70s Disco Party Ideas

The 70s are all about disco. Don't settle on just one theme for your 70s party. Use these disco party ideas to combine the various trends and events of the decade to throw a wild and crazy bash from the past! The cool image of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, with his flashy leisure suit look, dancing to disco music, is one that many of us have emblazoned in our minds forever. Dare we mention Studio 54? Big disco club scenes from the 1970s are courtesy of people like Donna Summer, the Bee Gees, Earth Wind and Fire, Gloria Gaynor, Lionel Richie, Peaches & Herb, and The Village People. The great thing about the 1970s is it was full of variety throughout the decade. (Bell bottoms optional!)

Disco Party Invitations and wording ideas
Choose a fun invitation to set the mood for your party. Here are a few custom invites that are really popular for a 70's party:
Another creative way to invite guests to your 70s bash is to attach all of the pertinent party details to either a smiley face cuddly plush, or a smiley face beanbag. Hand-deliver your fun and playful invitations to each guest.

One of our favorite disco party ideas is to find a bunch of 8-track tapes, make sticky labels with all your party information and place them on the back of the tape. Mail to guests and Voila! Everyone will get a good laugh out of it. The challenge of course is to find them. Search online, garage sales and the like. I think the Party Girl might still have an 8-track player in her basement!
 
Here is some fun wording for 70's theme invitations:
  • Join us for a Disco Dance Party celebrating Tom's 50th Birthday!
  • We're dusting off the old 45's to throw a Disco Party that really JIVES!
  • Don your afros and put on your platform shoes... Boogie Fever is Spreading!
  • Bell bottoms, platform shoes and disco balls... the things from the 70's you miss most of all! Relive it all at our Disco Costume Party!
  • Can you dig it? We're having a Disco Party!
  • Don your disco duds and come dance at Amy's 70's Birthday Party!
  • Don't let disco die! Join us for a 70's Blast from the Past Costume Party!
  • We're bringing the 70's back! Groove on over for a Disco Dance Party in honor of Sam's 30th Birthday!
Be sure to have your guests come dressed in their 70s best, whether bell-bottom pants, polyester leisure suits, big gold chains, polyester wrap dresses or red gloss lipstick! Have them come as their favorite 70s TV characters like Reuben Kincaid, Arnold Horshack, Captain 20, Richie Cunningham, Oscar Madison, Felix Unger, Marsha Brady, Charles Nelson Reilly, Mary Tyler Moore, Sue Ann Nivens, Ted Baxter, Colonel Potter, Shaggy and Scooby, Fred Rogers, Gene Rayburn, Fred and Lamont Sanford, Grady, George Jefferson, Mork, Isaac, Gopher and Doc, or Vinnie Barbarino, among others!

70's Party Decorations and Party Supplies: turn your crib into a far out disco!
There are multitudes of things that can be done to decorate your Flashback from the 1970s party.
  • Greet your guests with a Disco theme personalized banner hung over a fabulous lifesize cutout of you (or the guest of honor) dressed in Disco gear. Or, have a disco theme photo op for your guests to take pictures with! 
  • To set the mood with lights, try real disco stuff. Set up black lights and lava lamps around the room as well.
  • Of course you should have 70s music playing all night!
  • Give each guest who enters a Disco ball necklace or a pair of groovy Disco ball sunglasses to get them in a funky mood.
  • Hit the thrift stores for some inexpensive 70's chairs and shag rugs. Set us a small lounge area where everyone can chill out.
  • First of all, hang a beaded curtain at the front door to welcome all of your guests in 70s style.
  • Inside, at the party pad, hang Disco dancers room rolls on the walls.
  • Light up smiley face balloons will look great either in balloon bouquets or hanging down from the ceiling!
  • For a nicely scented room, light some candles or incense to fill the room with a popular 70s fragrance.
  • Hang an assortment of disco balls (of course!) in all colors from the ceiling for an added cool illusion.
  • If you have a TV/DVD player available, run classic 70s movies in the background like Saturday Night Fever, Stayin' Alive, Star Wars, Jaws and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest among others. Here's a great list of movies from the 70s.
  • Be sure to have a Pet Rock for all your guests, complete with name, personality and preferences listed. If you're having seating, then a Pet Rock also makes a great seating card!
70's theme menu ideas and table decorations
Need more "far out" disco party ideas? Here are some foods that were popular in the 70's that your guests will reminisce about fondly and then dig into enthusiastically:
  • Fondue! Serve different types of cheese fondue as your appetizer.  Place a fondue pot in the middle of each table. Each pot serves your meal as well as a centerpiece. If you want to really get your guests mingling, put a different type of fondue at each table. Cook up spicy chicken, Mexican, or teriyaki fondues as the main course. You can have a cheese fondue as an appetizer and chocolate fondue for dessert!
  • Anything in a Jello mold! They were hugely popular in the 70's.
  • Cheese Whiz and Ritz Crackers
  • Pigs in a Blanket
  • Lipton Onion Dip
  • Rumaki 
  • Quiche  
  • Meatballs with a jam or jelly sauce 
  • Ambrosia Salad
  • Tater Tots
  • Chex Mix, Bugles, Lays Chips
  • Necco Wafers, Pop Tarts
  • Tang, Hawaiian Punch
  • Cold Duck Champagne, Sangria, Harvey Wallbangers
Finger food and buffets are useful since your guests can eat on the run and dance up a storm to your funky music.
 
