Air kisses and photo ops, hot chicks and cool deals: that's what the Cannes market is all about. Cannes festivaliers are a peculiar breed, one that can subsist on hors d'oeuvres and alcohol without ever missing a sunrise. The endless odyssey of Festival parties is as crucial to work as it is to play: they are elements that are taken equally seriously by those in the film industry. 

Begin with a drink on the Carlton Terrace, then move up to the penthouse for a few more cocktails, followed by dinner on the beach at the Majestic and then dancing into the small hours at the Palm Beach. But seasoned Festival-goers are a fairly jaded lot, so the business of keeping them amused is no easy endeavour – especially when they are so spoilt for choice. "That's the hardest part," says Steve Guy, MTV project manager for Columbia Tri Star's Godzilla party on 21 May. "Sometimes you see parties that are so huge and expensive that they result in overkill. Often it's the simple things that people remember." 

Guy hopes to hold the attention of his 4,000 guests by building a set of "a demolished New York" in the Palm Beach Hotel, populated by break dancers in reptilian garb. "People need something to talk about at a party. We want to get the human animations and the extras interacting with the party-goers." Would he please elucidate? "Just look out for being kidnapped by the lizard people!" 

Obviously, the film's subject will dictate the theme and therefore the mood of the event. Thursday's Blues Brothers bash kicked off a series of soundtrack-led parties with appearances from the Blues Brothers Band featuring BB King. At the other end of the music spectrum, we can expect celebrity DJ line-ups at parties for Film Four's Acid House and Fruit Salad Films' Human Traffic. Both pictures tell stories from clubland and will be bringing the rave scene live to Cannes. "Getting Danny Rampling and Carl Cox for the Human Traffic party on the 17th was a huge coup," says Jessica Kirsch from Spirit Publicity. "Carl is one of the highest paid DJs in the world, and he just doesn't do private parties. It would never have happened if he hadn't been in the movie." On the 19th, Radio 1 DJ Danny Rampling will be spinning discs at the Film Four party along with Acid House author Irvine Welsh.

But no matter how riveting the entertainment, organisers agree that alcohol is the indisputable party lubricant. "You want people to let themselves go, and usually it's through heavy drinking," admits MTV's Steve Guy. Nick Jones of Soho House agrees: "But I think you've got to have drinks that aren't obviously freebies. At some parties you go to there is just so much Sol. It's an obvious marketing ploy – and I think the wedge of lime gimmick has sort of worn off. They need a new concept – maybe they could refurbish it with a banana." 

Jones and Guy also share the same views about bathrooms. "Bad bathroom placement can break a party," Guy declares. "I like venues where there are plenty of loos," concurs Jones, "because I suffer from a weak bladder." 

It would be impossible to write about Festival parties without mentioning sex and drugs, which, because they inevitably take place in the toilets, are the nemeses of the continence-challenged party guest. "There is nothing more annoying when you have a weak 
bladder," laments Jones, "than people who are taking drugs in the loos." 

It is often the wilder, more decadent side of Cannes parties that is most memorable: the striptease by the fountain, the nearly capsized vessel. Paco Hoyos, md of Cinecompany and a seasoned party-goer, remembers CiBy's party for Palme d'Or winner Underground in 1995 as his most extraordinary experience: "A fight broke out between some Bosnian guests and the director's entourage. The CRS had to be called in. Johnny Depp had to be protected by his bodyguards." 

Disasters of this kind can destroy a publicist's manicure. "The worst thing that could have happened at our party would have been if the band hadn't shown up," says Nadia Bronson, who organised the Blues Brothers bash for Universal. "I might have had to stand up on a table." Guy's worst fears for Godzilla are an electrical failure or a catfight between supermodels and rockers. For Tony Franklin at DDA, it is simply rain. 

For the guests, the only worry is getting hold of an invitation. Even that's not such a problem, because at Cannes, there will always be another party.