There is something about summer that makes people want to get together with friends. Plus, there is something so fun about backyard parties. It may be a special occasion or it may be that you want to throw a fun get-together, but sometimes you want summer party ideas for adults that are more than just sitting around on the back porch having a drink and chit-chatting. Get ready to throw an ultimate summer party. These 10 summer party ideas for adults are sure to get your creativity flowing and guarantee your next party is an absolute bash.
10 Summer Party Ideas for Adults
Glow in the Dark
Summer party ideas for adults should be fun. They do not have to be all serious and grown up. With that in mind, throw a fun glow-in-the-dark party with glow sticks galore. One of the fun parts of this party is that there are so many glow products out there that you can really do it right! From light sticks to the necklace and bracelet varieties, buy them in bulk from a party supply store online or stock up on everything you can get your hands on at the local dollar store. There are even glow headbands, straws, balls, tape, and cups.
Then make everything glow. Put glow stuff everywhere! Hand them out as people arrive. Fill glass containers with glow balls or light sticks. Bury light sticks in with the ice in your cooler. Use clear plastic trays and bowls for the food and put glow necklaces underneath so they shine through. Get some fun reusable light-up ice cubes for drinks. Put light sticks in water bottles and place them around on the ground like lanterns. Put some flameless candles out and about even.
Take it a step further and replace some of your lightbulbs with blacklights and have your party guests wear all-white so even they glow. Maybe even play some electronic music and give it a rave vibe. In no time you will feel like you are back in college at one of those all out raging parties you used to find yourself at on a Friday night.
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It’s Brunch, Baby
If you are looking for summer party ideas for adults that are a little more serious or sophisticated, consider throwing a brunch party. The best part of brunch is that you can serve whatever food you want. Serve eggs on avocado toast or chicken and waffles. Whip up a batch of cinnamon rolls or an awesome breakfast casserole. It is brunch, so you can even make a few sliders or some BLTs if you like more of a lunch vibe at brunch.
Invite your guests to put on their best brunch gear – think Sunday best or maybe even resort loungewear – and set out a beautiful summer table in the backyard with flowing tablecloths and pretty cloth napkins. This brunch does not have to take place on a Sunday morning either. Throw this brunch party any time of day complete with mimosas and Bloody Marys. Because summer party ideas for adults have to include a delicious beverage option.
If you want to add a little more than just food and a mimosa, set up some lawn games like croquet or bocce and spend some time acting like the sophisticated ladies you are. Or maybe you want to get competitive and play corn hole or horseshoes and dominate your opponents. This is your brunch, so be as sophisticated or hardcore as you want!
Wine Walk
Invite friends over for a wine walk. One of the summer party ideas for adults that can be a little more sophisticated if you want, a wine walk-themed party is perfect for a late Saturday afternoon turned evening. Set up numbered stations around your yard with pretty tablecloths, disposable wine cups, as well as snacks like finger sandwiches, petit fours, and an amazing charcuterie spread.
Provide the wine yourself or ask everyone to bring a bottle. Have a good mix of reds and whites and maybe a rosé or sparkling wine, so there is a nice variety for everyone to try. Then, have guests go from one wine to the other trying a small pour of each. You can either have everyone try the wines in numerical order together and stand around chatting about them or let people wander from wine to wine in whichever way they want. Give everyone a numbered sheet where they can write down their thoughts and rank which wines are their favorites.
READ MORE: 18 Things You Need to Create Mouth-Watering Summer Party Food (and Delectable Memories!)
Music Festival
Love music? Have a bit of a boho vibe? Then this may be at the top of your summer party ideas for adults. Think backyard Coachella with this theme. Among the most fun and free-flowing summer party ideas for adults, a music festival theme lets you do get as creative as you want. Hang up paper lanterns and pennant banners or streamers all over the backyard. Give things a boho feel by hanging tie-dyed sheets from clotheslines you string up around the yard. Arrange a seating area with hay bales and blankets. Have a station with temporary tattoos, flower crowns, and body glitter for your guests to embrace the music festival vibe.
Set up a DJ booth and string up lights. Post a board with the night’s “line up” and have each of your guests scheduled to DJ for half an hour with their own setlist. You can give people a genre or a “vibe” so each setlist is different or just leave it up to the “artist” to decide.
Instead of coolers, put out big metal tubs of ice to chill your beer and other drinks. Looking for summer party ideas for adults with a little kick? Set up a jello shot station or come up with a signature cocktail. For food think about the types of things you can get from food trucks or at a carnival. Things that are easy to stand around and eat are best.
Monet’s Garden
Add this to your list of summer party ideas for adults if you and your gang are fans of art. More specifically, fans of Monet and impressionism. Think garden party meets art museum. Decorate with pale greens, blues, and purples to mimic some of the artist’s most well-known paintings of water lilies and scenes from his garden. Add some flowers and other beautiful plants in pretty pots. Serve food on cupcake stands and gorgeous platters (even if they are actually plastic trays you got from the party supply store or the local dollar store). Maybe even add fairy lights to the mix.
Pair your gorgeous deco and amazing spread with a signature party cocktail. It does not have to be something you made up on your own. Find something that goes with your theme like a Mojito or a French 75, for instance, and give it a cute name like Monet’s Garden or the Water Lilly and serve it in cute glasses.
