TGI Live Asian Halloween Party @ Anaya London Club

As a "new Londoner" my experience of London night life is limited - to put it mildly. So, I was happy, I did not have to spend Halloween watching horror videos in front of the telly but rather with my Taiwanese friends at TGI Live's Asian Halloween Party in Anaya London Club.

My initial worry, that my friend and me would be the only ones actually wearing costumes was completely unnecessary. While many Chinese friends I have encountered are a bit shy when it comes to dressing-up, this bunch went wild. If you were looking for dead barbies, walking skeletons or Alice in Wonderland characters, this was the place to be on Halloween. 

I learned a lot about the different partying styles of the world - mainly English vs. Chinese, which was enlightening. While the party took a while to get going, I learned this is completely normal in China, where people enjoy a drink first to get all excited and only then storm the dance floor. My main point of comparison being Newcastle, I guess it would have been difficult for any nation - or any other British city in fact - to keep up.

A little bit of TGI Live's party decoration

I loved the Halloween decoration. The cobwebs and spiders and skeletons gave the otherwise stylish ambiance of the club a nice Halloweeny feel. However, my main highlight was without much doubt the music. While I have made peace with the fact that Newcastle club speakers will always blast the same UK Top 40 at you, TGI Live's DJ catered to the Asian crowd by playing the biggest and best of KPop (with a main focus on Big Bang and the current chart topper Gangnam Style). The additional plus were the screens which showed the corresponding videos of any track played, so I could stare at my favourite video of all time, Fantastic Baby, while dancing about like a little, overexcited girl. 

My favourite Big Band vid - Fantastic Baby @ Anaya London 

As many others, I did not think my costume through well enough in terms of effect. While dressing up als Elphaba from the musical Wicked, i.e. painting my skin completely green, gets you a lot of attention on the street, in a dark club many people failed to notice I was dressed up at all. The same went for those who went with a subtle shade of white. However, the pictures discovered in the aftermath show very nicely the different costumes and you can experience the whole party from a completely different angle looking at them and thinking "Wow, that's what they actually looked like?!".

All in all, TGI Live's Asian Halloween Party was a great event to be at for the music, the place and the people. So, see you there next year ;)

And Happy Halloween!