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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Primary education

Organising a barndance - to include children or not?

13 replies

gremlindolphin · 10/03/2009 18:40

Anyone any experience of barn dances?

We are organising a barn dance at school and can't decide whether to start early so people can come with children or to start later and make it a grown ups evening? My dcs love this sort of thing but having been to one I can see that it would also be fun just with adults but then credit crunch-wise would it encourage people to come if the didn't have to find a babysitter?

Any thoughts appreciated!!

OP posts:

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Smithagain · 10/03/2009 19:19

Personally, I'd love to have the chance of a barn dance with kids included. School evenings events are always a bit of a nightmare baby-sitting wise - I feel morally obliged to support them but all our baby sitters are also fellow-parents.

And barn dances are ideal for all ages to do together. Make sure you get a band with a caller that can make the instructions really clear and then you can have a real laugh as seven year olds and six-foot rugby players attempt to spin each other round and out-do each other's fancy footwork!

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hertsnessex · 10/03/2009 19:20

With kids xx

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PandaG · 10/03/2009 19:22

we did one last year with children. we did 6.30 - 9 on a Friday night iirc (is an infant school) and it was well attended and good fun.

we had a live band and a caller - if we'd had piped music it would have been a cheaper event to organise. we got a licence and had a bar - made money from this over and above the ticket sales.

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springlamb · 10/03/2009 19:24

If it's a fundraised I've always found pressure from the children adds to the ticket sales so I'd include kids (you know, "Mum have you got the barndance tickets yet. S and P and T are all going...")
The last school barn dance I went to included kids, many came with extended family groups at tables of 10. Much money was made.
A decent caller will do a few simpler dances for the youngers, and the kids love seeing the grown-ups all in a tizzy trying to keep up.

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springlamb · 10/03/2009 19:25

Fundraiser, of course.
Dog being silly and distracted me.

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seeker · 10/03/2009 19:27

Start earlier and include children. We do one every year and it makes loads of money!

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footballsgalore · 10/03/2009 21:02

We went to a barndance with children recently. Many of them were pre-school and everyone had great fun!
However, it may be worth warning the band/caller as he did seem a bit surprised to see so many children and had to rack his brains a bit to come up with suitable dances. That said, he did a great job and even included the Hokey Cokey for the littlies!

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kalo12 · 10/03/2009 21:05

definately involve kids, that way people who don't like dancing/joining in can dance with their kids to warm up.

i went to a barn dance when i was little and it was brilliant

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smellyeli · 10/03/2009 21:07

Love barndances, especially with children. If you have a good caller, it will be great fun. At our wedding the band even let some of the children join in with tambourines etc.

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seeker · 10/03/2009 22:03

And don't forget the raffle. And we do this thing where we get lots of envelopes, and anyone who wants to puts a pound coin in it and writes their name on it. At the end of the evening we put all the envelopes into a hat, pull one out and the winner gets half the money. Easy, fun, raises a bit of money and sends someone home really happy!