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[title]There are few ways to improve the mind-numbing business of queuing for a club. But playing a huge game of pass-the-parcel, soundtracked by banging jungle anthems, is definitely one of them.
It’s just one of many brilliantly infantile games and activities dreamed up over the last three years by the team behind Regression Sessions: quite possibly London’s most fun party.
Roam around and you’ll see entire rooms transformed into giant ball pits, clubbers on space hoppers, a bouncy castle, magicians, video games, a bad-joke wall and – crucially – more beaming smiles than at a Californian orthodontic convention.
Pals Michael Mouch and Anna Herber came up with the idea after becoming frustrated at club nights which took themselves too seriously. ‘The music was too chin-strokey and everyone was focusing on the DJ, not on having fun,’ says Mouch. ‘We wanted a night where people could have the free spirit everyone adopts at a festival.’
Music obviously plays a part in the night. Across different rooms you’ll hear hip hop, UK garage, drum ’n’ bass and house bangers, but the idea is to go beyond the beats: ‘When you go to a club night, there’s only so much to do,’ says Mouch. ‘You can get drunk, try to chat someone up, have a dance – that’s it. Here, we give people something to do at every point in the night, so they’re entertained from the moment they get there until the end.’
One example of Regression Sessions entertainment is the photobooth, which Mouch and Herber named the Indecent Photobooth after it became clear that punters were keen to expose their bits in said booth. ‘There are always a few nipples, but we love nipples, so it’s fine,’ says Mouch. ‘There are some bums, but I’ve not seen anything else. Though I’m sure there’ll be a day when we get the ball-sack.’
So if you see space hoppers on the first tube of the morning after a Regression Sessions party – as Mouch’s mum once did – it’s safe to assume they’ve spent the night getting truly regressed.