Dancing the night away

Penn students are running parties Thursday nights at Envy. It's late Thursday night and strobe lights atop the dimly lit dance floor of Envy are pulsating to the rhythms of Pakistani bhangra music, each flash illuminating a party scene rarely matched at Penn. As the music takes an international journey through Latin dance, American hip hop and European house, College sophomore Lourenco Bustani seems to have forgotten the 25 hours of work he and his collaborators have put into creating that moment. "Seeing 900 people dancing together to Pakistani music or European trance and appreciating it all," Bustani said. "That's when our work pays off." Bustani belongs to a partnership of Penn students, known as Pachanga and Le Monde, that has broken into the Philadelphia club scene by throwing a series of increasingly successful Thursday night parties at the Olde City nightclub Envy. Since October, the group has hosted six parties -- each of which have lifted hordes of Penn students away from Thursday night cocktail parties and transported them onto the dance floor of one of the most popular clubs in the city. For Bustani and the rest of Pachanga and Le Monde, that's precisely the point: To work to bring together as wide a variety of students as possible. "We want to give Penn something different to do, acquaint the students with different cultures and bring together different groups at Penn. We think throwing parties is the way to do that," Bustani said. The crowds initially came through word-of-mouth, with the students' circle of friends bringing their friends, who, in turn, brought their friends. Today, with the parties bringing in students with backgrounds ranging from Pakistani to Latin American and everything in between, the question is not how many will come but how many will be left at the door. Bustani said he even had to turn away 300 people at a recent party. The focus on diversity is hardly lost on the partygoers. "The mix of music -- Latin, European, American -- it represents what Penn is like: A mixture of different cultures," College freshman Jonathan Fernandez said at a recent party. According to the organizers, one of their biggest challenges is avoiding the boredom factor that can occur when one group puts on party after party without adding variety. So, as a result, Pachanga and Le Monde work to keep the audience on its toes by bringing new attractions, dancers and themes -- a recent party was titled "Climax," for instance -- to their events. The fact that the number of people attending their parties has steadily increased from each party to the next is, the students say, testimony to the effort they put into keeping their events lively. "The last time I came, it wasn't this crowded, so this must be a good party," fourth-year Penn Medical student Noam Harel said as he gazed down at the packed dance floor. Led by Bustani and Engineering senior Andro Nodarse, Pachanga teamed up last fall with College senior Omer Ghani and his group of Pakistani students, Le Monde, to start their venture. Luckily, they had experience on their side. Pachanga was started six years ago by a former Penn student named Carlos De Miguel. De Miguel, as a freshman, noticed that the Philadelphia club scene lagged somewhat behind those of cities like Miami and New York. He decided that a party scene with a touch of international flavor would perfectly complement Penn's social life. Nodarse joined De Miguel during his freshman year, and the two began moving their parties into local clubs. Le Monde started out two years ago with a huge bash at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in 1998. Earlier this fall, the two groups decided to consolidate their resources and tap into the downtown party scene. The newly formed Pachanga and Le Monde went straight for the top by trying to land a gig at Envy. As college students instead of proven Manhattan playboys, they discovered that throwing huge parties downtown involved more than lots of advertising and alcohol. "Many of the clubs don't see a vested interest in working with university organizations," Bustani said. After hours of negotiations, however, Pachanga and Le Monde stuck a deal with the club ownership. They succeeded, perhaps, because some of the students involved had already been noticed by those in the city's club scene. "We saw a party that they threw somewhere else. We loved it when they contacted us," Envy's former Promotional Director Kelly Meddick said. Other then Pachanga and Le Monde, Envy does not allow other groups to regularly throw parties at the club. That the party organizers are able to pack a crowd so eclectic makes it difficult for Envy's owners to refuse a partnership. "It's a more diverse crowd than what we have on Friday and Saturday. It's brought us into different groups? than what we usually get," Meddick said. Pachanga and Le Monde are currently working on their annual Spring Fling Extravaganza, which they hope will solidify their legacy here. "We want to build an institution at Penn," Bustani said. "Penn is definitely a party school. It's the right place to do it."