Campfire director

You’ll need

Pens or pencils
A4 paper

Before you begin

Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers
Make sure you have the 'Tips on structuring your campfire' close to hand. There’s a useful sample structure for the activity you can use.

Run the activity

Everyone should get into teams of four. Each team will need a pen and paper.
Each team should come up with two or three songs that they’d like to sing at a campfire. They should also think about other ideas for campfire activities, as well as a theme for the evening.
To help the groups think up songs, themes and activities, you could give each group an upcoming event where their campfire will be. Some examples of this might be a Christmas Party, summer barbecue, group camp or international visit.
If anyone has their songs, activities and theme sorted, they should start to think up a sketch or skit to perform.
Instructions, such as a script, for the sketch or skit should be written down so that it can be taught to the rest of the group when around the fire.
In the run-up to the event, the groups should rehearse their campfire programmes. The person leading the activity should share the sample structure from the ‘Campfire director’ instructions, to help the groups stay organised and manage their timings.
Run your campfire. It’ll be useful to make a note of which songs, activities and other features everyone liked, and what things could be improved for next time.

When planning a campfire, it’s helpful to think about the following:

Who’s it for? What sections and ages will be there? This’ll change the type of songs you sing.

How long should it be? This’ll change the number of songs, as well as the size of your fire. It’ll also tell you how much rehearsal time you’ll need to get everything right.

Who’ll build and light the fire? If you’re preparing the songs or sketches, you might not have time to light it yourself.

Who else will be leading? You may need other people to help you lead particular songs or elements of the campfire. This’ll depend on how many people are there and how long your campfire will take.

What safety measures? Make sure you have fire buckets, a first aider, a clear exit from the campfire site and people to help get everyone out safely.
What’s new? Watching the same show over and over can be fun, but it’s best to keep it fresh. What new songs or skits could you perform to make your campfire memorable?

Below is one way to structure your campfire that helps it keep pace and flow. It doesn’t matter how exactly you arrange your campfire, so long as it’s fun. Everyone should work as a team to choose the best structure and entertainment for your event.

Stage one: light the fire

Campfires begin with the fire, of course! Check out The perfect campfire or Fire star-ters for guidance on building and lighting fires. This part can set the mood for the rest of the event, so see if you can add some fun to it. Perhaps there are some magic words to call out when lighting or someone could say a few words as a reflection on the rest of the day.

First song

‘Campfire’s burning’ is a traditional song often sung at the start of a campfire. You could sing anything, but songs that start off quiet and calm are the best at this stage.

Stage two: warm up

At the start of a campfire, your audience are just like the fire; they’ll take time to warm up and may hesitate before getting involved with the singing.

It can sometimes help in the planning to share your programme with some of the patrol leaders or adult helpers and spread them out around the crowd. That way, when they join in, those around them are more likely to join in too.

Campfire greatest hits

In the warm-up, the best two types of song to begin with are the ones that everyone knows the words to (think of songs that’d be #1 in the campfire charts!) and those with actions. This way, people don’t feel left out.

First funnies

After one or two songs to get everyone warmed up, introduce your first sketch. A sketch is just an extended joke or play lasting about 5 minutes. This is important to give everyone a break from singing and time to laugh. It could be anything you like but make sure it’s well rehearsed!

Stage three: loud and proud

The third stage is like the climax of a good film, everyone’s feeling active and starting to sing along louder with each song.

This is the point to begin adding in songs that the audience might not have heard before, as this involves learning the lyrics as they go. Try using ‘repeat after me’ style songs and songs that use several parts to split the audience up and challenge a side to sing louder than the other. The sillier, the better. Now’s also a great time to introduce a song you’ve written. If you’d like to write a song but aren’t sure where to start, try changing the lyrics to a popular song that everyone knows the tune to.

End the stage with another short sketch, to allow everyone to catch their breath.

Stage four: winding down

This final stage helps to bring the energy levels back down, as most campfires end with going to bed or going home. It helps to calm the atmosphere a little and not end with a wild and noisy song. Think back to the sorts of songs you started with, the slower more familiar songs that match the fire itself as it begins to burn down and turn to embers.

This doesn’t mean that songs have to be sad, just slower and with fewer actions.

Thank you and goodnight

The last song should always be a goodnight or goodbye song. Afterwards, you may like to reflect again on the evening or set everyone up for the next day. But whatever happens, thank everyone for getting involved and enjoying the campfire with you and give a round of applause to those who acted in your sketches and helped lead songs.

Reflection

Fires at camp aren’t just for keeping us warm and keeping us fed. They help everyone tell stories and bond with one another. What is it about campfires that you think makes them such a social feature? How did your campfire experience go down with the rest of the group and which parts did they like most?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Fires and stoves: Make sure anyone using fires and stoves is doing so safely. Check that the equipment and area are suitable and have plenty of ventilation. Follow the gas safety guidance. Have a safe way to extinguish the fire in an emergency.
Music and films: Make sure music and films are age appropriate for the youngest person present.