Host a Beatles Rock Band Party for your middle school kids or high school teenagers, and turn your basement or family room into the coolest jam session in the neighborhood.
Concept
Guests will relive the major events of the Beatles' history through an evening of singing, electronic instrument playing, and gaming.
Invitation
For the simplest, teen-friendly invitation, post a Facebook invitation or use Sendomatic.com to create a multimedia e-vite that fits your rock music theme. Set the start and end times, so parents can arrange for car pooling. A window of 2 to 3 hours is appropriate for this event, assuming your group will have 10 to 15 guests.
Set Up
Create a studio area around your largest and most accessible television. Your kids can set up the video game system and equipment. Beatles Rock Band runs on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii and it will be released in September 2009. Since up to six people can play simultaneously, plan to divide the group up into teams of five or six kids. Have additional seating areas or non-Rock Band activities for the non-playing teams. Ping pong, billiards, cards and dancing are great options to keep everyone entertained.
Food & Beverage
Serve bowls of dry snacks, such as popcorn, chips, M&Ms, and pretzels. Candies such as Tootsie Pops and wrapped Starbursts are also favorites of most teens, and they offer an alternative to the other snacks. If desired, offer the kids a couple of cheese pizzas after the first hour of playtime, to break up the music and to replenish their energy stores.
Easy, kid-friendly beverages can be offered simply by setting up two insulated beverage dispensing jugs. Fill one of the three gallon jugs with iced water and the other will iced lemonade. Make sure that the spigots are free-flowing, place a drip-catching cloth under each spigot, put a stack of disposable cups next to the coolers, and you’ve set up a self-service beverage center!
Implementation
Divide the guests into teams of five to six band members. Each band can choose which people play the various instruments and which people are vocalists. Beatles Rock Band allows for up to three vocalists and three instruments, enabling the group to form bands of three to six members (instrumentalists can also be vocalists).
An adult can be the bands’ manager, assigning studio time to each band. Start by giving each band a 15 minute session (the length of time they can use the video game) before turning the studio over to the next band. After the end of each round, the band that has progressed furthest in the game is the winner. The Manager can determine how many rounds the party will last. However, once the music starts, you may find that your position as Manager can be eliminated and the kids will just have fun following in the footsteps of one of the most beloved bands of all time!
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