5th birthday party- no bouncy castle

[MellowBlueReader]

Hi,

my eldest turns 5 and is starting school this year and wants a party that he can invite all his new friends to- fine, all good with that.

the plan was to hire a hall (I can't have that many kids + parents + the friends and family in our house) get a bouncy castle, do the food and let the kids run riot for a couple of hours- went to book the hall today and they've said it's not suitable for a bouncy castle 😫

absolutely lost now- what else can I do to keep 30 odd 4-5 year olds entertained for 2 hours??

TIA

Mine is turning 5 later this year and her friends have all been turning 4 this year and we’ve been to a lot of parties. We haven’t been to a bouncy castle party for over a year now.

It’s all been about children’s entertainers/discos for her age group.

Which is absolutely fine by me as I can’t stand bouncy castles

Play old-fashioned kids' party games? Silly races, etc. Get a few oarents to help.

Escape room?

Yeah an entertainer is the way to go. Even if you could have a bouncy castle one wouldn’t be enough to entertain 20+ children for 2 hours. They should be able to theme the party around what your DS likes. Either go for someone who runs the full 2 hours for you or one who does a 1 hour ‘visit’ so you have half an hour for running around, an hour of entertainment and half an hour for food then home.