PULTEVENT
Bar entertainment ideas: 8 screen nights for slow weekdays
Wednesday, 8:15 pm. Four people at the bar, two of them on staff. The bartender has polished the same pint glass three times, the TVs are showing a baseball game nobody is watching, and the owner is doing the math on closing early. Those TVs are the most underused thing in the room.
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Trivia is the obvious answer, and it is a good one. This page is about everything else: eight nights you can run on the bar's own screens, mostly without a quiz, to give people a reason to come out on a Tuesday.
The kit is small: a laptop behind the bar with the console open in a browser tab, an HDMI lead to the TVs, and the customers' own phones. They point the camera at the code on the TV and they are playing. No app, no account. Their phones need internet, either your Wi-Fi or their own data.
Eight screen nights for a slow week
1 Karaoke battle Tuesday
Teams sing, the room votes by QR, and the screen keeps the score. Upload the backing tracks into the section beforehand, like a karaoke playlist.
How to run it. Seed the first round with your staff. Nobody wants to go first; everyone wants to go second.
A battle gives shy singers a team to hide in, which is exactly what gets them to the mic.
2 Fake karaoke
A customer sings over a backing track while a mic on the laptop records only the voice. Then the moment of truth: the music stops and the bar hears the vocal on its own.
How to run it. Try it yourself first so you know the recording is clean. Pick songs everyone thinks they can sing.
The playback gets the biggest laugh of the night, and the singer usually laughs hardest.
3 Racing league Wednesday
Drift Arena: up to twelve cars sliding around a 3D arena on the TVs, one per phone. Nobody touches an accelerator; the phone screen splits into left and right for steering, and the DRIFT button throws the car sideways. Longer, faster slides score more. The top three end the heat on a podium with fireworks.
How to run it. Keep a league table by the bar and crown a champion at the end of the month.
Racing is loud and fast, and people who would never sing will race.
4 Derby night
Six jockeys on a 3D track, and each horse belongs to whoever grabbed its stall on their phone. Tapping keeps it galloping, a jump button clears the fences, and lane changes pick up coins. Coins count on top of the finishing place, so the leader does not always win. Anyone not riding picks a horse to shout for.
How to run it. Let the crowd back a horse for bragging rights or a round of chips from the kitchen. Keep cash out of it.
A race every fifteen minutes gives people a reason to order one more and stay for the next.
5 Raffle hour
Everyone who scans the QR code gets a three-digit ticket. The drum on the TV picks the winner. A phone that goes to sleep keeps its ticket for ten minutes.
How to run it. Announce the draw times on the chalkboard outside. Draw the last prize at the end of the hour.
It is the easiest way to get a quiet room to scan the code, which makes every other game easier.
6 Dance battle
Teams take the floor in turns, the room votes from their phones, and the screen counts the points. Upload short dance clips and they play on the TVs for the teams to copy.
How to run it. Run it after ten, when the bar is loose enough. Start with a clip that is easy to copy.
It turns a bar into a dance floor without hiring a DJ for the night.
7 Crowd vote
Live voting from phones with your question and up to six options. Best performance of the night, next week's theme, the name of the new cocktail. The winner shows when you close the vote.
How to run it. Use it at the end of every themed night. A regular who voted on next week's theme has a reason to come back.
It makes customers part of the planning, which is cheaper than any ad.
8 DJ deck between rounds
Two decks, a crossfader, EQ and set recording in a browser tab. At the top, a list of song requests from guests' phones, so you can see who asked for what.
How to run it. Keep the music going between every game. Silence between rounds is when people pay their tabs and leave.
One laptop runs the games and the music, so one person can run the night.
A weekly calendar, not a one-off
People come back for a night they can remember: karaoke battle on Tuesday, racing league on Wednesday, derby night on Thursday.
Games the whole bar can play
Drift Arena puts up to twelve cars on the TVs, each steered from a phone. Horse Race takes six riders at a time.
The crowd is the judge
In karaoke and dance battles the room votes from their phones, and the screen keeps the score.
Music between rounds
A DJ deck in the same console: two decks, a crossfader and EQ, on its own tab so nothing ends up on the TVs.
A calendar for a slow week
Monday stays quiet. Tuesday is karaoke battle, with fake karaoke to finish. Wednesday is the racing league. Thursday is derby night with a raffle hour at nine. Friday and Saturday do not need help; if they do, put the dance battle on late.
Pick one night and run it for six weeks before judging it. A new night takes a month to find its crowd.
What the owner needs to have
Screens with an HDMI input, one laptop and one person who can run it, a host or a confident member of staff. The console runs in a browser; nothing is installed. Customers play on their own phones through your Wi-Fi or their own data. Put the Wi-Fi password on the table tents and the chalkboard.
There is no offline mode, so if the basement room has no signal, keep the games upstairs.
Keep money out of the games
Derby night works as a laugh, not as a book. No stakes, no cash, no tickets sold. The raffle tickets are free and handed out when a phone joins, which keeps them a promotion rather than a lottery. Check your local rules before you ever charge for anything like this.
Who runs the night
For the first two or three weeks, bring in someone who hosts for a living, or do it yourself if you are comfortable on a mic. The first nights set the tone, and a host who can tease a nervous singer onto the stage makes the format. After that, a confident bartender can run it from the laptop at the end of the bar while still pouring.
The phone remote helps here: the person running the night can start a race or open a vote from their own phone while walking the floor.
How to tell if it is working
Count heads at nine o'clock on the same night for four weeks before you start and four weeks after. Look at the tab totals for the night. If both are flat after six weeks, change the night, not the idea.
Ask regulars which night they would come out for, with a crowd vote. They will tell you.
And talk to your staff. A bartender who likes the karaoke night will sell it at every table; one who dreads it will not, however good the numbers look.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, an event host since 2014 with more than 500 events behind him. The TOP 100 Awards named him best host in Moscow in 2024 and in Saint Petersburg in 2023. He wrote the console for his own nights first: pultevent.ru/en.
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How to launch a weekly screen night at your bar
- 1
Pick one slow weeknight and one format: karaoke battle, racing league or derby night.
- 2
Connect a laptop to the bar TVs over HDMI and check that customers get signal at every table.
- 3
Load backing tracks, set the raffle prizes and write the draw times on the chalkboard.
- 4
On the night, put the QR code on every screen and have staff point people to it.
- 5
Run the games with music from the DJ deck in between, and close with a crowd vote on next week.
- 6
Keep the same night and format for six weeks, then compare headcounts and tabs.
FAQ
Do customers need an app?
Does it work without internet?
How many people can play at once?
Do we need a professional host?
Can customers bet on the horse race?
Can it play music too?
Can we run it on several TVs at once?
What does it cost?
See also
Run brighter events — with PULTEVENT
All audience interactions, a second screen and timing in one app. Guests join by QR — internet is needed for you and for them.
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