Posh Parties are the raves you’ll want to take your grandparents to

Posh Parties are the movement sweeping through East London that is putting a new spin on your typical rave. Lame afternoon tea parties are a thing of the past now that swanky senior citizens can attend Posh Club’s outrageous events. Kicking off around two in the afternoon, elegant elders in their 90s, 80s, 70s and 60s file in dressed in their very best. Excited for an afternoon of live music, dancing and champagne, of course, these glamorous people are finding fun and companionship all at once. All of this is due to Duckie, one of London’s curators of progressive working-class entertainment.

The idea started when Duckie’s co-founders Simon Casson and sister Annie Bowden felt the need to brighten up their mother’s life. After a big move she felt lonely, so the siblings threw a vintage tea party, invited the neighbors and broke out some records from the 1940s. The party was a success and inspired them to take it to a larger scale, thus leading to The Posh Club. Currently, Duckie has events planned for the fall in four cities: Crawley, Hackney, Pembroke House, and Dorset. All of it is thanks to the 200+ volunteers that serve over 10,000 partygoers each year.

The Posh Club also hosts some of the most outrageous entertainment. While it’s typically a cabaret-style party, its level of rowdiness varies. Check out their Facebook page to find a list of feature sideshows that range from flapper girls to hula hoopers. Duckie is revamping the well-behaved tea party of the past and has hopes to grow. In an interview with Vice, Duckie reflects on what will be necessary to grow this encouraging movement.

“We’d like to open more. We get people coming here from other cities while visiting friends or relatives in Hackney, and they always say, ‘Why can’t we have something like this where we live?’ So that’s an ambition. But it would need to be quality, have the right atmosphere, and be done with love because if it doesn’t have those things it’s not The Posh Club.”