Having events is the best way to drive back traffic to your bar on slow days. It keeps business booming, promises a surge of customers, and gives them something to look forward to. One crowd-favorite event has to be karaoke night. If you’re thinking of planning a karaoke night at your bar, we’re here to give you some creative ideas to get you started.
Themed nights
Let’s be fair, thinking of fun and creative event ideas every few weeks is a difficult task. There are only so many happy hours, singles’ nights and game screenings you can execute until it becomes boring. The key is to make variations of the same event. That’s why we love themes! A regular karaoke night might get you some extra traffic but a themed karaoke night will pool in an entire fanbase.
Pick a theme, make sure the decor matches your chosen theme, and do your research to pick out all the hit songs that fall in that category. You don’t want to disappoint your audience because you didn’t do your research properly (that would be embarrassing). Here is a list of some killer themes that have very dedicated fan bases, and you can count on then to show up:
- Disney soundtracks
- Ladies’ night
- K-pop
- Taylor Swift night
- Bollywood jams
- Heartbreak and love songs
- Boy bands
- Christmas all year
Karaoke competitions
If you think people don’t get competitive over simple things like karaoke, then you’re wrong. Make the most of this energy and host competitions every now and then with rewards for the winner. These rewards can be things like drinks on the house or special discounts.
You’d be surprised at the amount of talent that will walk through your doors. And at the amount of friends who would want to compete against each other. You can even go the extra mile and make the competition last for a few weeks. Every week call back the participants until you have one winner. You will have to market the event at your venue and even more so on social media. Use some online karaoke flyer templates and you’ll be good to go.
Costume party
Costumes tend to mix well with theme nights but they don’t necessarily have to happen side by side. Costumes can add a fun twist to a regular karaoke night. There is a little issue of people feeling uncomfortable dressing up like it’s Halloween on a regular Friday night. You can easily overcome this with a little motivating discount offer.
If the costume theme is onesies, then not only encourage karaoke participants to dress up, but also offer a discount to anyone in the audience who shows up in a costume!
You don’t necessarily have to keep the costume themes complicated. After all, your audience happens to be adults with busy schedules. You can keep them low maintenance and easily doable, like assigning colors to certain days. If showing up in Barbie pink clothes means you can get your favorite drink at half price, who’s going to say no?
Parody karaoke
A fun twist on regular karaoke is parody karaoke. This gives the people who aren’t naturally gifted singers their time to shine. Imagine a night full of horrible singing and fake songs – exactly what a bunch of friends would love to partake in. There are a bunch of ways you can execute this.
Divide your audience into two teams and give them some time to change the lyrics of a song and come up with their own version. Once time runs out, a few people from each time will come and perform their parody song. The team that gets the louder applause wins!
You could also encourage people to sign up on behalf of their friends who aren’t too great at singing. The point is to have lots of fun and fits of laughter. And when an annoyed friend is forced on stage, that’s exactly what you get. If their friend wins then that group gets free drinks.
Wrapping it up
When it comes to karaoke, the possibilities are endless! Keep an open feedback channel with your customers and they will constantly give you more ideas to work with.
Once you start hosting the events you will gradually figure out what’s the sweet spot for your audience and then you can build on it. Most importantly, remember that karaoke is supposed to be fun! Encourage singers and non-singers alike to just blow off some steam with their friends and come together for a happening night… every few weeks!
