mokudekiru

Although the nations are the core of the Lund party scene, there is one other equally important form of party to understand: the Korridor Party. And finally, the “pre-party”, its customs, and its relationship to both nation parties and korridor parties.

Korridor Parties

Korridor parties are a result of the logistics of most Lund student housing. Almost every student lives in a “korridor,” which is a single hallway with rooms on either side (yes, a corridor) and a shared kitchen at the end. Korridors have somewhere between 8 and 15 rooms along them, and while everyone may not know one another, you at least run into almost everyone in the kitchen at some point. Kitchen duties are also divided up in some way – in my korridor, there are 2 kitchen bitches per week, who have to make sure the dishes are put away, trash is taken out, etc., and each person does this for 2 weeks throughout the semester.

So a korridor is in some sense a community. Sometimes, the korridor wants to throw a party, either as a group, or just because one or two people feel like having a party at their place. In that case, the kitchen becomes the party zone, since it has enough room to crowd and dance, and because it is accessible to everyone (if you partied in one person’s room, it may be unclear as to whether new people were invited). Most korridors seem to have a stereo system and a TV in their kitchen as well. Ours has a disco ball (super necessary). At least one person’s room (usually the host of the korridor party) leaves their room open so that guests can use their bathroom.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any fabulously wild korridor party pictures (though some of them can get pretty ridiculous), but here’s a very small one from a few weeks ago in Sparta B:

Because korridors are completely under the control of the residents, they can of course go much longer into the night than nations (which usually end around 2), at which point sometimes the party moves into one person’s room for chilling, dancing, etc. But korridor parties can also be incredibly short — 60 people piling into the kitchen, partying from 7-9 PM, and then vanishing. This usually happens when a korridor party is also a pre-party.

Pre-parties

Pre-parties are the Lund equivalent of pre-gaming, but they are a bit more formal than what we do in the US. Pre-parties can be held in a korridor or someone’s room depending on how large the group is — which can be anywhere from 3 to 60+ people. Afterwards, you usually head out to a nation (though sometimes you just go to a different korridor party). I suppose the original idea behind both practices is to drink before you go out to avoid expensive club drink prices. Here are the main differences I notice between pre-parties in Lund and the US:

• Unlike American pre-gaming, pre-parties usually have their own Facebook events

• EVERY party here has a set of pre-parties, whereas it is most certainly optional in the US

• The ending time of a pre-party is very definite. If you are going to VGs on Wednesday, the pre-party ends around 9:15 or 9:30, and everyone is GONE. Do NOT try to go to a pre-party at 9, people will give you weird looks. It’s usually a bit more challenging to kick everyone out of your place in the US.

• You are, on special occasions, allowed to pre-party for pubs, which is a little ridiculous since pubs start at 6 or 7. I think the earliest party I went to here started at 4:30. But since it’s Sweden, it was long past sundown, which is I suppose the international GO signal for party.

Korridor Party Locations

Most korridor parties seem to occur in the Sparta and Delphi residences, because they are very large, and have the kitchen/korridor style. There are occasionally korridor parties at Klostergården, but each resident has his/her own kitchens, so the korridors there tend not to be as social. Östra Torn residences are pretty much individual apartments, and there isn’t even really a korridor, and that covers all the residences I have been to personally. Sparta seems to have the most — you can sort of just wander around on any given Wednesday – Saturday night and find several korridor parties going on. We also have a lot of international students, who are some of the biggest korridor partiers.

Korridor Party Economics

People must bring their own drinks to all pre-parties, korridor parties, etc. (basically, anything that isn’t a nation). There are often snacks too, usually provided by the party-thrower. So the drink and food costs are minimized, but there is one cost that is externalized by the partygoers – cleanup. Nation parties cost more to go to, but you can effectively trash the nation and it’s up to the nation to clean up. If you throw a korridor party, it’s up to you, and usually, the last thing you feel like doing the morning after throwing a party is wading through a trashed kitchen to get to your Yoggi and Müsli.

A Time Diagram of Party Types

For you more visual learners.