Where the F@#K have all the house parties gone?
When I first moved to Wellington back in 2017, the city felt like a giant concrete jungle. A personal playground whereby anything seemed possible. This wasn’t just because I was fresh out of high school and beginning my first year of uni; it was mainly because of how many house parties were happening EVERY. SINGLE. WEEKEND. House party culture in Wellington has become somewhat non-existent these last few years. I’m not talking about Otago Castle Street, let's destroy our livers & lives level house parties, I’m talking about good old fashioned, different music playing in each room parties.
These parties have an eclectic group of people you’ve never met before, from all different backgrounds, interacting with one another and having interesting conversations that challenge your perception of the world. While this might sound a little intense, cheesy or cliche, house parties are the ultimate opportunity for students in particular to recreate themselves and discover who they are. You’re in a unique postion when going to your first house party, you can become whoever you want and gauge which kind of person you are, what your values are, what music you like, who your friends are, what you find interesting, and what you hate.
House parties represent a very important stage in the life of a student and offer a pivotal social experience that can determine which community you belong to. Theres a sense of freedom that house parties possess and I feel that Wellington is slowly losing that freedom.
Noise control seems to be one of the main problems when wanting to host a house party. You’re shut down before the party even begins and your neighbours instantly have a vendetta out for you. Students are too scared to deal with the repercussions of noise control. I’m not saying that noise control didn’t use to happen, but it would happen a lot later into the night and by that point, people are okay with going home. Noise control has a tendency to happen within 2 hours of a party starting and because of this people don’t even bother anymore.
The housing crisis throughout New Zealand also plays a role in this. It’s so hard to secure a flat nowadays and the rent is so high, no one wants to risk ruining their relationship with a property manager or risk losing their house. The pressure of renting in Wellington is of such a high level that people don’t want to risk gambling away their home.
There’s so many factors to why the house party scene here in Wellington has basically died off. I hope to see a resugrance of some sort happen soon, let’s take back the house party culture together. Next time you’re thinking of having going out to a gig, have one at your house instead and invite me.