Born in the 80s: party people!!

Bright neon colours - Madonna's 'Like a prayer' - shoulder pads - vibrant disco -light sparkles - 'Grease lightning' - wild hair - King of Pop's 'Thriller' - GLITTER - leopard look - Prince's 'Kiss' - Claridge - Brussels - 26th of March 2011! What?! This is not the first thing that comes to mind? In that case you definitely missed the marvellous, not to say groovy, 80s party that the outgoing liaison/stage committee organised.

Why even have an 80s party?

According to Grégoire, former member of the Court of Auditors, the idea behind the whole party was that most of the about 550 stagiaires attending the party were born in the 80s – therefore everybody can identify with this freaky and colourful decade.

Moreover: The music is just great! It is impossible not to start dancing or singing along as the lyrics infiltrate your brain. The partygoers truly picked up the 80s atmosphere, with our freshly elected stage committee member Tessa describing the event as a great success. A video screened on the walls of the venue portrayed all new members of the Stage Committee, including the auditors – and of course everybody suited up, as you'd expect for very important persons ;-)

The glittering girls and burgeoning boys

As regards the 80s style, the girls were undeniably the most creative! Their outfits were a veritable homage to crazy pink tank tops, screaming black & white patterns, stylish sunglasses, tight leather tops, glitter and quiffs! Even Pedro Almodovar films were a source of inspiration for some Spanish girls, making them look adorably 80s-like. Well, this probably simply confirms that "Girls just wanna have fun".

However, although harder to find, there were indeed also some "Wild Boys". For example a guy who can only be described as "Bon Jovi meets Van Halen" (including fake tattoos!) and two others imitating the 'sexy' sporty style of the 80s as if they had jumped straight out of an aerobics video.

Theme party?!

One thing to keep in mind: A theme party means that guests are invited to take part in the theme - so next time, don't be shy: it does not hurt to dress up a little! To be fair though, many guests not dressed in 80s attire are excused, as nobody thought about bringing suitable clothes from home – now that's something the European Commission definitely should have mentioned in one of their many pre-arrival e-mails!

Challenge accepted!

Even the infamous Spanish librarian David Arribe, who you may remember from the opening conference in Flagey, made an appearance.  He took up his favourite spot on one of the 4 boxes on the dance floor dressed up in a racy shoulder-revealing cut-out coca-cola shirt! Maybe he will continue to attend each and every party of the following stages too? Although he would not say which 80s party he liked better - this one or the winter stage's one. Presumably you adapt to exclusively making diplomatic statements while working in the Commission.

Solidarity!

Amidst all the party crowd, the solidarity committee did a great job in the cloakroom - many, many thanks to all the volunteers! Originally, the cloakroom staff had been scheduled to rotate every hour. However, in order to handle the massive turnout, one of them, Ruth, ended up lugging coats and bags for a full 6 hours, with not a minute left to dance…

Yet her efforts and those of her colleagues were not in vain – your clothing items secured the first 540 Euros for the project in Madagascar. Next time there will be a more visible note – please feel free to donate for the good cause if you think it is acceptable to spend a little more than 1 Euro.

How to sum up this great event?! It was well organised, expectations fulfilled, brilliant venue, decent DJ! An easy way to put it: the first five minutes were better than the entire Welcome Party at Fuse... If the level increases like this with every party, you should definitely not miss the next one!

Lea Kulick,
DG MOVE (the name says it all)