Have you ever considered hosting a YouTube party? The idea is simple. You’ll gather a number of your friends in front of a screen and take turns sharing your favorite YouTube videos with one another. Some will be funny. Some will be informative. Some will be utterly ridiculous. It all depends on who’s doing the sharing and what the tone of the evening is.
The best part is, it doesn’t take much to host one—and once you’ve got one under your belt, your guests will be eager to participate again.
Why YouTube Parties Are So Fun
There are a few unique perks of throwing a YouTube party, which you couldn’t get at a typical event:
- Shared experience. First, because you’ll all be watching videos together, you’ll share in a singular experience. You can laugh at the same moments or stare in silence together at the same surreal dialogue. Afterward, you can talk about what you liked most and least.
- Personal contributions. Everyone is going to get a chance to share a video that means something to them. Over the course of the night, you’ll get to know your friends a lot better—and you may see new sides of them that you’ve never seen before.
- Rapid-fire entertainment. Most videos shared will be under 10 minutes long, or even shorter, depending on the rules you set for the evening. That means you’ll be switching videos very frequently; if something isn’t entertaining, it won’t be long before you have something new, and you’ll wade through several genres and formats before the night is over.
How to Host One
These are some tips to get you started as you plan to host your first YouTube night:
- Get a Chromecast (or something similar). Get yourself a Chromecast or a similar streaming stick. They’re relatively inexpensive, but they come with an awesomely convenient feature; the ability for multiple individuals to queue up videos from their smartphones in one shared pool. That way, you won’t have to manually search each request, nor will you need to take much time between videos or ask people what they’re contributing. Instead, people can pile on the existing queue and roll seamlessly from one video to the next.
- Download at least some videos in advance. The worst-case scenario for your party is a sudden, unexpected internet outage—or shoddy coverage that leaves your favorite videos grainy and borderline unwatchable. You can prepare for this by downloading at least some of your favorite YouTube videos in advance with a YouTube downloader. That way, you’ll have entertainment lined up no matter what.
- Set the rules. Before your guests arrive, be sure to set some ground rules for the event. For example, you might forbid people from sharing videos that are more than 10 minutes in length, or you might ask that your guests never share more than two videos in a row before moving onto another participant. Design your rules to ensure the greatest amount of variety and participation, but don’t go overboard with them.
- Decide on a theme (or go without one). If you’re looking to get some specific videos, you could choose a theme in advance. For example, you might make a “cringe” night or exclusively focus on humorous videos. This is certainly optional, however, since a themeless night may result in more variety.
- Make sure everyone feels included. YouTube parties succeed or fail based on the people participating in the evening. If your guests feel included and videos are coming from a diversity of participants, the evening will be more likely to succeed. Go out of your way to encourage the shy members of your group, or pull back on people dominating the queue.
- Take breaks. Watching videos endlessly can get exhausting even for the biggest fans of the platform. Make sure you plan to have a few breaks throughout the night to decompress and mingle with each other. Refueling with snacks and drinks is a good excuse to walk away from the screen and have a face-to-face conversation.
- Consider going remote. While it won’t have the same impact as an in-person event, you could also watch YouTube videos with your friends remotely. This method makes it possible to stay in touch with people who no longer live near you and share the same kind of video experience.
There are no firm rules for how your YouTube night has to go, but it pays to plan ahead and set a tone and atmosphere for the evening. Set a date for the event and give your friends plenty of time to gather up all their favorite videos from the past. By the time the event is over, you’ll all have new favorites—and videos you’ll never want to see again.