To decorate your tables or buffet, use balloons! Wrap tie-dyed bandanas around sand filled balloons and tie it closed with a colored ribbon. Attach balloons to give it height. Throw Disco theme confetti around the tables.

A Disco ball with a base also makes a great theme centerpiece. You will definitely need Disco theme paper goods, including plates, napkins, table covers, cups and more!

Disco Party Games and Activities
MUSIC! - Who doesn't love to dance along to the funky sounds of Sly and the Family Stone, the Village People, Donna Summer, Elton John, the Commodores, La Chick, K.C. & the Sunshine Band, Kool & the Gang, Average White Band, the Tavres, Patti LaBelle and others? Visit your favorite music store and pick up CDs of 70s compilations. Do the Hustle, nominate a Denny Terio-like M.C. and have your own dance contest with great prizes.

70s Charades - To begin, each player must write down a difficult phrase/name/title/song etc., (the phrase/name/title/song has to be from the 1970s) and all of the slips of paper go into a hat. Then everyone is divided up into two teams. Each team chooses a "captain", and the two captains flip a coin to decide who gets to go first. The first person has to pick a slip of paper from the hat without looking. He then looks at the paper, and gives a signal to his team (signals are determined before the game begins) to reveal what category he will be acting out. (For example: If it is a book title, the first player might put his hands together face up in front of himself, as if he is reading a book). The players on his team will say, "It's a book". Then the "actor" puts up the same number of fingers, as there are words in the phrase/name/title on the paper. His team will say out loud how many words there are. Then he will again, show a number of fingers for the word he will be acting out first. (If he is acting out the name "Daffy Duck", and he wants to act out the 2nd word first, he has to put up 2 fingers). Then for each word he acts out, all he has to do is have his number of fingers represent the word he is acting out. If the group is having trouble guessing the word, the "actor" can cup his hand behind his ear to convey, "sounds like". Then he can try and act out a word that the word in the phrase sounds like. When the team guesses the "charade", then it is the next team's turn.

SIGNS FOR CHARADES
  • Syllables - placing the same amount of fingers can show the number of syllables in each word.
  • Book - Hold both hands in front of you, touching, with palms up.
  • Movie - Put one hand in front of your eye in a fist (so you can look through it), and turn the other as if you are winding up film.
  • TV show - Draw an imaginary square in the air (symbolizes a TV).
  • Play - Place one hand near your heart, and the other out, as if you are showing your team something great.
  • Song - Open your mouth, and wiggle your finger in front of your mouth (as if sound is coming out).
Dress up Contest - Divide up into teams and choose one person to be the dress-up "dummy". Use clothes from the 70s like brightly colored scarves, big sunglasses, platform shoes, floppy hats, halter/tube tops, jewelry in the shape of a peace sign, tie dyed anything, and anything else that you can place on another person's body to dress up your 70s "dummy." There are some fun and fabulous 70s accessories! Make your "dummy" as funny and creative as possible (have plenty of oversized clothing because the "dummy" will most likely want to put the 70s garb over their own clothes). The funniest "dummy" is the winner (or the funniest and most quickly dressed).

Lip sync/Karaoke Contest - Sing or lip sync (mouth the words along with the music) to your favorite tunes from the decade of the 1970s. A prize goes to the best act.

Who Am I? - Write the names of famous people on index cards, and tape one card to the back of each guest. Have everyone walk around in the same room, and instruct them not to mention the names on their backs, but to talk to everyone as if they are the people whose names are on their cards. As people begin to correctly guess their identities, they have to continue to treat the people who still don't know their identities like the stars whose names are taped to their backs. When everyone guesses the names on their backs correctly the game is over.

A few other fun activities besides those listed above are a Twister tournament, a Ouija Board, for those who dare, a 1970s trivia contest, and a pinata filled with candy as well as other goodies.

Say "thanks for coming!" ideas for 70's theme Party Favors
There are great party favors available to a Disco party! I'd go with favors your guests can wear like retro necklaces, earrings or whistles.

Smiley face bubbles are a must for this party. They always provide hours of fun for adults as well as for kids.

No 70s party is complete without the following. You don't have to do it all, but you have to do some. There were those of us who were into tie-dye and black light parties while some donned that little guy who was made famous and stayed famous--the happy face!
  • Glow jewelry--pretend it's black light poster time; I was there, I remember and it was grand. Glow jewelry will light up your night and take you back to the 70s. My special favorite...glow straws!
  • Mood rings-- these were huge in the 70's!
  • YMCA hats and Inflatable Microphones--for anyone who wants to do their YMCA imitation.
  • Happy Face/Smile Face--made famous in the 70s. You may want to add a bit of this to your party or keep this as your 70s theme! In fact, I don't think the smile face has ever gone away, do you? smile face blinky pins, smiley face bubbles and smile face stickers are great fun!
We're sure all your family and friends will think your 70s theme party is psychedelic!