Seneca’s Red Party Welcomes All; But Karl Marx Was Not Invited

The Seneca’s annual Red Party was devoid of communist ideology and Karl Marx was not invited...but that didn’t stop hundreds of students from attending.

The event, held last Thursday night at the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge, was a success. The Red Party, a Seneca tradition started nine years ago, was previously held in the Roxy, a Boston club, before a 2007 Boston law restricted entry into nightclubs to prevent underage drinking. According to Emma Moretzsohn ’09, the president of The Seneca, the group chose to keep the event open to everyone in the spirit of social inclusion, rather than make it a 21+ event.

The high attendance of the party testifies to the fact that the inclusive venue was effective: “It’s not easy to get a bunch of Harvard students out on a Thursday night,” says party atendee Silpa Kovvali ’10. “But there were a lot of people there.”

Moretzsohn was pleased with the large turnout and the party’s high-profile reputation on campus. “I think that it has come to be known as the hugest event,” she says.

But not all partygoers were as enthusiastic. Alyssa J. Mackey ’11 went into the party a lot more jazzed than she left it, having heard from upperclassmen that it was the best party of last year. “We actually thought it was more of a big deal than it was,” Mackey says. “It was kind of a shocker when we showed up in formal dresses.”

Despite the less-than-raging location, holding the party off-campus accomplished more than high attendance. “It’s fun to have people get off-campus,” Moretzsohn says. “It’s nice to be able to go somewhere besides where we go every weekend.”

Still, FM would have rather partied with Karl.