Starting the dance party beside pig pen was a farce (8)
I believe the answer is:
travesty
'a farce' is the definition.
(I know that farce can be written as travesty)
'starting the dance party beside pig pen' is the wordplay.
'starting' indicates taking the first letters.
'dance party' becomes 'rave' (rave is a type of dance event).
'beside' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'pig pen' becomes 'sty' (where pigs are kept).
The initial letter of 'the' is 't'.
't'+'rave'+'sty'='TRAVESTY'
'was' is the link.
(Other definitions for travesty that I've seen before include "Grotesque parody" , "'Farce, parody (8)'" , "Burlesque, parody" , "Charade" , "Grotesque misrepresentation" .)