This year, the student union of Stockholm University is organising the Students’ Nobel NightCap, which is the unofficial afterparty to the Nobel Banquet. Since it began, the afterparty has been held every year after the end of the Nobel Banquet on 10 December. The responsibility for hosting alternates between Stockholm University Student Union, the Student Union at the Royal Institute of Technology, Medicinska föreningen (the student union at Karolinska Institutet) and the Student Association at Stockholm School of Economics. Now it is Stockholm University’s turn.
1,800 attendants at Students’ Nobel NightCap
The year’s Nobel Laureates and all the guests of the Nobel Banquet are invited to the Students’ Nobel NightCap. Together with students and other special guests invited to purchase tickets, an estimated 1,800 attendants are expected for this year’s event, which will continue until five in the morning. Once the guests have arrived, there will be eating, drinking and dancing on several dance floors, rooms with various themes, live music and other entertainment.
“Since you have paid for the ticket, you won’t have to pay for anything else inside the venue, it’s all included,” says Selin Safer Demirbüker, one of two project managers for this year’s event.
Secret theme each year
The Students’ Nobel NightCap is known for having a theme each year – and for being highly secretive about it in advance. When we visit the venue a few days prior to the event, we have to promise not to reveal too much. But it is no secret that people are frantically working to get everything in place at the venue. There are students building, painting, decorating, moving furniture, etc. And the work has only just begun, they still have to remove all the furniture from the restaurant in Lantis and then put in new furnishings. The work is ongoing from seven in the morning until ten at night (and sometimes longer) for nearly a full week.
This construction stage has been preceded by months of preparations. All in all, around 340 students from several universities in Stockholm are volunteering to work on the event.
“By volunteering, the students have an opportunity to experience this special event. We also see that a lot of international students are involved,” says Selin Safer Demirbüker.
Sponsoring of food and drink
Organising the Students’ Nobel NightCap requires more than just volunteer students. Another essential factor are the companies sponsoring the event, primarily by donating food, drink and other needed products and services. At Lantis, pallets of soft drinks have already arrived from a major brewery. On the night, there will be both catering and food trucks.
Selin Safer Demirbüker was involved in organising the Students’ Nobel NightCap at Stockholm University in 2015. A year ago, she quit her job to manage this year’s Students’ Nobel NightCap together with Maria Lunusjkin.
What are you looking forward to most at this point?
“Seeing the reactions of the guests as they arrive and see what the place looks like.
I’m feeling good at the moment.”
But she also notes that she, along with everyone else working on the event, will be properly exhausted afterwards.