PULTEVENT
Community event games: 7 formats for block parties and town halls
The extension cord runs out of Mr. Alvarez's garage, across two driveways and a flower bed, to a folding table at the end of the cul-de-sac. On the table: a borrowed projector, a laptop and a roll of duct tape holding a white sheet to the basketball hoop. It is 8:40, the sun is finally down, and sixty neighbors who mostly know each other by dog are about to find out who knows this street best.
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Community events are the hardest crowd I host. No one bought a ticket, no one has to stay, and the ages run from strollers to walkers. What holds them is something everyone can see and everyone can join, and a prize at the end.
My kit for this is one laptop running the host console in a browser, one screen (a projector, a TV, a sheet on a hoop) and the neighbors' own phones. They scan a QR code on the screen and they are in, with no app and no sign-up. Their phones need a data connection. Outdoors, that is the first thing to check.
Seven formats for a community event
1 Neighborhood raffle
Every phone that joins gets a three-digit ticket, and the drum on the big screen picks the winner. If a phone goes to sleep, the ticket is held for ten minutes.
How to run it. Ask local businesses for prizes and read their names with each draw. Draw one prize early so people see it is real.
The raffle is the reason people scan the code. Once they are in, they stay for everything else.
2 Local history quiz
Questions you write in the quiz builder about your own town or neighborhood. The year the library opened. The old name of Main Street. Which house had the famous Halloween display. Four options on each phone, a countdown, and the answer in green.
How to run it. Ask the local historical society or the longest-living resident on the street to check your answers.
Newcomers learn the neighborhood, and the old-timers get to be right in public.
3 Best stall, best chili, best porch
Live voting from phones. You type the question and two to six options, people choose, and the winner is shown when you end the vote.
How to run it. Number the stalls or the chili pots so the options on the phone match what people tasted.
It turns a food table into a contest and gives every stall a reason to hand out one more sample.
4 Horse Race
Six horses and jockeys on a 3D course with stands and starting gates. Whoever claims a horse on their phone rides it: tap for speed, a button for the fences, arrows to change lanes and grab coins. Place plus coins decides it, and empty stalls get bots.
How to run it. Run kids' races first while the parents are still around, then an adults' race once the grill is off.
It needs no explanation. Anyone who has seen a horse race knows what to do.
5 Drift Arena tournament
Twelve cars at once on a 3D arena, one per phone. Players only steer and hit the drift button; the scoring rewards long, committed slides rather than raw speed.
How to run it. Run heats by street, then a final. Put the scoreboard up between heats so people can follow along.
Twelve people steering at once, and the rest of the street shouting at a sheet on a basketball hoop.
6 Street scoreboard
A full-screen table with a score for each team. Add points after the quiz, the races and the vote. The awards ceremony at the end gives each team a fun award and one team the trophy.
How to run it. Make the trophy something silly that has to be passed on next year: a painted garden gnome, a golden spatula.
A trophy that moves from street to street every year is how a one-off block party becomes a tradition.
7 Event timing on screen
The plan for the evening, block by block, with the current one highlighted automatically. Between blocks, a break screen shows a countdown to what is next.
How to run it. Put the time of the big raffle draw on the schedule and leave it visible. It keeps people around.
At an event where people come and go, a visible schedule answers the question you would otherwise hear forty times.
A raffle that makes people scan
Anyone who joins by QR gets a numbered ticket automatically. It is the best reason there is to get a phone out.
Questions about your own town
A local history quiz built in the quiz builder, answered from phones. What was on this corner before the pharmacy?
Races for the whole street
Horse Race takes six riders at a time, Drift Arena up to twelve cars. Street against street, heat after heat.
A schedule people can see
The event timing screen shows the plan and highlights what is happening now, so nobody has to ask when the raffle is.
Outdoors after dark
Daylight washes a projector out to nothing. Plan the screen games for after sunset, or use a big TV under a canopy. A white sheet works as a screen if it is pulled tight; a wrinkled one makes every question look like it is underwater.
Bring more extension cord than you think you need, a power strip and a plan for rain. A garage with the door up is an excellent rain plan.
Signal, not Wi-Fi
Neighbors play on their own mobile data, which takes Wi-Fi off your list. Signal where people stand is what matters. Walk the spot with your phone a few days before. The laptop needs a connection too; a hotspot from your phone is usually enough.
There is no offline mode. If the park at the edge of town has no coverage, move the screen games to the community center.
Ask the neighbor with the best garage speakers to bring them. A projector has a tiny speaker or none at all, and a race with no engine noise is half a race.
One more practical thing: tape down every cable that crosses a path. At a block party, small children and people carrying plates of ribs will find every loose cord within the first hour.
Who does what on the night
Three volunteers are enough. One runs the laptop and the games. One walks around with the QR sign and helps older neighbors join. One looks after the prize table and reads out donor names at each draw. Everyone else can play.
Brief them an hour early, not over the phone the night before. Show the laptop person the order of the evening, and show the prize person exactly when each draw happens. A block party with three volunteers who know the plan beats one with ten who do not.
Library nights, town halls and festivals
The same kit works indoors. At a library family night, run the local history quiz and a horse race for the kids. At a town hall social after the meeting, a vote on next year's festival theme gets more responses than a paper survey. At a street festival, put the screen near the food stalls and run a raffle draw every hour.
Getting people to scan
Put the QR code large on the screen, and have one volunteer walk around with a sign that says “scan for a free raffle ticket”. Older neighbors who do not want to scan can team up with someone who does.
The host console is being localized into English, and each phone shows the game in its own language. The ready-made quiz decks are mostly Russian, so the local quiz is one you write.
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.
Try it free for 3 days, no card needed.
How to run games at a community event
- 1
Collect prizes from local businesses and write the local history quiz in the quiz builder.
- 2
Build the evening in event timing, with the big raffle draw near the end.
- 3
Set up the screen where it will be dark enough, and check phone signal on the spot.
- 4
Show the QR code and send a volunteer around so neighbors join and get their tickets.
- 5
Run the quiz, the vote and the races by street, updating the scoreboard as you go.
- 6
Draw the big prize, present the trophy, and put next year's date on the screen.
FAQ
Do people need to download an app?
Do we need Wi-Fi outdoors?
Is there a limit on players?
Can we use a TV instead of a projector?
Is there a ready-made local quiz?
Can people vote more than once?
What if it rains?
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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