Not all soulmates are made equal
The acclaimed author threw one of the wildest parties of the century in the Grand Ballroom of New York’s Plaza Hotel. Among the 540 guests, you’d find the likes of Frank Sinatra, Henry Fonda, Andy Warhol, and members of the Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, and Astor families. Around 450 bottles of vintage Taittinger champagne were served.
Sources: (History Collection) (Listverse) (History) (History Hit)
Twice a year, members of the Hellfire Club met at Medmenham Abbey. The exclusive club of aristocratic men threw legendary parties. There were even rumored Satanic rituals involved, but there’s no evidence to support these claims.
If one crazy inauguration party wasn't enough, in 1835 Colonel Thomas Meechum presented the president with a 1,400 pound (635 kg) wheel of cheese. What did President Jackson do? He put up a paper ad inviting people to come to the White House to eat it. Around 10,000 people came around to claim their slice of cheese!
The wedding reception when Marie Antoinette married Louis XVI, in 1770, was a disastrous event. After two weeks of partying, there was a moment when the wind swept fireworks into the Place del Concorde, where a crowd was gathered. Around 130 people were crushed to death as a result of the panic.
Andrew Jackson became the seventh president of the United States on March 4, 1829. Following the inauguration, the White House held an Open House. But around 20,000 people showed up, and it was absolutely chaotic. It didn’t help that they served alcoholic drinks either!
Emperor Kangxi of China’s 66th birthday was celebrated in style. For the duration of three days, he served around 300 dishes, including shark fin soup, camel humps, bird nests, and monkey brains. All washed down with wine, of course. His 2,500 guests were certainly impressed!
So, judging from the previously mentioned party, it’s safe to say Pope Alexander VI had a bit of experience in the pleasures of the flesh. In 1501, he invited Church officials and nobles to his Banquet of Chestnuts, or the Joust of Whores. Part of the entertainment were 50 adult entertainers, who not only stripped for the guests, but crawled on the floor picking up chestnuts.
In 1694, the English admiral threw a party for 5,000 guests. The highlight of the event was the punch served. But this was not your average punch bowl. There was an actual fountain, from where 4,000 liters (1,057 gallons) of punch flowed.
King Louis XIV’s Minister of Finance Nicolas Fouquet ended up in prison for throwing a truly epic party. He invited thousands of guests to his chateaux at Vaux-le-Vicomte, where he held a banquet, followed by a theater play and fireworks. The king became suspicious of how he could’ve thrown such a lavish party so he locked Fouquet up in prison for misuse of public money, embezzlement, and treason.
For his part, King Louis XIV was allowed to throw his own grand parties. In 1664, he invited 600 guests to a week-long party in celebration of the completion of the Palace of Versailles. It was a lavish affair that had something new every night, from ballets to horse races, just to name a few highlights. The party also went down in history for being a celebration of his mistress, Louise de La Valliere, despite being officially thrown in honor of his mother.
But there would be no forgiving and forgetting. Vlad III had many of them impaled, and others ended up working as slaves. How’s that for a party host?
The Wari (or Huari) Empire of pre-Inca South America vanished, but they didn’t do so before building a massive brewery, where they produced a beer-like alcoholic drink called chicha. They knew their empire was coming to an end, so they drank copious amounts of booze and set fire to the brewery.
The Borgias were a prominent Italo-Spanish noble family. In 1460, Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia was invited to a party in Siena. Story has it that at this party, only female guests were allowed. The debauched reputation of the party was such that Pope Pius II wrote a letter condemning it. Interestingly, Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia later became Pope Alexander VI.
The Bal des Ardents, or Ball of the Burning Men, was a wedding party thrown for one of French Queen Isabeau’s ladies-in-waiting. There, they played a game where knights covered themselves with pitch to look like “wild men,” and guests had to guess who they were. But one of the knights was accidentally set on fire by a torch and the flames spread to three others. King Charles VI was among the disguised men. The story goes that the Duchess of Berry saved him.
The Field of the Cloth of Gold was more than a diplomatic meeting between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France. It was a huge festival with lots of food, booze, and entertainment. Then, at the end, the two kings fought a wrestling match. Henry VIII lost, left, and made an alliance with Francis I’s rival, Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, instead.
In 1459, Vlad III invited the aristocratic boyars of Wallachia and their families for an Easter banquet. These were the people responsible for the deaths of his father and brother. It seemed like a nice gesture to show there were no hard feelings about the events.
