The Next Gen of Party Planners
For every season in the Nepalese and also English, calendar, there is a Nepalese party.
From Dashain and Tihar to Nepalese New Year and other events, Nepalese parties calls for a social gathering and a reason to merry-make amidst the growing number of Nepalese community in the UK.
In the past years, there has been a surge in the number of Nepalese parties in and around London. Along with these parties, the party planners have also established themselves in the Nepalese community. Young and visionary with a mindset to do business in a fun way, these next generation of Nepalese party planners have become a brand name amid Nepalese party prowlers.
The DREAMS team caught up with three of the prominent party planners to find out more about them and their efforts to organise parties.
9Seven9 Movement Ltd.
In 2010, a group of five friends decided to organise parties, and hence the 9Seven9 Movement was born. It was a collaborative effort of Sagar Gurung, Ashish Gurung, Milen Khanal, Gobin Gurung and Rocky Gurung.
Their first event was organised on May 22, 2010, at the Oceana Kingston. Though the publicity was mainly via word-to-mouth, about 700 people turned out for the party.
“Our main concept is to organise parties based on new ideas, at new places,” said Sagar, one of the 9Seven9 members.
Since their first event, the young members of this event management/party planning company have hosted parties from the O2 Arena to Proud Club.
But organising a part is not an easy task, says Sagar.
The members conceptualise and plan a party two to three months beforehand—from generating the party concept to promotion and ticket sales.
In these two years, these young men have been at work, putting four major events on the Nepalese party calendar. The most recent, and much hyped one being the one where they brought Dumbfound Dead and Andrew Garcia to the UK. The event attracted 1,500 in London and about 400 collectively in Manchester and Birmingham.
While most of them have their own jobs and studies, they take 9Seven9 as a part-time job so that they can add flair to the Nepalese party scene. Despite making an average profit and sometimes breakeven and even loss, it’s the febringing together of friends and familiar faces from the Nepalese community that keeps them on the drive.
“My motive is to gather all Nepalese to have fun and celebrate festivals and fun times,” Sagar says.
The Signaturee Crew
Before they met, the five members of The Signaturee Crew were leading a similar but separate lives. Though they were in the event management field, Suman Limbu, Dipesh Rai, Sharmain Gurung, Bishesh Gurung and Nasib Rai had their own ventures until they founded The Signaturee Crew.
After they founded their collaborative company in 2010, The Signaturee Crew organised their first event on April 13, 2011 as an ode to the Nepalese New Year.
Since then they have been regulars in hosting parties for the young Nepalese community with three major events in the party calendar year—one every December, a party to celebrate the Nepalese New Year and another one during August/September.
Like the 9Seven9 team, The Signaturee Crew also devotes their time outside the party scene for their work and studies.
“It’s not sustainable,” says Nashib. “At the moment, we’re keeping it part time and learning the tricks of the trade. We are interested to make it full time in future.”
But apart from the part scene, this team is venturing outside and taking up new projects. The Signaturee Crew organised the UK premiere of the movie Loot in 2012. The company is also interested to provide a platform that would showcase Nepalese talents. One of its major events is titled The Show, a place for emerging Nepalese talents to display their skills.
Targeted towards 18 to 30 years audience at the moment, the young team plans to cater to the elder generation of Nepalese in the UK in future.
The parties they organise currently, says Nasib, helps them to know the business better, network and understand what people want.
“This is a stepping stone,” he says. “We are interested in this field and will take it forward.”
Categorised in: Liefstyle