If you are a little more adventurous and looking for summer party ideas for adults with something fun to occupy your guests, set up a painting station complete with miniature canvases, paints, and maybe even some berets or artist smocks. Have everyone paint their own garden scene and have a gallery walk of sorts. You could even have people vote for their favorites and give out prizes like “director’s choice” (your favorite as the host) and “viewer’s choice” (everyone at the party votes for their favorite). At the end of the party, your guests can take their masterpieces home as a keepsake.
Adult Summer Camp
There are not many adults in the world who would not like to go to adult summer camp. Games. Crafts. Swimming. General running amok. Maybe some adult beverages because, well, adult summer camp. What is there not to like about that? If that sounds appealing to you, look no further for summer party ideas for adults and get to planning your adult summer camp party.
First, “campers” should check in at the registration desk for their lanyard and a list of camp activities, which are set up as different stations around the yard. Set up games like ring toss, cornhole, washers, lawn darts, or horseshoes. Put together an “archery” station with nerf guns and targets. Blow up a large kiddie pool for “swimming” complete with water wings, squirt guns, and a few pool floats. No summer camp is complete without some arts and crafts, so set up a craft station where campers can make popsicle stick picture frames, friendship bracelets, and maybe even some loom potholders.
Camp attire is mandatory here. Have everyone keep it casual and come dressed in their best camp attire – think khaki shorts, tank tops, and sneakers.
Do not forget the amazing opportunity for camp food if you are considering this in your top summer party ideas for adults! Have a firepit where campers can roast marshmallows, make smores, or even roast hot dogs. You can even set up a snack bar with treats like cupcakes, rice cereal treats, brownies, cotton candy, sodas, and adult beverages of course.
READ MORE: How to Host the Perfect Effortless Summer Block Party
Middle School Dance
Throw it back to the days of the middle school dance and add this theme to your list of summer party ideas for adults. Hang streamers and balloons. Set up a picture station with a shimmery backdrop using foil fringe doorway curtains. Do not forget the epic middle school dance playlist full of all the popular songs from your days in middle school. Part of the fun of this party is that you can tell guests they need to break out their best middle school dance attire.
As summer party ideas for adults go, this one can be thrown inside or outside, so if the weather is bad, you can turn your den into the middle school gym. If it is nice outside, go ahead and have a night under the stars in the backyard. Just do not forget that serving punch is mandatory with any sort of middle school dance-themed summer party ideas for adults.
Letter of the Alphabet
Any easy theme to add to your list of summer party ideas for adults that is also maximum fun when guests really get into playing along is a letter of the alphabet party. The idea here is that everyone invited has to dress up like someone or something that starts with whatever letter you decide. Serve food and drinks that start with your letter of choice and maybe even decorate with colors that start with the letter too. It will be total chaos and completely ridiculous, but that is the real fun of this idea.
For instance, throw an “E” party. Tell guests that they have to dress up like someone or something that starts with the letter E and let their imaginations run wild! People can show up however they want as long as it starts with the letter E! You could see an elephant, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ellen, an easter bunny, an egg, an elegant lady, an elf, or a giant number eight. Then decorate with electric blue and electric green, eggplant, or ebony and eggshell white. Serve eclairs, empanadas, espresso martinis…whatever you like best.
Another version of this party for your list of summer party ideas for adults is to have everyone dress as something that is the first letter of their name. This opens things up to a much broader range of costumes since everyone will not have a name starting with the same letter. Do not worry about everything all fitting together in this theme. It is supposed to be silly. It is also one of the summer party ideas for adults that does not have to have one unifying theme in terms of dress code, food, and decorations if you like to keep things simple on the planning side for yourself.
Dress Like Your Partner
Another silly theme in terms of summer party ideas for adults is having everyone show up dressed like their partner. We are talking head to toe dress up like your partner here. Encourage your friends to go all in and accessorize like their partner and everything. The really fun part is watching everyone arrive! If friends do not have a romantic partner, let them match up with other friends and come as a pair who are dressed like each other. The low-pressure part of summer party ideas for adults like this one is that as the host you can provide whatever food and drinks you want without having to fit them into a theme if that is not your thing.
Christmas in July
There is no real surprise about any summer party ideas for adults that are holiday-themed. Of course, this is a Christmas-themed party, but have you ever been to a party in the summertime that was Christmas-themed? Consider all the fun possibilities that a Christmas in July party offers! First off, you can throw a Christmas in Summer party if you want to have this bash in August instead of July.
Now pull out the Christmas decorations and go crazy! Wrap some empty boxes in Christmas wrapping paper as decoration. Hang up Christmas lights. Even consider putting up your Christmas tree. There may not be Christmas stuff in the store, but you certainly still get it online if you need wrapping paper or little Christmasy items to round out your decor.
Serve all those typical Christmas party foods like pigs in a blanket, sausage balls, a cheese ball, and maybe even a box of assorted chocolates if you can get your hands on one. Serve a Poinsettia as your cocktail.
It may be warm outside but you can have guests either wear their best Christmas sweaters or have everyone dress up in party attire – think cocktail dresses and button-down shirts just like you would wear to a fancy Christmas party during the season. Ask guests to bring a wrapped gift and play white elephant or Secret Santa. If you are really feeling in the spirit of the season, you can give out miniature stockings with a few pieces of candy as party favors.
This year, your summer bash will be the talk of the town with one of these creative summer party ideas for adults. Whether you keep it classy with a brunch or art party or you take it back to middle school, it will be incredibly fun. That is the whole point of the ultimate summer party after all. The hardest decision you have to make now is which one of these summer party ideas for adults is your favorite. Hard to decide? It looks like you will just have to throw more than one party this summer!
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