Never let the party die is an apt mantra for Washington advocacy groups at this summer’s political conventions. Despite new rules barring organizations that employ lobbyists from hosting events honoring members of Congress, the party scene at the party conclaves in Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul in the coming weeks is shaping up to be one heck of a good time.

A spokesman for the Democratic Governors Association, Brian Namey, is not at all modest about the “Rocky Mountain Salute to Democratic Governors” that his group is planning for the first night of the convention. “This is the hottest,” he says. Attendees looking to hob-nob with the country’s 28 Democratic governors will only have to take a short walk from the convention hall, Denver’s Pepsi Center arena, to the party at Elitch Gardens amusement park along the South Platte, where they can rock out to the tunes of Colorado band Big Head Todd and the Monsters.

Hangers-on hoping to rub shoulders with the Hollywood elite can look forward to Wednesday night galas at both conventions hosted by the Creative Coalition. The venues have not been disclosed. Those attending might lay eyes on Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee and Susan Sarandon, who are listed among the coalition’s delegates to the conventions.

Even lobbying firms will be out in full force. Washington’s biggest firm, Patton Boggs, will play host on the convention’s second night at Bar Standard, a brand new Art Deco club in Denver’s SoCo (“South of Colfax”) district. The next week, on the final night of the Republican convention, the firm plans to throw a party saluting the GOP staff at St. Paul’s Landmark Center, a century-old Post Office and courthouse renovated into a cultural center.

Likewise, a hot ticket for Democrats is sure to be the opening night bash at the Denver Art Museum — expanded in 2006 — sponsored by hometown law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber & Schreck, which maintains a Washington lobbying office. Name partner Steven W. Farber is leading the Denver host committee’s fundraising efforts.

Interest groups are getting in the act as well. The American Conservative Union Foundation will throw a party saluting Ronald Reagan at Minneapolis’ Aqua Nightclub on the convention’s final night, while philanthropist Tim Gill — the founder of Quark Inc. and a prominent supporter of the gay rights movement — recently dropped plans for a party at Denver’s Rioja restaurant across the street from the Pepsi Center in favor of something at a yet-to-be-revealed venue with more capacity.

The Bipartisan Policy Center — founded by four former Senate majority leaders, Republicans Howard H. Baker Jr. and Bob Dole and Democrats George J. Mitchell and Tom Daschle, all of whom now work at Washington law and lobbying firms — will be an equal-opportunity party machine. It has events planned at Vesta Dipping Grill on the first night in Denver and at Bellanotte on the second night in Minneapolis.

Before anyone gets too crazy on the dance floor, however, partyers be warned: Campaign finance and ethics watchdogs will be out in force, says Craig Holman of Public Citizen. He says the group is teaming with like-minded delegates to keep tabs on the events and plans to raise a cry over rules violations. Holman says he fully expects even those who meet the letter of the law to disclose their events — and the representatives and senators who attend them — in new public disclosure forms mandated by both chambers.