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I was always skeptical about them being a thing in high school. At least at the scale portrayed in movies. But in college, yes. Had plenty of ragers with 100+ people. They were fun, and kinda terrible at the same time.

We never had one in a house. We had one on some back road or a field off the beaten path in order to avoid the law.

I (an older millenial) went to a prep school and big parties in huge, beautiful parties happened every few weeks when someone's parents were out if town. Kegs, red cups, the host freaking out over the mess and people making out/banging in bedrooms were all standard. Because the prep school was small, we would end up getting all our friends from other schools together so they'd end up massive, loud and rowdy affairs. Cops usually got called, but were uninterested in a bunch of kids whose parents were likely lawyers, so no one got in trouble unless they tried to drive drunk. To be young, wealthy and white in America is a good time.

Don't worry, I am broke now. Still white tho.

This is the saddest comments thread I have ever read.

Yes, parties are real.

https://www.wikihow.com/Throw-a-Party

I threw a party like this in about 1995. I got lucky because a lot of people showed up but they were respectful and didn't trash my house. I cleaned up in about 2 hours.

I think that one of the things that killed this were the examples on the news of people having their houses destroyed as the party got out of hand.

Another thing that killed these parties was litigious parents. Underage drinking was the norm at these things. Kids would sometimes drive drunk and get in accidents, drown in the pool, etc. Parents of the drunk drivers would sue the parents of the party host for allowing kids to get drunk on their premises. Saying you were out of town and didn't know did not save the sued parents - they would just be blamed for leaving their kids unsupervised.

Bush parties were also really common in the 90s, but fewer and fewer people live near a large woodlot. In the 90s, even medium cities would have vacant lots scattered throughout the city and many were large enough to (temporarily) conceal a small bonfire and 2 dozen drunk kids. When the cops showed up, we would scatter. Stumbling around the woods in the dark while intoxicated is a cherished memory, but I would probably never do it again, haha.

I didn't go to a lot of these in my youth, but house parties definitely existed, and still exist. I'm ~40.

A friend of friend just had one this weekend, and I went as a +1. I don't know what the occasion was but there was a lot of food and drink and socializing. Someone even set up beer pong like when we were younger.

Another friend of mine has pretty regular parties at his place. He just invites a bunch of people and has some food and drink, and it's a good time. It probably helps that his friend network is massive and he's generally well liked.

Its hard to through a secret part when your parents are out of town when the ring camera will let them know.

Were*

Being Brazilian, all those 'murican house parties portrayed in movies always seemed so... Dumb and uninteresting. I did go to a similar one during college (2009-ish) and, frankly, the only good thing was that I almost got laid, everything else was meh.

I'm older than 40 I didn't go to these parties in high school because I was a nerd. I definitely went to and hosted parties like this in my college years. It was basically, invite everyone you know and then those people would bring their friends. Bring booze and snacks.Great way to meet new people.

I'm in my thirties, and the closest thing I ever had to a party was when me and a bunch of the guys I worked with (total of like six people) would hang out together, drinking and playing Mario Kart

Average millennial here. Yes, amongst other parties, I had a college friend who hosted a party like this twice a week and everyone (30-50 people) would be shit faced, his dad had a night shift job so we stayed up all night playing N64, beer pong, and other fun filled debauchery. It was magnificent. Each day we'd tape plastic over the floor to keep things clean and reduce wear, guy was a social genius. Actually I eventually got bored of it but they went on for years.

Believe it or not, even adults had home parties. It wasn't just a kids or teens thing. So maybe you missed out as a teen but you can make up for it as an adult. Potluck dinners or game nights are a good way to start. We went to a potluck dinner for 8 people in a studio apartment a couple times when I was at uni.

We had tons of parties just like these only everyone was way better looking.

Very common. The vibes and people varied based on the people throwing the party. Maybe it was a house party when someone's parents were out of town. Maybe it was a kegger at the lake kinda outta the way in the dark. And everything in between.

Also, Hollywood wouldn't have been making films in the 90s and 2000s to make you feel bad if this wasn't the case. They'd be making the contemporary teens of the day feel bad, which they certainly didn't because they could identify with the scene.

In the 90s teenage me was way too uncool for these and never got invited once either.

Social media. People got used to not meeting up IRL. Also kids don't get wasted as much these days, possibly because they are actually dealing with their trauma and don't feel the need to drink/smoke the pain away. Of course if you do cut loose these days it'll end up being filmed and sent to your mum on Facebook. I know half the shit I did as a kid would have been flagged for inappropriate content.

Gen X. Grew up on an acreage and went to highschool in a small town a few kilometres away.

There was always some kind of party on the weekend. Either at someone's house, or a bush party/pit party. This was the early nineties. So no phones/cameras.

I'm amazed we survived.

I never knew any parties like that (or at all, haha), but I’ve skimmed through the comments and am surprised people haven’t mentioned Covid.

Gen Z went through Covid lockdown during school ages. It’s possible such parties would have occurred for these people, but they got screwed out of opportunities for wild ragers because of a pandemic.

We kind of had that as teens. Just without the fancy decorations. We made it ourselves. Every weekend when someones parents were over night.

Yeah all the time. Every Thanksgiving, Christmas and new years between the ages of 14 and like 25 with our friends, cousins, acquaintances. Always someone's place, at least 20 teens +/- 3 years in my age, but the parties can get up to 100 people or more if they lined up. Our community of Slavic churches are huge tho. We'd take up the entire wedding hall on some events with 300+ teens your grade that we all knew fairly closely.

The only difference is that alcohol wasn't involved, and relationships were built for dating into marriage, not sex flings like the teen movies.

Yes, these types of parties were real. I don't have any theories other commenters haven't already given, just adding to the choir in case you needed more anecdotal evidence.

I mean, I'm a millennial in mid-thirties and I'd never heard of anyone actually doing a party like this either, so even in the 90s/00s these were things that seemed like 'stuff they used to do before'

Gen Z stopped havin house parties, cause fewer of them live on their own / with a small group of roomies -- a lot more stick around with the parents, and parents aren't as keen to have a bunch of youth doing drugs and lightly misbehaving all night ;p

They are real. And sometimes they still happen for work outings in some cities more than others.

I’m guessing the person who hasn’t seen one might live in a rural area though so they might only see something like this on a hens or bucks night

Lived in a townhouse with 3 apartments and 4 floors during uni. Made friends with the other tenants, opened up the whole thing to do massive parties, had over 400 people come

Wait there aren’t parties anymore? What

The quality of life of kids has degraded at least in the US and no not primarily from smartphones and social media.

The answer is simple, life is harder for parents.

Cameras on phones killed it.

I went to one in the early teens. I imagine it's harder for teenagers to have a secret party when their psrente are out of town these days

Yes, but ours were usually much much more casual and in much smaller houses. TV makes everyone look rich. Broke people have parties too, but they're chips/dip and BYOB. Also, without the jocks vs. nerds.

My husband was just telling a story this weekend about when he was "ninth grade cool". Right before a party a cute girl asked if he had the new Prince album. He said yes and then begged his mom to take him to Sound Warehouse to buy it. Unwrapped it, shoved it in his pocket, and got dropped at the party. "Cool! What's your favorite song?" "Uhh, the first one."

Sad that kids now don't have that experience.

Do kids still go parking?

I went to parties like this all the time…