Kay Redfield Jamison said it best: “Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.” And it isn’t just for kids! Coming together for the sole purpose of mucking around, having fun, and being creative has countless benefits for everyone – adults included.
That’s where Field Day games for adults come in. While you may associate these events with your childhood, field days are increasingly popular among grownups, too. Held on sunny summer days and involving care-free fun and physical activity, they offer a fantastic boost to well-being, plus no shortage of team-building opportunities. If that sounds good, check out this list of 16 field day games, activities, and events for adults to enjoy this year.
1. Hula Hoop Games
Hula hoops are a fantastic addition to any Field Day for adults. Why? Because there are so many fun activities and challenges that you can do with them! Here are a few of our favorites:
Hula Hoop Marathon
This game couldn’t be simpler. Line everyone up, hand them a hula hoop, and see how long they can spin it around their waist! Whoever can hula for the longest wins. Do several rounds, where winners steadily move toward the “finals.” Whoever wins the final is crowned champion (and gets a prize).
Hula Hoop Squeeze
Split the group into teams of 5+ people, then hand each team a hula hoop. Their task? To lay the hoop on the ground and fit everyone into the circle it creates! They have to think creatively and work together to cram everyone into this small space. Small group? Create smaller teams and see if they can fit the hoop around everyone’s waist instead.
Hula Hoop Toss
Think target practice but with hula hoops! Split into at least three teams, giving each member a hoop. Next, lay out a series of targets between 5 and 30 feet away from them, assigning each one a point value (e.g., the closest target’s worth one point, while the furthest is ten). Their job is to toss the hoops around the targets. The team with the most points at the end wins.
2. Nature Collage
Want to do a creative Field Day activity? Try making nature collages. You’ll need glue, thin wooden boards (or pieces of card), and access to somewhere like a local park, forest, or beach – anywhere with an abundance of natural materials lying around, such as twigs, leaves, grass, and flowers.
Next, split into teams and spend 15 minutes gathering your items. From there, you can work together to design an attractive layout with them before sticking everything down onto the wooden boards (or cardboard, if you’re using lightweight items, like leaves). By the end of the activity, you should have a set of attractive natural collages to put on display at home or in the office.
Is bad weather at risk of spoiling your Field Day?
Don’t worry. You can take the fun inside and turn this activity into a tissue paper collage instead. For this version, you’ll need lots of colored tissue paper, large pieces of thick cardboard to act as the “canvas,” glue, paintbrushes, and scissors. After dividing into your teams, work together to cut out tissue paper shapes and then glue them to the card to create tissue paper masterpieces!
3. Three-Legged Race
That’s right, the classic race from your childhood is just as fun for adults! In fact, it’s probably even better. After decades of being bipedal, strapping your leg to someone else’s and having to move in unison is a significant (and hilarious) challenge – especially when you make it a race.
As you can probably remember, you don’t need much for a three-legged race. Some simple strips of fabric or lengths of rope will suffice. From there, you divide the group into pairs, stand each team side-by-side, and use the fabric/rope to tie Person A’s right leg to Person B’s left leg or vice versa.
Next, mark a start and finish line, get everyone to stand at the start, and blow a whistle for the race to commence. Expect chaos and laughter to ensue as they make their way as quickly as possible down the track!
Got lots of people coming to your Field Day? Try a three-legged relay race instead.
This time, you’ll need to create a longer track with four individual sections before splitting everyone into pairs like before. Assign four pairs to each team then set them around the track to run different sections of the relay. Each “starting pair” needs a baton, which they’ll pass to the next pair in their team, whenever they reach them. The first team to reach the finish line wins!
4. Ring Toss
Remember the ring toss idea we talked about in the Hula Hoop Games section above? Well, another option for your Field Day would be to forget the hula hoops and do it the old-fashioned way, with actual rings or loops of rope.
You can buy ready-made ring toss sets online. But if you want to save money without sacrificing fun, why not create a DIY version? Things like bottles with rice inside make great targets. And Frisbees, self-tied loops of rope, or paper plates with the middle cut out can work as rings.
