At an event titled “I Can’t Wait to Party,” what could stop 4,000 overworked university students from storming the dance floor-besides the long, snaking line-up outside?
This year the wait to relax after the end of exams was over a little early-last Friday to be exact-as The Docks hosted a joint U of T and Ryerson end-of-year bash. The party was presented by Kognitive Marketing, the brainchild of two U of T students, biology major Kobi Gulersen and his managing partner, commerce student Josh Singer.
Singer and Gulersen formed Kognitive Marketing to fill a void in the student partying market: major corporate sponsorship. Singer threw a party at Lucid night club last year that raised over $20,000 for charity.
“The Lucid party drew 12,000 people. That’s when we realized that students want to go to sponsored parties because the sponsors give them stuff,” said Singer.
“Everyone always throws separate, segregated events,” said Gulersen, who briefly held a public relations role last summer for Playboy Magazine’s parties. “I mean, we’re all students and we should party together.”
The event had been advertised outside of campus buildings for weeks by the multiple student groups who profited from the ticket sales. Attracting many were the high profile sponsors, such as MAC Cosmetics, Labatt, and Fox Searchlight Pictures involved to dole out free goodies to attendees.
By 11:00 the crowd was out in full force: a huge group carted in on shuttle buses from Union Station to what seemed like the middle of nowhere, but a loud and boisterous nowhere at that.
Through the doors of the club, tickets for Kokanee beer and MAC Cosmetics items were passed out, along with swag from the new Fox film, Thank You for Smoking. The surplus of merchandise pumped out seemed an apt compensation for the price of entry: 12 to 50 dollars per partier, depending on whether tickets were purchased from student groups or at the door.
By the time the party got rolling, the stage was reminiscent of a girls’ bathroom. Concepts Salon & Spa concocted elaborate make-up and hairdos high up for all to see.
After a moment’s lull, it only took only seven little words to get every student up on their feet and jumping into the air: “I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger…” From the second floor, bodies appeared to move with the fluidity and suddenness of a tidal wave, as the Kanye pumped out of the speakers.
“She told me to ‘just come out and make sure you get the makeup,'” shouted one student whose girlfriend was waiting outside because she had forgotten her I.D.
A frenzy of freebies ensued: posters, CDs, and Hummer H2 body washes were flying off the stage, and U of T students were right there in the thick of it, often unsure of what they were jumping up and down for, but wanting it as desperately as those around them. Even if students didn’t score anything in the crowd, there was still a MAC goodie bag to be had upon exit.
