What is a white party?

The theme is the dress code. Guests turn up dressed in white from head to toe, and the whole room becomes one colour under the lights. Everything else — the music, the venue, whether it's a club night, a pool party or a boat — changes from one white party to the next.

Naming a party after a colour isn't new: the Wikipedia article on circuit parties says many of them were named after colours, such as the White Party, the Black Party, the Blue Ball and the Black and Blue Festival.

One white party with a documented history is the White Party in Miami. According to its Wikipedia article, the first one was held in 1985 at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, organised by Frank Wager and Jorge Suarez to raise money for HIV/AIDS charities: 1,600 guests attended, dressed in white, and it was the all-white clothes that gave the event its name. By 1994 it had grown into a whole White Party Week, and from 1998 to 2018 its events were hosted by Care Resource.

The rule travels well beyond Miami: in the Nights destinations alone, white parties have taken place in clubs, beach clubs, on a rooftop pool and on boats.

White, and only white. Beyond that, each venue sets its own door rules: Papagayo in Tenerife, for example, asks for 18+ with a physical DNI, NIE or passport (no photos or scans) and doesn't allow cargo trousers, tracksuit bottoms or football shirts. Check the night's page on its destination website before you go.