can ask your parents to stay upstairs – or in their bedroom and just be on call if you need them. 100 people is a very ambitious party though!

100 people and you don’t want your parents to see what is going on? Sounds unrealistic to me. I guess some of your friends can sneak off to a corner somewhere to smoke and drink. I would recommend not smoking or drinking though. If you are in the US and the kids drink under 21 your parents will be legally responsible, let alone the children’s parents are trusting their kids will be in a safe environment. It is extremely disrespectful to your parents. If one of them gets drunk and God forbid gets in an accident driving home your parents could be in very big legal trouble. Even over 21 technically people can be responsible if the drinking happened on their property. They are responsible to not people leave in an unsafe condition.

Gotta make sure sure guests don’t trash your parents’ house.

I just went to a very nice party. The main living room in the house had a wood floor and they cleared all the furniture out to another room to make a dance floor and they set up a few tall small round tables you could stand around and put your drink down. The music played loudly in there and the TV screen in the room had a DVD playing with relevant photos for the party. They didn’t have to worry about loud music bothering neighbors because the music was inside. The back yard was a place to socialize and talk. They had two huge air conditioners they rented blowing cold air into the area (I am in FL) it helped keep mosquitos away and cooled the area. The food trays I think were from Costco and they were great! Hardly any of the crap food I hate at parties. They had platters of chickpea salad, marinated eggplant and mushrooms, tabouli, some crackers, cheeses, fruit, empanadas stuffed with meat or chicken, and they did have a caterer make a huge paella, but I know you won’t be doing anything like the paella being cooked there at the party. They also hired two of the neighbors kids (teens) to clear tables of trash and offer to help wherever they might notice somene needed help. They had a bar set up also, but had the water and beers in bottles set in bins with ice so people could easily take those without waiting on a line. It was a great party.