Emperor Elagabalus liked to throw the craziest dinner parties. He’d have rose petals raining on guests and serve exotic dishes such as ostrich brains and peas laced with gold. The young emperor also liked to keep guests on their toes by pulling pranks on them, like unleashing wolves and leopards during the party!
Emperor Caligula was a hedonistic man, so he decided to build two party barges on present-day Lake Nemi. These were huge, and even had gardens and baths. Legend has it that the parties aboard the Nemi ships were among the wildest in the Roman Empire.
Circa 90 CE, Emperor Domitian threw a party to celebrate death. He ordered everything to be painted black—including the walls, floors, decor, and food. Guests dined next to tombstones with their names, and despite fears of actually being executed, it was all a (rather dark) joke.
Legend has it that Cleopatra bet Marc Antony she could spend 10 million sesterces on a meal. She placed one of her pearl earrings (which was worth that amount) into vinegar, until the pearl dissolved. Cleopatra then proceeded to drink it. In theory, it could have happened, but science tells us it would take up to 36 hours for the pearl to dissolve.
Dionysus is the Greek party god par excellence. He’s known for being the god of wine, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theater. So the cult parties were really a combination of all these elements. It was an inclusive cult, open to everyone, including slaves and criminals. The partygoers are said to have spiked their wine with additives (i.e. drugs) to get higher.
Nero thought burning down Rome wasn’t crazy enough, so he decided to build a party palace. The Domus Aurea was said to have featured forests, a lake, and a huge statue of Nero himself. This place was exclusively for partying, and some areas were open to the public, so everyone could literally party like a Roman.
In 879 BCE, to celebrate his new palace and the revitalization of the city of Kalhu, King Ashurnasirpal II threw a huge 10-day national party. Over 69,000 people were invited, and the menu included 500 gazelles, 1,000 oxen, and 14,000 sheep. Of course, lots of booze was also available, including 10,000 measures of beer and 10,000 containers of wine.
This was the wildest party in ancient Egypt. Every year, on the 20th day of Thoth (the first month of the Egyptian calendar), Egyptians would reenact the story where the sun god, Ra, stopped the destruction of humankind by getting deity Hathor drunk. Of course, they'd do so by getting drunk themselves!
The Calves Head Club was essentially a group of aristocrats opposed to King Charles I of England. So much so that their mascot was an actual calf head (a symbol for the beheaded king). At one of their parties, members of the club started a bonfire, but things quickly got out of hand. A crowd gathered at the location and ended up forcing themselves into the club house, trashing it completely.
The opening of the Flavian Amphitheater, aka the Colosseum, was as epic as ancient Rome gets. For 100 days, the Romans partied hard, with all the food, booze, and bloody entertainment they could wish for, and then some.
Belshazzar’s blasphemous party was so epic that it made it into the Bible. He bragged to about a thousand guests about the gold and silver goblets as a sign of Jerusalem’s defeat and drank beer from them. But he shouldn’t have passed out from the booze, because the Persians conquered Belshazzar’s kingdom and killed him in his sleep that night. That was God’s punishment for the blasphemy of drinking from the sacred vessels.
In 330 BCE, Alexander the Great captured Persepolis. He got drunk in celebration and decided to set the Persepolis palace on fire. He destroyed his spoils of war, but went down in history for his drunken antics.
The Romans adapted the Greek Dionysian Mysteries concept, but instead celebrated the Roman version of the same god: Bacchus. These were initially held secretly, three times a year, and only women would participate. They eventually started happening five nights a month, and men would join them. These were wild parties, involving music, booze, and sex. So much so that they were later banned by the senate.
In addition to the gladiator fights and other staged battles, Emperor Titus also commissioned two naumachia. Naumachia were basically mock naval battles. These were held in flooded arenas, and the Colosseum was an obvious choice.
Imagine throwing a party so wild that it goes down in the history books. This is exactly what happened to some party hosts throughout time. From Egyptian drunken benders and Roman hedonistic rituals, all the way to 20th-century shindigs, we bring you some of the most lavish, exotic, and overall wild parties that have ever been thrown.
Curious? Click through the gallery to learn all about them.
The wildest parties in history
From lavish affairs to hedonistic banquets
LIFESTYLE Partying
Imagine throwing a party so wild that it goes down in the history books. This is exactly what happened to some party hosts throughout time. From Egyptian drunken benders and Roman hedonistic rituals, all the way to 20th-century shindigs, we bring you some of the most lavish, exotic, and overall wild parties that have ever been thrown.
Curious? Click through the gallery to learn all about them.