A campfire program is essential to running a successful campfire. Nothing more could make or break a campfire than its program.

So what are the important ingredients to a good campfire?

Approach:
A rough plan is important. In fact, a guide is more important than a plan. What is important is for the MCs to have a good feel of the participants and adjust their program accordingly. For example, if the participants are getting bored, an action song would do well. Or if the participants are getting too rowdy, some downtime with slow songs or a skit may be required. However, a song list and timeline should also be present so that don't just pick things off the air and can refer to their timeline if they need some ideas. It would help if the participants do not have this timeline or songs list, as that would remove the flexibility to adjust the program on the fly.

Timing:
A good campfire is neither too long nor too short. So what is a good timing? A good timing is one that builds up the participants and ends before their energy level starts to go down too much. This usually happens between 60 to 90 minutes. The diagram shows how a campfire builds up. Notice that it does not end back right at the bottom.

MCs:
The master(s) of ceremony is critical to maintaining the mood of the campfire. Besides being energetic and extroverted, MCs also need to be able to conduct the campfire as it is ongoing, they need to be able to control the mood according to what is required and therefore need to be able to feel the participants and react accordingly. MCs need to know the lyrics of songs sung and be able to sing them at the correct pace and tempo.

Songs should be clustered together, according to theme:
Instead of just singing, singing songs that have a similar pace would be good. For example, singing a thousand legged worm just after Pearly Shells do not quite match. Fast songs and slow songs should be put in separate clusters. Alternatively, songs can be clustered together by type. For example, action songs in one cluster or foreign language songs in a cluster.

The best campfires are the ones not really lead by MCs, but instead led by the participants. However, MCs should still control the energy and direct the flow to make the campfire really fun for everyone involved.

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