Many AEGEE-events take place at the end of the year to celebrate the last and welcome the upcoming new year. One of the already well-known events takes place in Gdańsk every year, this time under the motto “Oscar Party”. The AEGEEan spoke to the main organisers of this event and even an Oscar-winning participant and found out a lot about how to celebrate New Year’s Eve in the most stylish fashion – AEGEE-style!
“Class, splendor and elegance” is written in the booklet that AEGEE-Gdańsk prepared for the participants of one of the biggest New Year’s Events within AEGEE. That is what they offered the almost 150 guests and it was, at the same time, what they expected from them. Fancy dresses were wished for and suits, ties and shiny shoes were a must if one wanted to step on the red carpet that AEGEE-Gdańsk laid out in the night of the 31st December.
It was June 2014 when a main organiser for the event was chosen and by July, the preparations started. At least thirty people were involved in these preparations during the following six months.
During the New Years Event (NYE) itself, 24 organisers, including helpers from AEGEE-Gliwice, AEGEE-Wrocław, AEGEE-Katowice and AEGEE-Warszawa, helped to make this event unforgettable. “We worked well together because we are one big AEGEE-family”, Lisa Zeltinger, vice organiser, tells us. “We know each other well and so everything went smoothly. Our team around Dominika Calińska was filled with AEGEE-spirit!”
Since everything was under the motto of an Oscar party, participants had the chance to see a well-decorated gym with self-made posters of famous Oscar-dresses, “AEGEEWOOD”-banners and lots of mirrors which were to be used for a lot of tie-binding. And already during the first night, many participants dressed up and men had to spend time in front of these mirrors to get their ties to look good. During the evening, participants were asked to bring masks to the club and it was rather interesting to see around 150 masked and dressed-up people going by train to the party location. The party itself was a great success, but only went on until 2.30 a.m. so that people could save some energy for the next day.
The 31st of December began with a breakfast followed by a city tour. While doing so, the Oscar theme was put into practice and in teams, the participants had to fulfill certain Oscar-related tasks. After some free time, everyone had an early dinner so there was enough time to dress up! And the result was quite amazing. From the always fashionable little black dress to floor-length evening dresses in shining colors, everything could be seen, just as on the real red carpet.
But before the whole group left for the party, it was time for the actual award show. The organisers had the idea of an Oscar Party when they thought about an opportunity for participants to spend New Year’s Eve in a unique and elegant atmosphere. Shortly after came the idea of movie contest, in which all the participants could take part by uploading short self-made videos.
Around twelve participants of the event took part in this contest and sent in videos for one of the three main categories “Best Oscar Gala Parody”, “Best Love Story” and “The Most Spectacular Flag Stealing”. Nevertheless, they had more than one chance to win a trophy as Alfio Bonaccorsi from AEGEE-Catania proves, who came back home with two (!) Oscars. “My video was called ‘The Waterpunch‘ and it is inspired by the movie ‘Jackass 3’”, Alfio tells us. It won the prize in the category “The Most Spectacular Flag Stealing” and tells the nice story of a girl (played by Ambra Tabbì) who wants to steal Alfio’s flag, but is too short to do so. She finally succeeds by sneaking up on him from behind, splashing a cup of water in his face on the one side and then punching him with a boxing glove from the other side. What then appears to be good acting in terms of portraying pain, is actually real pain! “It did hurt!”, Alfio says. “Ambra, the star of the video, is one of the sweetest persons on earth and the longest part of the shooting session was convincing her to hit me properly, since she didn’t want to do it”. But when she was finally convinced, she gave her best! This led to a splendid few extra seconds of filming material in which an unhappy-looking Alfio says that he hopes to win an Oscar now. In the end he won two, since this extra scene got him an Oscar for the category “Behind the Scenes”, one of the three extra categories!
Other awards of the evening went to Matteo Oldani from AEGEE-Milano for “Oscar Party for Party!!!” (Best Oscar Gala Parody) and Roman Poluden from AEGEE-Grodno for “Best Love Story Ever” (Best Love Story). An Oscar for the category “Second Plan Master” went to Yauhen Yuntsevich, AEGEE-Grodno, for “Adventures pie with potatoes in a supermarket“. The final of the six Oscars was voted upon by the audience already on the arrival day. And the Oscar in the very important category “Best AEGEE-Spirit” went to… Yigitcan Ucar from AEGEE-Istanbul for his sweet movie “Cookie Love“.
After all of this award-giving, celebrating the winners and taking pictures, the party could start! All participants went to a club (with a red carpet at the entrance, of course) and could celebrate the last hours of the old year in the most stylish way. Golden balloons, pictures of stars and starlets and again an “AEGEEWOOD” banner were perfect for the atmosphere! And when it was finally midnight, everyone around had the perfect chance to get a New Year’s Kiss from a real (AEGEE) celebrity as – of course – everyone was a celebrity that night!
All in all, the event was a huge success as countless pictures on Facebook prove. But besides a good organisation and very fancy parties, the biggest success for Lisa was that “it was really nice to hear from some people that after our event they felt the spirit and that they decided to become more active AEGEEans”. Anna Bokhmat for example, a girl famous for never being seen without her selfie stick, had never been on an AEGEE-event before. She was amazed: “It was my first Aegee event and I really liked it! Never met so many people, who are into traveling and making international friends!”
AEGEE-Gdańsk is happy with the result and conclusively wants to thank the helpers who came to Gdańsk and worked hard with them for this event and also the participants for visiting their beautiful city and being awesome AEGEEans. Hopefully, there will be another NYE in Gdańsk in 2015, but “so far it is our little secret… But don’t worry, one day you will find out. News about our NYE will get loud as always”, Lisa says.
Written by Katja Sontag, AEGEE-Aachen
Pictures by AEGEE-Gdańsk and Anna Bokhmat