Partying on wheels - Partyholics takes the fun to the streets

Having a dream to bring a new form of entertainment to Kingston, entrepreneur Christopher Constantine put his creativity into overdrive, and came up with the Partyholics Party Bus, a mobile entertainment space.

Constantine told THE WEEKEND STAR that this dream was conceptualised "from scratch" by him and a few friends.

"I love lights and accessories. I follow this page in Puerto Rico called 'Puerto Rico Buses' and they have a lot of these over there. It's always been a dream to build one, something that can showcase the talent that I have of building stuff like this and that people can enjoy," Constantine shared. After contacting a friend, he was introduced to a dealer in Miami named Danny, who was excited to find him the right bus.

"It was a yellow school bus - seats [with] chewing gum, dirty and he said 'Are you sure this is what you want, you want a short one?' [and] I said 'No, I want space'. So this bus is almost 40 feet long and Danny helped me customise it in Miami [by] putting on the rims, the mufflers and we shipped it down," he recalled. They had to rip out all of the seats, re-wrap them and put in a sound system and air conditioning.

"A lot of people pull through and help me a lot to make this dream come true. Everything else that you've seen here - the lighting, the roof, TV installation was done here in Jamaica. We re-did the inside, put in the partition, put in a bathroom [with] the tanks under [the bus] - a septic tank and one that provides clean water," said Constantine, who also owns truck parts and accessories company Every Trucking Ting.

The renovated 2005 Freightliner, which has been in operation for just over a year, has catered to various events, from birthday parties to graduation balls. Its amenities include a 20-person seated area, a dance area with an adjustable pole and cup holders attached to every seat. He added that though the bus is booked every weekend, there's normally a peak in the demand in December and the summer. With a cost of US$100 (approximately J$15,841) per hour, customers can enjoy a ride with bar stops, sight-seeing among other activities of their choice, for a minimum of four hours. Every rental attracts an "incidental deposit" fee that is refunded the next business day, if the event goes incident-free. He admitted that he didn't know whether the concept was going to work.

"But just the reaction of going places and seeing people's reaction and how they love it, makes you feel good. When people pull that door and look down here...everybody's amazed and it makes you feel good," Constantine stressed. He wants to bring in another bus but with more seats to accommodate more people and options. Extra precautionary measures are also in place to ensure patrons enjoy a smooth ride.

"We do drive extremely slow [but] it's a bit rough. We wish it could be a better but we do also ask [customers] to tell us the locations, the bars that you want to go and we'll try and plan around it. The roads have got a lot worse, but I tell people, it's almost like you're going on a boat ride. Sometimes the water will be choppy, sometimes it will be smooth. With our roads, you'll feel it but it doesn't bother you [because] you're partying so much and enjoying yourself that you don't even notice," he stated. Constantine said that there is significant interest in operating on the north coast, and eventually, he will.

"I really did this to bring some fun to Kingston, but the money really is down that side...everybody that comes inside it, loves it," he said. Though he hasn't been in the business long enough to know how profitable it may be, he opined "there is money to be made".