Serving drinks, stamping hands, and early morning afterparties. Lundagård´s Mo Kudeki shares her experiences from her first time working at a nation at Blackout, Sydskånska’s electronic club.
When I signed up to be a member of Sydskånska, everyone told me to “work” at the nation’s events. Hmm…free, semi-manual labor? How fun could that really be? But I wanted to meet other members, so I put my name down. Finally, last week, I got a call asking if I was available Saturday to be one of a worker at the club that night. Yes!
Excited and nervous
I was excited, but also a bit nervous, especially about whether I would understand slurred drink orders in Swedish. I also wondered if it was worth sacrificing my own Saturday night for the sake of a nation.
8:30 PM: Call time. I arrive at Sydskånska and meet some of the other workers. There’s 12 of us, three förmän (the people in charge of the event), and among us about four or five international students. We start taping white paper hearts up on the walls, as tonight’s Blackout is Valentines Day themed.
After we set up for the club, the förmän teach us the rules of working the door, the bars, and the coat room. Biggest rules seems to be: never leave the bar by itself, and don’t serve people who are too drunk.
Party-starter
One of the other international students seems extremely disappointed to learn that we are not allowed to drink alcohol while we work. No drinking and no smoking for FIVE WHOLE HOURS!? Whining ensues. To help us deal with this dire situation, there’s free soda and candy at every station. Sugar vice score!
10 PM: The club finally opens, and my first job is to be a “Flygande,” the person who walks around and collects bottles, and guards the back door to make sure people don’t leave with drinks. Since there’s no one in the club yet, there’s no bottles to pick up. I chat with my coworker for a while, and then we decide to dance on the completely empty dancefloor. The awesome DJ, lasers, and smoke machine are all ours!
11 PM: Time to rotate! I have a new partner this time, and we’re taking money at the door. He takes their 60 SEK and I stamp their wrists. My inner librarian is pleased.
Becoming a booze master
12 AM: Finally, I get to try my hand at bartending! I move to the small bar with the same partner as from the door. We’re in the lounge area, and it’s pretty busy by now — a drink order every minute or so. I even get a minimal amount of Swedish practice by telling people their drink prices, or asking for clarification — for some reason, tons of people come up to the bar and just order “en öl” without specifying which kind. We do have more than one kind of beer, you know…
Not too many shenanigans at the small bar. The worst thing that happened was some guy who came by and kept trying to get me to give him a shot of dish soap. Ew.
Calm night
1 AM: For my last shift, I’m at the big bar. I make a grand total of two mixed drinks, and serve a few more beers. Not a busy night at all. Lots of down time to have conversations with people who come up to the bar — I had a lengthy conversation with a gir
l who wants to travel in California. I also work on perfecting the art of pouring shots exactly up to the top without spilling.
2 AM: The club closes. We get out the mops, carry the extra beers to the back room, and hardcore clean for about an hour. Afterwards, we’re exhausted, and gather in the kitchen to eat roasted potatoes and finally (to whiny guy’s delight) drink beer.
The real fun begins
3:30 AM: Afterparty time! All the workers walk to Delphi together for the afterparty. The DJ and associated posse come along too, so the afterparty is just as DJed as the original club. Sweet!
What I didn’t anticipate was that the afterparty would continue well past sunrise. Before I knew it, the sun was blinding us, we drew the shades, and STARTED dancing and eating massive amounts of popcorn.
8:16 AM: The DJ finally leaves, exhausted. The other ten of us, on the other hand, are revitalized by the sun’s energy.
10:30 AM: Seriously guys? Why is this party still going?? I finally decide to leave, but I am definitely not the last. A couple of guys actually praise me for staying so long, “Most girls usually leave really early, at like 6.”
Best part: Serving drinks
Working the nation was fun and actually quite relaxing, probably because it wasn’t very crowded. Serving drinks was the best part, and I think it’d be fun to try on a much busier night, with drink orders constantly.
My only regret is that during some parts of the night, I found myself wishing I had been attending Blackout instead of just watching it happen. And while the afterparty was awesome, I’ll probably try to head home at a slightly more reasonable hour than 10:30 AM next time.
