Inside the ‘exclusive’ party on Byres Road last night

Last night, The Tab Glasgow were tipped off about an “exclusive” party in a shop on Byres Road.

Due to the unusual location, and the fact it was a Wednesday night, we decided to investigate. Who in their right mind has a party in full view of the public (and probably the police) on Byres Road at 8pm, on a Wednesday no less?

Walking down the street, we could hear the music blasting from a fair distance away. This was really strange. The hosts were nothing short of secretive about the noise as we were surprised to see the front door wide open, and the guy at the door informed us there was a DJ present from Capital FM. What?Naturally, we took a look in.

What is this?

The whole thing was surreal. It was a small space rammed with about 80 guests, but it was the decorations and entertainment which we found most surprising. To the left was a massive donut wall. We’ve never seen anything like it. Guests were casually coming over and choosing their donut before helping themselves to free booze.

The Tab writers featuring giant donut wall

Guests were helping themselves

Wait. Free booze? Yep, there was tons of it. Wine, cider, beer in ice buckets.

We thought the party couldn’t get any more interesting but then we saw the hotdog and nacho machines – also free, apparently. Right at the back of the space was a professional photo booth (which we imminently took advantage of) where guests were posing in amusing props like this was the most normal thing to be doing ever on a Wednesday night.

So much free food

There was a virtual reality eyepiece making its way around the crowd. Looking “inside”, the eyepiece showed us what looked like a modern living space – a fancy dining area, a kind of chill-out zone and a hotel-like bedroom.

Amazed by the virtual reality

After asking just what this whole thing was about we were told that we were looking at the virtual representation of new student accommodation opening in Glasgow. The whole get-up was a launch party for it and the company, True Student Living, were the hosts and had paid for the whole thing. That’s a lot of money.

Free photobooth – check

The ceiling was covered in helium balloons, everyone was dancing, and it was all getting a bit crazy. We were rooted to the spot in awe and wondering why the hell they had let us in.

We have contacted True for comment and intend on investigating the occurrence further. One thing’s for sure – no one will be able to host a rival party.