An intimate crowd showed up for “Promiscuous,” a Y2K-themed dance party, in the International Ballroom of the Bruce Pitman Center on Saturday, Nov. 15. The party ran from 8 p.m. until midnight.
Around 200 tickets were distributed for the party, according to the University of Idaho’s cultural events ticketing manager, Brynn Hartley. However, at no point in the night were there more than 35 or 40 people. The majority of eventgoers attended in the first two hours of the party, with around 10 people being present by 11 p.m.
This said, the attendees seemed to have a good time. At various points in the night, most or all of the eventgoers formed a large circle to dance in; later in the night, the remaining people briefly formed a line.
“I’m in love with the 2000s music, so I was down for dancing or going with friends,” said Mercedes Johnson, a junior pre-veterinarian major. “It was not what I was expecting. Not a lot of people, but it was still fun, how we all got together and made the best of it.”
“Promiscuous” was part of the “Sorry for Party Rocking” tribute parties occurring across the western United States this month, though they have been thrown in other parts of the country in the past. The parties focus on 2000s pop music and feature the music of artists such as Justin Timberlake, Rihanna and Gwen Stefani.
“We had challenges with… getting marketing out there. We had a very quick turn-around on this one. We weren’t informed about it until three weeks out… [and the] standard for concerts… is they’re booked, like, [in] February for August or September,” said Hartley. “We’re experimenting with what we can pull off with that time range.”
This was perhaps the smallest of the recent parties thrown. While most of the parties were conducted in cities such as Seattle or Portland, this one was marketed as specific to UI on the Sorry for Party Rocking Instagram page. Most groups that attended the event seemed to hear about it from the advertisements put out on Instagram.
“I thought it was fun. I think they had good music, the DJ was a good choice, the light show was awesome. The smoke was a little bit much, but overall, I’d say it went well,” said Kalli Sorber, a 2016 UI graduate that had worked at UI in the past. She had heard about it through one of her friends, who’d read about it in the employee newsletter.
The crowd was mostly composed of women studying at UI, but several more general community members such as Sorber, as well as several men, also attended. They all shared a nostalgia for the 2000s or, at the very least, a willingness to appreciate the time period. Partiers could be observed singing an impressive amount of the lyrics to many songs.
Alcohol was available for purchase by those of age, and Chick-fil-A catered the event.
“We’re hoping to engage students more with campus and just get more entertainment available for them on campus for a low price, more experiences when you’re in college,” said Hartley. “Places where you can bond with people from all different parts of campus.”
Cal Torres can be reached at [email protected]