When I attended my first Abbondanza this June, the three story party had been held annually for four years. However, the most I knew about it was that it had a long mouthful of a name that means “abundance” in Italian, and that it is held in the opulent renovated Ohio Building.

A benefit for the Junior Achievement of the Wabash Valley, the party began in the early evening hours with food catered on all three floors from some of Terre Haute’s most well-loved eateries; each floor was a party unto itself. As soon as I walked past the silent auction with items donated from several local businesses, I entered the first floor party, “The Big Easy”. The large and spacious room was filled with linen covered tables that surrounded a tiled dance floor in the middle, before which the beloved Governor Davis and the Blues Ambassadors wailed to an increasingly lively crowd of partygoers. An adjoining room held buffets of food ranging from meatballs to cold cuts to barbeque to an impressive, treelike display of chocolate covered strawberries and tiny cupcakes. The cash bar tucked in the corner kept attendants’ drinks topped off.

After moseying through the throng to a steep flight of wooden stairs that made me glad I had providentially opted out of heels that night, I rose into the Ohio Building’s “Casa Urbana” and the second floor party, “In the Loft, Rockin’ The Night Away”. With rock favorites being played by band Switchback in a room set up with plenty of space for dancing, along with the homelike setup of the space (Casa Urbana is a private residence when parties aren’t raging), “Rockin’ The Night Away” had a sort of feel that you were at a house party, albeit a very luxurious one. A cash bar mixed and poured drinks under the blue light of a fish tank that made up a large portion of the wall behind the bar, and the guests that weren’t dancing leaned in hallways, chatted in the kitchen while resting their drinks on the marble countertop, or relaxed in one of the two living rooms, resplendent with enveloping couches and some of the owners’ impres sive personal art collection. I lingered here the longest; while busy, this floor’s party had the most comfortable, familiar feel to me; the kind of party where there’s a good band, good food, and good friends.

Eventually, however, I meandered down a corridor and found my way to the rooftop party, “Salsacrazy”. The rooftop boasts a lawn, trees, and a wooden overhang covering a deck; twinkling white lights wound through each of these lit up the night sky over Terre Haute as partygoers enjoyed a zesty Latin soundtrack. I noticed that, in keeping with the theme of the party, the bartender made my friend’s drink with tequila, whereas it had been mixed with rum just downstairs. The night air was warm and the entire rooftop seemed cast in a candlelit glow as the sounds of laughter and chatter and heels on a wood deck lifted into the evening.

And slowly, the night wound itself down. At the event’s professed ending time of eleven, people began to trickle, in groups of three or four, out to the front entrance of the building, obscured from the road by the carefully groomed treeline, cooling their heels on the wooden benches provided for likely that express purpose. Some made their way on to one of the several afterparties being held in nearby bars and lounges; beat from an hours long but utterly enjoyable evening of climbing and descending stairs from one party to the next and spinning around the dance floor, I was one of those that headed instead for their cars and for home. But it ended with that satisfied, slightly heady feeling that drinks had been had, the food had been delicious, and the laughter and dancing plentiful. True to its name, the three layer party had been abundant, and I was full.