The success/validity of this event will be highly dependent on your community and who your major demographics are for your complex. One thing we have learned is that you cant please everyone or get everyone to show up for one kind of event. This is why we have been hosting a variety of different events targeted at different age groups (everyone is allowed to join, but we wanted to mix things up and instead of making one general event, we make more focused events.)

We do events for children, seniors, teens, etc. But the one event that had the largest turnout was our "Midnight Party" targeted at young adults. We opened up the pool at round 11 PM, had a DJ booth setup (sound system and all) with lots of food and drinks. There were Nachos, pizza, wings, fries and more. For drinks we had a variety of beers and canned wines, along with a variety of non alcoholic beverages. (Obviously check IDs before giving anyone a drink). The party lasted until about 2 in the morning.

This party was a huge success and the staff had a lot of fun as well!

Now, this can get a little pricey obviously. We didn't do it this time around, but you may be able to partner with a couple of food/drink vendors in exchange for a couple of freebies. We plan on doing this once maybe 4-6 months, as to not incur a large cost or have people to get worn out by it. Also consider the sound system noise, luckily our pool is in the recreations area by our club house (further away from the actual apartments) so there were no noise complaints.