Whatever setup you choose, ring toss is always an engaging and accessible activity. Lay out the targets, assign point values, split into teams, and then see who can “ring up” the biggest score. We recommend making it a tournament. Give everyone a chance to play each other before moving into knock-out rounds and an eventual final! Award prizes to the winners.
Want to do something totally different? Play rounds of Human Ring Toss. In this version, one member of the team becomes the target, and their teammates attempt to throw inflatable pool/swimming rings over their heads! Whoever’s the target needs to be slim for it to work, but it’s definitely a novel twist on a classic game.
5. Squirt Gun Water Races
Squirt gun water races are an exciting alternative to traditional water fights. To play, you’ll need plastic cups (one per team of two people), string, scissors, duct tape, and enough squirt guns for every second person in the group (i.e., 10 people will need at least 5 squirt guns).
Set up for the game by:
- Making a small hole at the bottom of each cup, close to the edge
- Threading a long line of string (e.g., 15 feet long) through each cup
- Use duct tape to suspend the string between two fixed points that are slightly closer together than the length of the string (e.g., a tree and fence about 12 feet away from each other). The cups should be facing the same direction
Play the game by:
- Dividing into pairs and blindfolding one member of each
- Giving the blindfolded members a squirt gun
- Ensuring the cup starts at the end of the string, closest to the teams
- Pitting pairs against each other to see who can squirt water into their cup fastest, pushing it to the other end of the string
The first pair to get their cup to the other end wins. Of course, only one member can see what’s happening! The sighted person must communicate effectively to guide their partner in the right direction.
Squirt gun water races are unique, exciting, and awesome for team-building. Yet another benefit is that they’re accessible to everyone. Unlike other Field Day games for adults that involve physical activity, you only need the ability to fire a water gun!
6. Blind Volleyball
Volleyball’s always fun to play with friends. However, this version of the game adds a memorable twist that makes it even better! Rather than playing with an ordinary net you can see through, you place a cover over the top that stops you from seeing the team on the other side.
This simple change completely alters the volleyball experience! It becomes something like Battleships. You have to guess where the opposition is so you can place the ball where you hope they aren’t. In essence, you’re playing blind.
Assuming you can find a volleyball net and ball, this Field Day game for adults is nice and easy to organize as well. The rules are exactly the same as normal, other than the cover you’ll put over the net (an old bed sheet does the trick nicely). Just be conscious of hitting the ball too hard! You don’t know where people are on the court, so smashing it over the net is asking for trouble.
7. Tug-Of-War
No list of Field Day games for adults would be complete without tug-of-war. A classic activity, it’s suitable for both small and large teams (although having an even number of people helps) and always goes down a treat!
To play, you’ll need a long, thick rope with a piece of material tied at the center and two equal teams of roughly the same strength. From there, you:
- Mark a centreline on the ground
- Lay the rope in a straight line so the flag/material is next to it
- Get each team to stand in a row next to one half of the rope, facing the opposite team. The centreline should be equidistant between them
- Get the players to pick up the rope and prepare to pull
- Blow a whistle so the teams start pulling (or “tugging”) against each other.
A battle ensues, with each team pulling as hard as they can, slipping and straining with each passing second! The first team to pull each member of the opposition across the centreline wins.
Organizing a Field Day for a really large group? You could do a tug-of-war tournament! Instead of dividing into two teams, split into lots of smaller groups, and put each one against the other until you find the ultimate winner. Awarding prizes will make the effort feel worth it!
8. Costume Race
Costume races are fast-paced, hilarious, and ideal for both small and large groups. To give them a try, you’ll need:
- A briefcase for each team
- Enough old/used clothes for each member of the team to get fully dressed, such as hats, dresses, shirts, skirts, pants, and jackets.
You then fill each briefcase with clothes and mark a track with a start and finish line. Next, put the briefcases at the end and line up the teams (each should have the same number of people, if possible) at the start.
When the whistle blows, one person in each team races to the briefcase opposite them and gets fully dressed as quickly as possible, pulling the clothes over the top of whatever they’re already wearing. They then rush back to the start in their costume, at which point the second person in their team has a turn.
