The Party (demo party)

The Party (or "TP", for short) was an annual demoscene event held from 1991 to 2002 in Denmark. It was one of the first events of its kind and set the trend for many other demoscene parties in Europe.

The early years

The first edition of The Party began at the MesseCenteret in Aars, Denmark, on December 26, 1991. Only Amiga demo groups were involved in organizing the party: Crystal (a cracking group which spun off Melon Dezign), The Silents, and Anarchy. Attendance was near double what was expected. The top three winners in the Amiga demo competition were "Hardwired", "Voyage", and "Odyssey".

In 1992, The Party 2, which was actually called "The Final" due to uncertainty of The Party's future, attracted an even more overwhelming number of demosceners. The Amiga organization remained the same, but PC and C64 sceners started to attend and create their own compos. The Amiga demo compo winner was "State of the Art". A 40k intro competition was held for the first time. "Facts of Life" won the PC demo competition in a ruling contested by Future Crew, the runners-up and compo organizers, because no voting actually took place. Jesper Kyd performed at The Party regularly. [ [http://jesperkyd.com/about/history_92.html KYD ] ]

Expansion

hift in platforms

In 1993, The Party moved to the Herning Messecenter in Herning. Lemon. and Spaceballs took over Amiga organizing. The PC side had a full, separate set of competitions. There were many arguments between the Amiga and PC organizers, with the PC side threatening to secede and start their own party in 1994. The threat became empty as The Party remained multi-platform. The Party moved again in 1995 to Fredericia before returning to Aars from 1996 until its demise. The PC scene visitors gradually outnumbered the Amiga scene visitors who dominated the early years.

hift in scenes

With 3000 visitors and rising, The Party started attracting elements outside of the demo scene. In the early 1990s, rave culture exploded in Denmark, and kids found The Party to be a fun place to dance and blast music. They mostly coincided peacefully with the demo sceners, but in 1995, a rave in the sleeping hall sparked numerous complaints.

With the release of "Doom" just weeks before The Party 3 in 1993, network gaming became an overnight sensation, transforming part of the event into the first major LAN party. Through the 1990s, the gaming element of The Party steadily grew while the demoscene element remained stagnant.

The final years

By 2000, much of the demo scene had abandoned The Party in favor of other demo parties taking place around the same time. Amiga sceners formed a smaller alternative called TRSAC ("The Real Scene After Christmas"), while C64 and PC sceners started tUM ("the Ultimate Meeting") in Germany. It was the winning 64k intro from Farbrausch, "FR-08: .the .product", that briefly drew demoscene attention back to The Party and gave the organizers enough hope to declare the next party's motto "Back To The Roots". But that promise fell flat as demosceners saw little effort to back it. Sceners complained about constant harassment by both the local security people (who would constantly search their bags for alcohol) and gamers (who would complain about the compos being too loud). The competitions in 2002 were abandoned to the point where all demos and intros were combined into one compo. The Party was cancelled the following year, and to date, has not reopened.

Competition winners

References

* Scenery Amiga at Exotica [http://www.exotica.org.uk/info/scenery/online/editorial.html]

External links

* [http://www.theparty.dk/ The Party - official (ex-)site]
* [http://www.pouet.net/party.php?which=45 The Party] on Pouët
* [http://www.kebby.org/articles/tp8rep.html Better HAVE a life after Christmas] - an article about The Party 1998's failures "(not to be taken entirely seriously, as it was written under the guise of a "fake group" infamous for its arrogance)"
* [http://www.slengpung.com/v3/show_text.php?id=4676 Partyreport of The Party 2001] by Sobec / Speckdrumm at Slengpung (also features a lot of criticism to the party)
* [http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rbUgbhBoiI4 A demo from 1991 Jesper Kyd did the music for]