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Mobile phone network 3 host another Seriously Social Party competition this year, where the winner will get £30,000 to plan their dream party. The first competition winner, Michael O'Shea, hosted a 1920s, Gatsby-themed event, and joining 3 this time around, as mentor and judge, is Johnno Burgess; journalist, and promoter of the legendary Bugged Out and its sister parties (not to mention the yacht rock night Sail On Sailor, Guilty Pleasures and er, 'Erection Section).

We caught up with the mentor himself for a low-down on the competition.

What made you get involved in the project?
It’s a question I have asked as a journalist many times when I edited Jockey Slut magazine - What would your dream party be? Who would play? Where would it take place? Also, after putting on parties of all shapes and sizes for years I’m interested to see how original and creative people will be, and what they will come up with. Sometimes it feels like every idea has been done so I’m hoping to be proved wrong.

Who's making up your panel of judges, or is it top secret?
I’ll be on the panel along with 3 to choose the finalists.

What advice could you give to the winner for making their party a success?
Hopefully quite a lot of advice, but initially to be as original as possible with their ideas from the aesthetic of the party - the invites and the dressing of the venue - to the choice of music or entertainment. Also, choose the people who you will work alongside carefully. I did a party called Balloon once and intended to fill this small room with balloons. The balloon inflating machine broke down, so I hired two friends at the last minute to help me blow up the balloons. After blowing up two balloons they started wheezing and both told me they suffered from asthma.

Do you think that in the U.K., and specifically in London, there is a future with clubs like Bugged Out and The End?
We were running warehouse parties alongside our nights at The End since 2007. I think this worked well as we noticed people who enjoyed the warehouse events in Shoreditch would then come to some of the nights at the End for the first time and vice versa. Since The End has shut it’s been fun moving around London using gay clubs like Fire and Area in Vauxhall to car parks in South and East London, or working with artists like Little Boots and Friendly Fires on more bespoke events. I do miss The End though, it was such a well run club and a joy to work with the staff there. There is definitely room for a club of that size – under 1,000 – in London right now that is run by people who really care about clubs and music as much as The End did.

When hosting a Bugged Out event, or indeed any other party, what do you look for?
At the moment as we don’t hold a residency in London we book the artist first, then find a suitable venue for them and build the line up from there. Sometimes when you have a fixed date every month it can be difficult to make everything fit to that date so we have been enjoying the freedom of finding the venue after we have booked a headlining artist. There are usually four elements that make a night work: right line up, right venue, right location, right price.

What has been the biggest problem you have faced as a promoter?
You have to be prepared to lose money as a promoter. Not everything will work out as planned, even shows that seem sure fire hits. Everything is so expensive to set up that the profit is literally in the last 10% - so if 100 people don’t show up because it is teeming down with rain you can sometimes wave goodbye to your money. We lost a fortune on an event in 2000, a weekender in a Pontins, North Wales. It was half full and it took a lot to recover from that, not just financially but it was pretty soul destroying too. Thankfully there was a sea change in dance music around the corner – electroclash – which ushered in a new breed of DJ; the likes of Erol Alkan, Tiga, Miss Kittin etc and so we were rejuvinated by that scene and felt compelled to carry on.

Finally, if you had this £30,000, how would you spend it on a party?
Let’s just say money was no object, as I don’t want to influence the entrants of Seriously Social. But let’s also say it would involve a small room with an incredible soundsystem, a load of close friends and Prince playing for several hours taking requests! There would also be some trained monkeys in there too somewhere serving up drinks.

The competition closes on Monday 23 November, and entries to the competition are via Facebook. To enter, head over and fill out a 100 word description of your dream event.

We wish you the best of luck!

words: Joshua Lachkovic

facebook.com/3seriouslysocialparty