AIBU to not provide food at a birthday party?!

[WobbleYourHead]

DS is going to be 9 next birthday. He wants a skate party at our local roller rink. The party will be 6:15pm until 7:45pm on a Sunday night (they're fixed times for parties and this is the slot available on the date we want).
We have a limited budget and without food he could invite his whole class, friends from cubs, football etc. If we cater the party then it'd drastically limit numbers.
We plan to provide drinks for the kids and there's a cafe on site that will be open if parents want to stay.
WIBU to allow him to invite all the friends he wants and skip the catering?!

You need to provide some food. Can you bring your own food in? £20 spent in Asda would buy a sizeable amount of party junk food.

It's only for an hour and a half and not during a mealtime. I might buy a couple of big boxes of crisps or something to let them help themselves to but I wouldn't put on a full spread!

I don't think you can give nothing.

Sweets and crisps even!

Candy and crisps should be fine.

You need to position the no food on the invite.

And there will be cake?

Yes, what about the cake?

YABU I'm afraid. Invite a smaller number and feed them, else you will end up with a lot of hungry unhappy children (and unhappy parents too).

It doesn't matter what time, if my children were invited to a party, I'd expect some food. Just a few snacky bits, crisps, biscuits and sweets would be fine. I've got 2 parties to throw soon, one a class one and one a very small number. Food is going to cost me about £30 for both.

I'd be surprised that it would drastically limit numbers. Roller discos are at least £5 per head, and I could knock up 100 sandwiches for that.
or do you have to use their catering?

I'd limit numbers and put snacks on. I've never been to a party where no food has been provided.

Sounds like a great idea for a party, I would however provide some food of some sort, not a buffet but certainly crisps, pizza and sweets maybe?

OP are you talking about catering the party through the venue as a part of a party package (hot food things)?

I can see how that could add up per-head if you are planning on having a lot of children.

Can you bring your own sweets and crisps?

YWBU not to provide anything at all. 6.15 pm is around dinner time for many kids.

You should warn the parents to feed their kids beforehand and provide crisps and a few snacks at the very least. If you're inviting dozens of kids, it's not so much more money just to have a few bags of crisps and so on.

I"d be tempted to have fewer kids and some 'proper' party food to be honest, but that's just me.

I would expect a party at that time to provide food. It would be too early for them to eat beforehand especially with travel time and exercising on a full stomach. And at the other end, by the time they have got home, it will be quite late and they will likely be ravenous from the exercise.

I thought I'd given all the info you'd need (didn't want to drip feed).

You can invite upto 150 people for a fixed price (basically just hiring private use of the rink plus disco lights & music). We won't be inviting anywhere near that many, that's just the upper limit.

You have to use their catering so just bringing our own snacks like crisps/sweets isn't an option.

I intend to tell parents on the invitations that drinks will be provided but the party isn't catered.

There won't necessarily be a cake ceremony (I haven't discussed whether you can take a cake/candles onto the rink for the purpose of singing happy birthday). There'll be a balloon drop where happy birthday will be sung.

I ordinarily get the kids to pick let's say 15 friends but DS desperately wants to invite everyone and struggles to pick especially as he's involved in several out of school activities.

Also OP, 50-ish (from your info) kids for a nine year olds party seems loads.

I really would invite a more manageable number and cater for them properly.

I'd put bowls of sweets and crisps out. Can't go wrong really. They will be skating around most of the time anyway!

Scrap that just re-read your post.

Okay, cross post, OP.

So they will just skate for all that time, no snack, no cake or anything?

I dunno...will that work for everyone, do you think?

I would never expect parents to provide DS's dinner at a birthday party unless it was held in a restaurant/a pizza party.

Just let the parents know so they can feed them something at 5. They will be fine exercising after a light meal.

Oh and I planned on giving out party bags with cake & probably a few sweets.

Maybe I should do "party bags" with a packet of crisps, a snack bar and piece of cake and hand them out earlier than the end of the party?!

It wouldn't bother me that there wasn't food tbh, I didn't realise so me people see it as a given. In my experience so much food gets left uneaten at parties because the kids don't want to stop having fun I didn't think it'd be an issue.

If there is a cafe on site couldn't the parents just give them some coins and then they could get something if they were hungry. It's not like it is an all day thing.

Sounds like an ace party. I wouldn't mind the lack of food just so long as you mentioned it beforehand so I could plan. You could beef up the party bags a but with snacks in case they are hungry after and can eat them on the way home.

My kids are a bit younger but I find they hardly eat anything at parties anyway - too many distractions.

I would definitely cater for them OP, it will be expected and it may embarrass your DS as his friends will have been to other parties and know the norm. The parents may well start a thread on MN about it..:)