Rewind: an 80s and 90s throwback party, planned

The look: neon, cassettes and colour-blocking

Hot pink, electric blue, lime and purple in solid blocks, with black as the background so the neon glows. A mirror ball over the dance floor carries more of the theme than any banner.

The photo wall is the centrepiece: covered in old album sleeves, cassette cases and printed photos of the guests from the decade, if you can gather them in advance. It is the first thing people will crowd round.

• A neon sign or LED strip lights in pink and blue behind the bar.
• Cassette tapes and their unspooled ribbon as table scatter, and stacked as centrepieces.
• Geometric shapes in bold colours cut from card and stuck to the walls.
• A mirror ball and a coloured bulb or two in the main room.
• Inflatable props for photos: a boom box, a keyboard guitar, oversized sunglasses.

The invitation

Make it look like a mixtape insert: the guest of honour, the date and the address written as a tracklist. Say plainly whether dressing up is encouraged or expected, and ask each guest to name one song for the playlist in the RSVP.

You're invited

Decade Throwback

Press rewind! Dig out the neon and join us for a throwback birthday party.

✓ Going? Maybe✗ Can't

The retro bar, with and without alcohol

The bar can lean into the colourful cocktails of the time, but the alcohol is optional and the alcohol-free drinks deserve the same glassware and garnish.

• A blue lagoon-style cocktail, or a mocktail of lemonade and blue curacao syrup with no alcohol.
• Sparkling punch in a big bowl with frozen fruit in it.
• A fizzy float bar: cola or cream soda with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
• Classic pop bottles of soft drinks on ice.
• A pitcher of iced water with lemon slices on every table.

Food and the cake

Serve the food your guests remember from birthday parties when they were young, done a little better than it was then.

• Cheese and pineapple on sticks, stuck into a foil-covered half melon.
• Party sausage rolls and mini vol-au-vents.
• A fondue pot with bread and vegetables, or a chocolate one with fruit.
• Bowls of retro crisps and corn snacks in their original-style flavours.
• The cake: a cassette tape cake in black and neon, or a colour-blocked layer cake with the guest of honour's age in neon numbers.

Music and activities

Build the playlist from the RSVP requests and run it roughly in order, the early 80s at the start and the late 90s for the dancing. Have one or two activities ready for the first hour, before anyone dances.

• Name that intro: play the first five seconds of a song and the first table to shout the title wins.
• Best dressed: a vote at the end of the second hour, with a plastic trophy.
• Instant camera station with a box of props and a board to pin the prints to.
• Dance-off to one song from each decade, with the guest of honour as judge.
• Karaoke with a list of power ballads that everyone half-knows.

How the two hours run

1. 0:00Guests arrive to the photo wall and a drink from the retro bar.
2. 0:30Food comes out: the cheese and pineapple and the fondue.
3. 1:00Name that intro, table against table.
4. 1:30Speeches and the cake.
5. 1:45Best dressed vote and the trophy.
6. 2:00Lights down, mirror ball on, dance floor opens.
7. 2:45Karaoke power ballads to close.

What to buy

Pack sizes are for about 15 kids. In PartyPal the list sizes itself to your headcount.

Common questions