70's Disco Dance Party

We threw a 70's Disco Dance party for my daughter's 11th birthday party last November. A dance party is a terrific party theme for tweens. The girls had a blast and even requested a dance party for next year.

We started the party planning by purchasing fun Disco Party ticket style invitations. This was my first time using ticket invitations and I cannot believe how many compliments we received on these invites. The invitations look just like tickets with Row and Seat numbers, Admit One and a traditional bar code along the top. They were personalized with all of the party details. And, the best thing about the invitations were that they matched the Disco Partyware we chose perfectly as they featured the same design.

Looking for more Retro Birthday Party Ideas? Check out my Hippie Chick Peace Party page and my Tie Dye Birthday Party page.

The Disco partyware we ordered came with plates, cups, napkins, a table centerpiece, balloons, curling ribbon, streamers, and many servings plates and bowls.

The partyware featured groovy 70's dancers in black on a colorful background that featured lots of funky retro colors. We coordinated all of the other birthday party supplies around the partyware.

Click here to Order the Disco Partyware!

Dance Fever & Disco Fever designed Cups, Napkins, Centerpiece, Plates, Invitations, and Tablecloth, Mirrored Disco Ball Decorations, Disco Ball with Base, Disco Ball Necklaces, Disco Bead Curtain, Dance Fever Hanging Decorations, Disco Party Scene Kits, Music Note Balloons, Disco Party Game, Live 70's Disco Party CD and Much More!

Click here to view all of the Disco Dance Party Supplies!

We set up the dance area in the living room by moving some furniture around and completely removing some furniture from the room. The main dance floor was in the living room and we removed the area rug so there was just the hardwood floor. The hardwood floor was more like a dance floor than the rug.

We placed the Disco ball in the living room as well as a strobe light up on top of the stairs. My husband generally doesn't get too involved with the party planning, however, he had a wonderful idea to put in colored lights. We have high-hat lighting, so we simply changed out the regular bulbs with colored party bulbs. But, you can use these colored lights in any lamps you have to add to the disco party mood.

We wanted to keep the party area dim so it resembled a real disco dance club. Our house has an open floor plan where the living room ,dining room and kitchen are basically all one big area. We put a low light lamp in the dining area for when it was time to eat. This gave the area a lounge-type feel which was really cool . So, basically the disco ball, strobe light, colored lights and lamp were the only light we had on for the majority of the party. It was dark, therefore, very representative of a real disco club.

My daughter was decked out in a funky Disco Go-Go dress and head wrap. She also wore a pair of retro white Go-Go boots, a peace necklace, large orange earrings and retro 70's sunglasses.

I also purchased a case of 50 glow necklaces to add to the party fun. Since the party area was dark most of the night, the glowing necklaces were a big hit and very 70's retro. The girls were extremely creative with their necklaces. They used them as head bands and belts. They even put necklaces together to create hoola-hoops and even a Limbo stick!

Aside from doing a lot of dancing, they also organized their own dance contest.  They separated into groups and each group created a short dance. They selected a few girls as judges and held an American Idol type dance competition.

We created an awesome Disco Ball Cupcake platter for the party. We made our own Disco ball with mosaic mirror tiles and styrofoam. The cupcakes were tinted hot pink, blue, orange and green to coordinate with the party colors.

Click here for Step-by-Step instructions and Supplies to create your own Disco Cupcake Platter!

For the party favors, I purchased shiny silver bags and black tissue paper wtih silver sequins on it. Inside the favor bags, I put personalized Hershey miniatures wrappers, a Disco Writer pen, a Lava Lamp nightlight, and retro 70's flower power stickers.

The silver bags I picked up a the dollar store. Ten bags for $1. The stickers were purchased at my local party store. The personalized Hershey labels were purchased online.

Note: I purchased the Lava lamp nightlights online at a wholesale price. (less than $2 a piece). They were really cute, however, some of them did not work so well. I am not sure if I received a bad batch or if they were cheaply made. That being said, I don't think I would recommend these night lights for your party favors.

I knew off the top of my head many 70's disco songs I wanted for the party. I then did some research to find more great hits of that era. I was looking to have a lot of songs to fill the 4 hour party we had planned and wanted songs that my daughter and her friends were familiar with and enjoyed. Plus, I didn't want too many songs repeated over and over again, so we needed a lot of tracks.

When I finished compiling the list of songs, we had close to 60 tracks. There were many "Greatest of the 70's" cd's out there, but all of the ones I checked had some songs we wanted and others we didn't. Individual MP3 downloads cost close to $1.00 a pop and I certainly didn't want to spend over $60 for the music. Therefore, I found a Disco CD from the Countdown Singers that had most of the songs we were looking for. These songs were not sung by the original artists, however, for the purpose of the party, they worked great. Trust me, 11 year olds did not notice the difference! Note: If you don't think you can handle listening to disco songs sung by a cover band, then this CD may not be for you. You may want to download the songs by the original artists instead.

There were a handful of songs that were really bad not sung by the original artist as well as additional songs not included on the CD. Those we downloaded separately.

After I downloaded all of the MP3's, I burned them onto a CD to play at the party. All of the music cost me less than $20 and now my daughter has a great CD to listen to in her room. She also put the disco ball in her room after the party, so her room has now turned into a great disco dance club!