PULTEVENT
Midsummer party games: 7 ideas for the longest evening of the year
Midsummer Eve on an island in the Stockholm archipelago, a quarter to eleven at night, and it is still light enough to read. The maypole is lying on its side on the grass because the rain came in sideways just after the herring. Thirty-one people are now crowded into a red wooden barn with wet flower crowns, a bowl of strawberries and a TV somebody carried down from the house. The small frogs dance has been postponed. Nobody is quite ready to go to bed.
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I love hosting midsummer because the whole evening already has a script: herring and new potatoes, schnapps with drinking songs, strawberries, the maypole, the frog dance. What it does not always have is a plan B for the weather, or a way to include the colleagues and partners who have never been to one. A few screen games fix both.
PULTEVENT runs from a laptop in a browser. You connect it to a TV or projector, guests scan a QR code and play from their phones, no app and no sign-up. Their phones need a connection, and on an island that means checking mobile coverage before you promise anyone a quiz.
7 midsummer games, indoors or out
1 The midsommar picture quiz
Photos on screen: a pickled-herring jar, a maypole with its two rings, a flower crown, a plate of new potatoes with dill. Guests answer on their phones and the scoreboard sorts out the Swedes from the visitors.
How to run it. Write your own questions in the builder; there is no ready-made midsummer deck. Keep the text short, pictures do the explaining.
The visitors learn the vocabulary before the songs start, and the hosts get to feel smug.
2 Snaps-song battle
Two tables sing a drinking song each, before the glass goes up. The rest of the room votes from their phones for the better performance.
How to run it. Put the lyrics on screen for the foreign guests. Nobody knows all the verses anyway.
Drinking songs are the heart of the Swedish party table. A contest makes even shy guests join the chorus.
3 Flower-crown vote
Everyone photographs their crown, the gallery goes up on the big screen and the room votes. Most ambitious, most wilted, most likely to contain a dandelion.
How to run it. Give three categories so it does not become a popularity contest.
The crowns took an hour to make that afternoon. They deserve an audience.
4 Seven flowers raffle
Tradition says that if you pick seven different flowers and sleep with them under your pillow, you dream of your future partner. The raffle, entered by QR code, picks who has to go out and find seven kinds before sunrise.
How to run it. Draw two or three names so nobody goes alone into the wet meadow.
It gives the late part of the evening a small quest and a story for breakfast.
5 Fun Flight while it pours
A room game on the big screen that everyone controls from their phone. No rules to explain, which is ideal when half the room has had a few snaps.
How to run it. Keep it for the moment the rain starts. It gets people off their phones' weather apps.
The energy you would have spent on the frog dance goes somewhere.
6 Guess the midsummer photo
Old midsummer photos from the family albums: the uncle in a crown in 1987, the grandmother with a maypole behind her. Phones guess the year or the person.
How to run it. Scan the albums a week before. The older generation will want to be consulted.
Midsummer is a family festival. This round puts three generations on the same screen.
7 Bonfire countdown
In Finland, Norway and Denmark the evening often turns around a bonfire. A countdown screen tells everyone when it will be lit so nobody misses it while clearing plates.
How to run it. Put the countdown on the TV by the kitchen, where people will be.
One screen does the job of shouting across a garden.
A plan B for the rain
When the maypole gets rained off, the barn TV becomes the stage and the party keeps its momentum.
Visitors understand the traditions
A short picture quiz explains the frogs, the herring and the seven flowers.
Everyone's phone, everyone's language
Guest screens follow each phone's language, so the Finnish cousins and the German boyfriend both get on.
Bright nights, careful screens
In the light Nordic evening a TV beats a projector. Plan for it.
What happens on Midsummer Eve
In Sweden, Midsummer Eve falls on the Friday between the 19th and the 25th of June, and for many people it is the high point of the summer. Families and friends head to the countryside. A maypole decorated with leaves and flowers goes up in the afternoon, people dance around it, and the best-known dance involves everyone hopping like small frogs while singing about their lack of ears and tails. Then comes the long meal: pickled herring, new potatoes, sour cream and chives, cold schnapps with songs, and strawberries to finish.
None of that needs a screen. The screen is for later, when the light fades a little, people move indoors, and the evening could either go on or peter out.
The neighbours do it differently
In Finland it is juhannus, with lakeside cottages, saunas and bonfires. In Norway and Denmark the focus is Sankthans on the evening of the 23rd, with bonfires by the water; in Denmark people sing a midsummer song by the fire and often burn a witch figure on top. If your party is a Nordic mix, a round on the differences is a friendly way to start an argument over whose version is better.
Screens in the light
A projector struggles when the sun barely sets. Before about eleven at night in southern Sweden, a bright TV is far easier to read than a projected image on a barn wall. Face the screen away from the windows, or pull the curtains in one room and call it the cinema.
"Can we turn off the sun?"
"Not until July."
The company midsummer party
Plenty of Nordic companies throw a midsummer party in the week before the holiday, since the eve itself belongs to families. In an international office, this is the one event the non-Nordic staff are most curious about. Keep the quiz explanatory rather than tricky, put herring on the menu but have a backup, and let the Swedish colleagues teach the frog dance.
Connection on an island
Summer houses are often at the end of a gravel track. Guest phones need internet to play, so check mobile coverage when you arrive, not when the rain starts. If the signal is poor, the picture rounds and old photos still work from the laptop, with people calling out their answers.
A trial run
Build the quiz during the free 3-day demo, no card required, and test it on the TV at the summer house. The full version is a one-time licence, no subscription. See pultevent.ru/en for the price.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted weddings, birthdays and office parties since 2014: over 500 events, best host of Moscow 2024 and of Saint Petersburg 2023 at the TOP 100 Awards. He made it for his own nights first. The rest is at pultevent.ru/en.
How to run midsummer party games
- 1
Decide what happens outdoors and what moves to the barn or house if it rains.
- 2
Write the picture quiz and gather old midsummer photos from the family.
- 3
Check mobile coverage at the venue and the TV input you will use.
- 4
Load the song lyrics, the quiz and a countdown for the bonfire or the frog dance.
- 5
After the meal, put the QR code on the TV and start with the quiz.
- 6
Move to the song battle, the crown vote and the raffle as the evening goes on.
FAQ
Can we play outdoors?
Is there a Swedish-language quiz ready?
Will the Finnish guests see Finnish?
Does it need a projector?
Can the grandparents join?
How long does the free demo last?
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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