It’s time to take charge of your party life, no matter your age, and this article? It’s got you covered.
State College is notorious for its partying culture. Students storm the streets downtown for any reason, with bar crawls being treated as national holidays and ritualistic ways to celebrate. Whether it be to dress as a banana or a hot dog and hit the bars, to storm Beaver Ave after the Eagles win or to line up on Mifflin to watch the infamous streak, the desire to celebrate resides within all of us.
But not all of us are 21, not all of us want to wait around for an event to happen. We want to see our friends, party, talk and spend time together.
I find that most of us struggle with inspiration for what to do besides sit around and play drinking games. Or simply sit around and drink… More of State College, however, struggles with not being 21.
What do we do if we’re too young to go to the bars or too sick of drinking games? We crawl.
Below, I will list the perfect recipe for The Coveted Apartment Crawl. From coordinating with people to ideas for a theme, tasks and games to entertain, and food to eat and drinks to drink.
It’s time we harness what celebrating with people can really be: just a way to hang out.
Coordinating
Involve only the main hosts of each apartment. The information you need to tell them should include: “I’m coordinating an apartment crawl, are you and your place free to be a stop on (enter date)?”
The further information you’ll need to put together:
- The theme
- Progression of stops
Additionally, tell your hosts: “This is the theme, and this is what you’ll need.” Speaking of themes…
Theme Ideas
Start with the theme.
The theme of the apartment crawl can be cohesive at each stop, or each apartment can come up with its own theme. Look through this list, but most importantly, brainstorm. The most enticing way to throw a party or hang out is to be excited and passionate about the idea of it. Rather, dream of it.
Progressive Dinner party. Each apartment provides a snack, meal, dish, appetizer, entree or dessert –– whatever you coordinate, just make sure you communicate who’s doing what. Think of it like a giant potluck, and bonus points if you bake or cook together.
Dorm Crawl. Don’t have apartments to walk around to? Fine, visit your friends’ dorm rooms.
Call it Room Tour Night, come up with a task or event for each room. Maybe you want to show off your vinyl, or maybe someone secretly plays the guitar. Use one room as an opportunity to wind down and reset.
You can also substitute this idea for House Tour Night, great for “Sylly Week” activities when everyone is freshly moved in.
Movie Marathon. This is the most time-consuming one on the list, but the concept goes like this: find a trilogy to watch, swap locations to stretch your legs and pick up snacks, start part two, repeat.
Spa Day. Nails at one place, skincare at the next and so on. This crawl around is perfect for getting ready with the girls.
Bonus points if you coordinate the locations of apartments to progressively get you closer to your location of choice. Maybe call it a Getting Ready Party; hop apartments down Beaver Ave, do your makeup at the first house, hair at the next and drinks at the last. This is the perfect way to bond, pregame and make up a master plan with your girls before you head out for the night.
Tasks and Entertainment
Not every apartment has to have a theme, but if you’re looking for something to unite people, perhaps make it a holiday or costume party, or even make everyone wear the same outfit, encouraging confused stares as you travel from place to place.
If you need ways to entertain, learn a different card or board game at each place or workshop get-to-know-you games; write down some go to “Never Have I Evers…” or all your truths and lies into your notes app, then share.
If you’re surrounded by creative minds, you could even write and film a skit using everyone’s apartment along the way. It doesn’t have to be high quality, just collaborative.
At the end of the day, a crawl is all about doing it your own way. Cook up your own recipe, make your own rules and abolish them as you go. To crawl is to hang out, and to hang out with your friends is always something to celebrate.