Intervallen 2009

...this was not like any of the other parties I had been to because this one was organised, with the help of ESN, entirely by exchange students! I volunteered to work at the party because I still have the RAG (Reach out and Give - The charity committee I was part of in SA, where we organised parties to raise money) blood running through my veins and I was curious to see Swedish-party-organizing-skills first hand.

The idea of Intervallen is that those exchange students who volunteer to help are divided up into 7 bars according to what country they are from and sell food and drinks from that country. So of course there was; the German Bar (Jagermeister and Curry Wors), Asian bar (Sushi and Sake), French bar (These mini cheese, french loaf things! If anybody can tell me the name please let me know? and of course wine), Spanish bar (tequila and sangria, I have no idea if they sold food?). When we started running out of people to represent one country we started making combinations like the Alpine bar who were the Austrian and Bavarian exchange students (Wheat beer and beer wors) and the Milk bar with a few Germans and Koreans (a non-alcoholic bar that sold milkshakes and cakes). But when you are left with 2 Dutch, 4 German, an Australian and a South African and put them together what do you think you get? Why the Waikiki Beach Bar of course or just Best Bar Ever for short!!!

Thats right we decided it would be fun to just to have a crazy party themed bar where people could come buy a drink and have a good time. So we sold a very special secret recipe cocktail, a funky blue shot and candy necklaces!

Thursday night is party night in Linköping. Every Thursday one of the many university committees organizes a party in Kårallen (the student building) and the students come in their overalls and party the night away. The parties usually start at 10pm and last until 3am. The big organisational nightmare is that until 6pm Kårallen houses a coffee shop, bar and restaurant. So you have to wait for them to close before you can start moving all the tables, chairs and couches out of the way to make place for the 2 dance floors, 7 bars and the wardrobe (an esential part of any Swedish party because no one wants to dance wearing their heavy snow jackets!)

I'm not going to say too much about the party itself because I think a party is a party and I'm sure the pictures will speak volumes about how great it was, but I do want to leave you thinking about how much work goes into this very short event on the night;
Arrive at 3pm to start preparing food.
4pm restaurant closes and you can start moving hundreds of tables and chairs.
5pm first few bars start to set up.
6pm normal student bar and coffee shop closes and you can start packing the couches away.
7pm started setting up and decorating our bar.
8pm start stocking bars and all the workers have supper.
9pm get given security briefing.
10pm doors open and streams of people start pouring into the student building at the same time you start running around like crazy trying to serve everyone and ensure that you don't run out of beer.
12am run out of 'cool' beer and start selling Swedish beer.
1am take a quick break to greet your friends who were clever enough not to work at the party.
2am go stand outside in the freezing cold because it's your turn on bouncer duty.
3am bars close and you chase everyone away so that you can start packing up and cleaning.
5am after everything has been mopped, the walls have been wiped and everything is packed away, the cleaning ladies arrive so that they can polish the floors with their special machines.
6am you start to pack back all the tables, chairs and couches according the pictures provided because the bar, restaurant and coffee shop want to open again.
8am you walk out of Kårallen and decide that today is just not going to be a good day to go to class.

Thank goodness I was allowed to go home at 5am because I don't think I would have made it all the way to 8am! The good thing that does come from this party is that some of the money is used to throw a "Thank you party" for all the people who worked at Intervallen and I hear that it's well worth standing on your feet for over 12 hours...I'll be sure to let you know if they are right!

Hej då