How do I go about organizing a street party?

Question

like what are the first steps to doing this? I want to have one in the next few weeks... i think it would be a great idea. what kind of invitations and what kind of decorations and stuff do you have i want kind of a cook out...

Answer 1

Have a potluck - tell everyone to bring a covered dish and BYOC (bring your own chair), and meet in your front yard. Have some card tables set up for the food. You provide the paper plates and some gallons of ice tea.

This is a great way to get to know your neighbors!

Answer 2

First and formost find out if you need a permit from your city/town.  You probably do to shut down the street.

Block parties tend to be very expensive.  

For a cookout I would suggest that you send out leaflets explaining why you're doing it.  Ask each person name and phone number.  What you plan on contributing and ask what they can contribute.  Perhaps you can have each person involved decorate their poarches.

Answer 3

I think it's a great idea!  If you mean in the actual street though, you're going to have to get permits though to close the street.  Then you can get with planning!

You can do the invites and either mail them out to your neighbors or deliver them and either leave them in their mailboxes or in their doors.  You can also knock on their doors and hand them to the people.  You can do something like:

It's a neighborhood street party!

Come and bring the kids too!

We're having a party, we just need YOU!

Get to know each other and have lots of fun

A day filled with good food, good friends, out in the sun!

Or

Let's Get to Know Our Neighors Street Party

Come join the fun with food and friends

We'll hang out and party til' the day ends!

We have all we need to do

We just we our neighbors, that's YOU!!

OR

It's a Barbeque Street Party!

Come and join all the cookout fun

and bring the family, we want everyone!

Food, friends, fun for all!  

Meet the neighbors, have a ball!

Being you want to do a cookout, you can do hamburgers and hot dogs, with some toppings like lettuce and tomatoes and onions.  Keep it simple being this could end up being a really big crowd! You can also do hot dogs with mustard.  What you can do is have tables set up with the toppings.  Have the grill then a table with the toppings.

Have one table for the hamburgers and all the toppings, and if you can fit the hot dogs and they're toppings, do them too.

Then set up another table of side dishes, like baked beans, french fries, macorini salad, potato salad, corn,  etc.  If someone asks to make something ask what they would like to make and keep a list and write down their name and what they're making so that you don't have doubles and you know what you have being made and what you don't.

Also remember the condiments! Ketchup, mustard, salt, pepper, sugar, etc.

You can also do a dessert table later on with cakes, cookies, brownies, a coffee urn, tea urn, sugar, milk, etc.

You can have an ice cream bar for the kids.  Get chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream and some toppings.  Sprinkles, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, and cherries and you can get those waffle cone bowls at the grocery store and let them make their own sundaes.

You can also get some watermelon, and better yet, cut some big slices and have a watermelon eating contest!  

You can also do other games for the kids, like relay races, potato sack races, three legged races, wheel barrel races, etc.  

You can set up a volleyball net and have them play volleyball and badmitten.

You can get an inflatable kiddie pool and fill it with water and the kids can break up into 2 teams and have a tug of war, the losing team ends up in the pool!

They can have water balloon fights, if the parents are ok with it.

You can also serve lemonade, iced tea, pink lemonade, which is just regular lemonade with grenadine added to it.

For decorations, you can put up clusters of balloons around the area of the party and around the entrance of your house, and if it's going to be a thing where it becomes a block party, have balloons lining up and down the streets.  You can hang a welcome banner in your yard to welcome the neighbors.

For colors, choose something that's bright and summery.  Go with your favorites, but make it bright and summery, and continue that color with the tablecloths, napkins, etc.

If the party's going to go into the night, hang some clear, stringed, Christmas lights around your yard through the trees and party area, it will be a nice atmosphere and look really pretty.

You can also put some lounge chairs and lawn chairs and cushions around your yard for everyone to sit and hang out on.  You can have some blankets set out on the yard for kids that want to sit out and play.  

If you can get some bubbles for the kids, they would LOVE that!

You can also set up some umbrellas and areas of shade, you can do that by draping fabric around so you have shaded areas for those that can't take the sun.

For other decoration ideas, go to the toy store or dollar store and in the summer section, get a small wagon, the ones made for the size of dolls, and put some desserts or things in them, that would make a great display item.  You can also get sandpails for holding the plastic untensils, even the small flowerpots would be great.  The sandpails you can line with napkins to hold things.

I hope I didn't overwhelm you or freak you out, I just love your idea and had lots of ideas!  I hope they help and that you have a GREAT party!

Answer 4

You will need some help and maybe a bit of money up-front to cover expenses. Keep in mind that not everyone will want to participate and there may be some complaints, but that's to be expected. Here are some links to get you started and good luck-