Home is where the party is
By: Max Barth and Sarah White
It’s a Saturday night in March, and Central Michigan University junior Ashley Tisdale grabs a drink from the mini fridge in her bedroom and returns to her living room to listen to music. But it’s live music, and there are more than 50 people in her living room.
The floor is undulating as people dance. “People started crowd surfing,” Tisdale said. “I was concerned people would fall and hurt themselves or damage something, but usually it ends up okay.”
The house party, traditionally a relatively sedate gathering of friends and neighbors that occasionally resulted in a visit by the local constable, has grown into a legitimate venue for erstwhile rock bands and gangs of acquaintances, strangers and crashers.
Kyle Dluge crowd surfs in Ashley Tisdale's living room at 906 S. Franklin Street on March 28, 2015. Photo | Max Barth
Tisdale’s home at 906 S Franklin, locally known as “The 906”, is not the only house to throw large parties. On most weekends, Franklin Street alone is riddled with parties on the small three block stretch between campus and High St.
Some students find these parties just from taking a walk down the street. For others, finding parties becomes a little more technical.
According to a non-scientific survey conducted on Central Michigan University’s campus, out of 153 undergraduate students surveyed, 80 percent of students reported their main form of finding parties was through word of mouth.
50 percent of students reported that they use social media to find parties.
Many students would say that it is a “mix of both”. The most common of social media sites to find parties are Twitter and Facebook.
On Twitter, CMU students created pages such as @RealCMichParty, @PartyAtCMU, and @CMUPartyProbz where students can tweet at these pages and share info about parties happening live. Occasionally there will be raunchy photos including many women’s body parts and the guy asleep at the toilet having just vomited.
William Black, a senior from Inkster, Michigan follows those twitter pages and more. “I use social media for parties such as Twitter, Facebook, and sometimes Instagram. People use their posts to get the word out, or they create special accounts or they use hash tags.”
While Black still goes to some parties, he felt that in large the demographic at house parties were as he stated “I think it’s more of a freshman/sophomore thing”. “After a while, it’s just all the same” Black said.
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Sophia Lantz, a senior at CMU said “I have gone to one house party, I live on university and there was a big party going on across the street and so I just said I am going to check it out and walked over. The party scene at central is very welcoming you can go. You can enter a party and feel very welcome but the party I went to was really over crowded”.
Wayne State transfer student Whitney Kelsey said there are many factors on how crazy a party can get. “It depends where it’s at, what neighborhood, and who is having it, and if they do go, they are leaving early”.
Many would say that a successful house party would consist of a mass amount of people. With mass amounts of people comes overcrowding, and lots of mess.
A block party breaks out on the 900 block of S. Franklin street on Saturday, April 18, 2015. Photo | Max Barth
Kelsey also stated “I had a house party once, and I was miserable. So much stuff got stolen, so much stuff got broken, and never again will I have one”.
Getting prepared for a large party is difficult according to Tisdale. "I clean a bunch, and move shit around so no one damages it. We move our couches now because people broke them by standing on them once."
In late April, as the semester begins winding down and finals week looms, students party less, but the remnants of beer covered floors and cigarette burned couches still leave evidence of a wild time.
"I think every college town has a party culture. Every weekend, there's a party on my street. There's parties everywhere” Tisdale said.
Party attendants hold up lighters to the live music in the living room on 906 S Franklin. Photo | Max Barth