How to nail your Hyde Park pre-drinks

Pre-drinking is an essential part of Hyde Park life. 

The main goal of pre-drinks is to save you money: trying to get obliterated in a club can be costly, so pres for poor students have become something of an artform.

With that in mind, here is our ultimate guide to drinking before drinking.

The music should be obscure 

Music is essential during pre-drinks. Leeds has a killer music scene, with countless artists churning out dirty bangers you should know about – therefore it’s your job to make sure your friends don’t hear the end of it.

If you’re off to Canal Mills, nobody is going to appreciate you sticking on the first hour-long tropical house mix you find on YouTube. Instead, take the time to find something more interesting.

Location, location, location

Pick somewhere with space for everyone, whether you’re having a couple of mates over or a bunch of people you don’t even know.

Make sure the kitchen or your Hyde Park basement can handle the mess and the crowd better than your carpeted lounge or your housemate’s dingy third floor room.

Pres don’t always have to be indoors: you might want to hold them outside. This can be coupled with a dodgy disposable BBQ to line your stomach before you bombard it with shots.

The drinks must be delicious and fucking potent   

The reason we’re all here. Everyone bringing drinks will prefer to keep them chilled, so clear some space in your fridge. If it’s crammed full of stupid things like food, where will the drinks go?

If you want to earn some friend points, be a hero and buy some booze for everyone – you might find people will be willing to return the favour and buy you a VK in Mission later. Booze Bin on Brudenell Grove usually has some bargains and offers possibly the best selection of drinks in Hyde Park.

Don’t worry too much about your friends’ preferences either. Any booze is good booze – although Frosty Jack’s is your last resort.

Drinking games make you get drunk faster

If you want to put an objective between pouring a drink and drinking it, or you want to make sure that everyone present is on a level before you head out, then drinking games are what you want.

Ring of Fire is, of course, a classic – and one which will end very badly for one player in particular. All you need is a pack of cards and a large vessel.

The game becomes particularly interesting/disgusting with a bigger variation of drinks. Cider, beer and rum topped off with Baileys, coffee and George Foreman fat? Delicious.

International Drinking Rules can be in place all evening to ensure that everyone will be consistently drinking. Higher or Lower is a quick and easy one – perfect for when the taxis are coming soon and there are still loads of half full cans and bottles knocking about.

Borrowed from our less skilful drinking cousins from across the Atlantic, beer pong can be fun and brings an element of American frat party chaos to your cold, damp Ash Grove hovel.

Timing is key 

The eternal dilemma: do you start early and leave for the club in time to take advantage of cheap drink deals before 11, or do you pre for as long as possible and rock up later and risk the Pryzm queue?

Decide at your peril.

The Clean-Up

If your pre-drinks were a success, you’ve probably got some mess on your hands the next day.

Probably best to just leave it.