How to Host a Quiz Night?

Here is everything you will need:

• Venue
• Quiz Master
• Microphone & speaker
• Prizes
• Pens & question answer sheet

1. The Venue

Find somewhere with plenty of space, many pubs will offer free use of their function rooms/spaces provided people spend money at the bar. Sports clubs and town/village halls may also have similar policies. Get in touch with the management of the venue you are wanting and explain to them that it is for charity and what we do, many venues are far more generous once they know about the cause

2. Entry Fee & Prizes

Keep entry fees and prizes modest.

We recommend an entry fee of around £1 – £2 per person with 50% given to the winning team and 50% as a donation to our charity. Think about having an adding a raffle to your quiz and ask local businesses to donate vouchers or prizes.

3. Teams & Questions

Set a limit on team sizes, we recommend 6-8 people per team is a reasonable limit.

Around 50 questions are ideal for a regular pub quiz night. Include a good range of subjects, from celebrities to sport, from pop music to classic films. A picture round requiring players to identify people, places and animals and even solve a picture puzzle or two often proves popular.

Set your difficulty levels you feel your audience will best enjoy. and think about having a tie-breaker question ready.

4. Presentation

Most pubs start their quizzes between 8:30 and 9:00pm. This allows around two hours for the quiz, which is sufficient for regular events.

For a one-off event it should go on all evening giving time to hold a raffle and any other entertainment you should wish to arrange.

Get the right Quiz host. Find someone who is a confident public speaker, (teachers often prove to be very good at this). They need to keep people’s attention and read every question twice. Investing in a microphone will help tremendously.

Include regular breaks between rounds, letting people get a drink and review their answers or ask for question repeats. A good measure of time is two rounds of ten questions between each break.

After all the questions have been read out it’s helpful if the quizmaster can circulate amongst the teams to repeat any specific questions and perhaps get some feedback from customers on the quiz.

Consider having a rollover jackpot game to finish off your evening. e.g. Play your cards right

5. The Rules

The answer on the quiz host’s answer sheet is the right answer – If the quiz host has got it spectacularly wrong, consider awarding every team a bonus point. Stick to this rule and you will avoid potential disagreements or confusion.

Make sure you ban the use of mobile phones and other internet connected devices.

6. Marking

Swapping answer sheets tends to be the most common way. Make sure to check each answer sheet after and let teams see their marked answer sheets to prevent and resolve disputes.

If your quiz host has a helper you can ask for the sheets to be handed in for independent marking between each round.

7. Cheating

Keeping a beady eye on mobile cheats.

• Make people aware that phones are not allowed to be used until quizzes are marked.
• Encourage people to snitch on anyone they spot cheating to the quiz host.
• Make the team caught do a funny while slightly embarrassing challenge if they wish to stay in the quiz.