How to Throw a Successful Teen Rave Party

Rave parties are all the rave. A teen rave party is as easy to put together as it looks but there are a few tips and tricks to making it rave-a-licious. Sure things should glow in the dark, be neon and include techno music but to have a truly successful teen rave you need to go a bit beyond that and I'm going to tell you how.

Invitations - In order for party guests to expect a real rave the invitations must be as exciting as the party itself. Don't bother searching stores for them because you won't find any real good ones; only lame ones. Either design your own rave party invitations with photoshop or download the ones I made from the link at the bottom of this article. My invitations are free to download and pretty cheap to print and laminate. Plus they rock!

All about blacklights- blacklights you purchase from the Spirit Halloween store aren't good for rave parties. They don't have a big enough radius to really make things glow. Even the blacklight lamp fixtures don't have enough strength to make things glow. My advice is to look online and purchase screw-in black lights in bulk. Then spend some time searching for the best deal on a Wildfire brand blacklight setup.

Aside from blacklights you should have at least 2 light shows for your rave party. The reason you need 2 of them is because light shows must be turned off every 15 minutes so they don't overheat and start a fire. Two light shows allow you to alternate between light shows so that there is never a moment without them. A professional light show with awesome pulsing effects called the Double Derby can be purchased at Cheap DJ Gear for $60.

Oh and don't forget to get a few strobe lights. Yes I said a FEW. Three are perfect.

Rave party food - Don't even think about finger foods and snacks. Raves are all about energy so load them up on sugar. It doesn't happen all the time so a few hours one night won't kill them. Serve glow in the dark jello, lollipops, popsicles, Shirley temple punch, glowing gummy worms, flashing Skittles and Starbursts candy. (Glow in the dark jello recipe at the end of the article.) Baskin-Robbins makes a cake with uv ray activated frosting.

If there's one thing you should not forget it's bottled water. Because of the amount of energy it takes to dance combined with all that sugar these teens will need the water.

To make things like gummy worms glow simply place glow sticks in the bottom of a clear serving bowl and then dump in the candy. You can also glue glow sticks in a decorative fashion to the outside of the bowls. Flashing mouthpieces are flat enough to place under most bowls and make food look really cool. Glow sticks can also be placed inside a zip lock baggy and weighted down to the bottom of a clear punch bowl.

Rave party flashing, glowing, blinking things - This is where you should spend your money. If it flashes, glows or blinks, buy it. You can find amazing deals online. Some of the cheapest places to buy rave party lights are online stores not a part of eBay. One such place is gloworks.com. They have really good prices on multicolored flashing mouth pieces, glow bracelets and flashing bracelets.

When it comes to glow sticks buy in bulk. There are sellers both on and off of eBay that sell 1000 glow sticks for less than $40. 1000 is just about the right amount for a party.

Don't forget to look for glow in the dark cups, straws, cutlery, shoe laces, hair gel, nail polish etc. Also know that flashing balloons are awesome and not too expensive. If buying the balloons themselves are out of your budget, run to Radio Shack, buy just the micro-flashers and put them in cheap balloons.

No Drugs no alcohol policy - Designing professional looking invitations are not enough to convince other parents that your party is not a college rave party that includes a lack of parents and a surplus of drugs and alcohol. When I threw my daughter's rave I literally had to talk to the parents of 40 teenagers and assure them that there were sets of parents chaperoning the party and that there would definitely be no drugs or alcohol on the premises. Some of them still weren't convinced and came to inspect the party palace the night of the party.

Last tidbits - Walmart sells rolls of black plastic for eight bucks. Four rolls, 3 rolls of black Gorilla tape and a whole lot of staples in a staple gun turned my 250 square foot patio into a blacked out club atmosphere. If you can't do the rolls of black plastic you can use black trash bags split open to cover walls, windows, ceilings and even furniture.

If you can splurge a little purchase glow in the dark blow up chairs from eBay or regular non-glowing ones and shove several glow sticks inside.

Be sure to check with each of the guests when they arrive to see if they have Epilepsy or any other illness that could potentially be triggered by strobe lights.

Glow in the Dark Jello Recipe

1 package lime Jello

1 cup Tonic Water (must contain Quinine)

1 cup Mountain Dew

1/2 cup sugar

Instructions:

Boil tonic water

In a bowl mix sugar and Jello powder.

Add boiling tonic water.

Stir for at least 2 minutes to make sure the sugar and Jello powder is completely dissolved.

Add Mountain Dew.

Chill until Jello is set.

Serve beneath black light.

*Note - Jello will have some small fizzy bubbles on top which look kind of cool.

Download Free Printable Rave Birthday Party Invitations