The first team where everyone is dressed in a costume and back at the start line wins! However, if you want to make this game even more memorable, design it so each briefcase follows a certain theme. You could have one team dressing up as pirates, for example, another as famous Disney characters, and so on.
9. Egg and Spoon Race
An egg and spoon race is another game that’s as fun for adults as it is for children! It’s also incredibly simple. As the name suggests, all you need is an egg and spoon for each participant. From there, you set a start and end point, line everyone up with the egg balanced on their spoon, and blow a whistle for the race to begin!
The first person to cross the finish line with their egg still intact wins. If someone drops their egg on the way, they must stop and pick it back up using only their spoon (no hands allowed!) before continuing.
Want to make the game less messy? Consider boiling the eggs beforehand. It’ll stop them from cracking when dropped, reducing the amount of cleaning up you’ll do when everyone’s ready to go home. You’ll be able to re-use the eggs, too – a bonus if you’re running multiple egg-and-spoon races throughout the day.
Oh, and don’t hesitate to combine this Field game for adults with the three-legged race we mentioned earlier! Making participants balance an egg on a spoon while their leg’s also joined to a teammate’s is a recipe for fun.
10. Wheelbarrow Races
Fun Field Day games for adults don’t get much better than wheelbarrow races. It’s another activity you may remember fondly from childhood – a silly, light-hearted, and surprisingly physical race where teams of two use their bodies to form the shape of a wheelbarrow! Here’s how it works:
- The group divides into pairs, with one player as the “wheelbarrow” and the other as the “driver”
- Whoever is the wheelbarrow lies face down on the ground as if they’re going to do a push-up
- Whoever is the driver then takes the wheelbarrow’s feet in their hands, lifting their legs up at the same time as their partner pushes up with their hands
The resulting pose resembles someone pushing a wheelbarrow! However, instead of having wheels, the person in front (i.e., the wheelbarrow) uses their hands/arms to move while the driver walks forward normally.
As for the race itself, you set a start and end point and get everyone to line up in position. When the whistle blows, they have to walk/run together as fast as possible to the finish! Once there, they swap roles and then race back to the start. The first pair to complete both journeys wins.
11. Funky Relay Races
Every adult Field Day worth its salt has a relay race or two! However, you don’t have to do a traditional running relay, where you sprint along a track to pass a baton to the next runner on your team. These can be fun, but there are dozens of different relays to experiment with. Here are a few ideas:
Leap Frog Relay
Teams form a line, with each member crouched in front of the other. The person at the back then “leapfrogs” their teammates until they arrive at the front, where they crouch back down. This process keeps repeating until the entire team crosses the finish line!
Balloon Waddle Relay
Break into teams, create a track with the same number of sections as there are people to a team (e.g., teams of five need a course with five equal sections), and give an inflated balloon to the first person in each one. They must put it between their legs and waddle to the next teammate along, who takes the balloon and repeats the process.
Crabs Race Relay
Crab relays work like any other, except you’re in the crab position! Sit on your butt with your arms by your side. Then, with your palms and soles of your feet on the floor, push upward to lift your butt off the ground. You then “walk” forward in that position, moving your hands and feet – like a crab.
For the ultimate relay race, try to mix and match ideas. The first leg could involve a crab race, for instance; the second could be a balloon waddle, and the final leg could be the costume race we mentioned earlier!
Worried about members of the group who are less mobile? Forget running, hopping, skipping, or jumping, and incorporate sections that are less physically demanding.
For example, one part of the relay could be an egg-and-spoon race, another could be bouncing on Hippity Hop balls, and the third could involve working with a partner to transport a balloon from point A to B using only your foreheads! With creativity, you should be able to design a relay race that’s suitable for everyone in the group.
12. Obstacle Course
An obstacle course is another crowd-pleaser that’s as versatile as relay races!
From crawling under chairs and jumping over cones to walking along zigzagging stretches of rope and squeezing through hula hoops, you can create an endless list of obstacles for participants to navigate, all while racing to the finish. The result is a fun-filled and exciting event with a nice dose of friendly competition thrown in.
Here are a few additional DIY obstacles course ideas to consider:
- Hang inflated balloons at different levels under a table – people must crawl underneath without touching them
- Make a laser-style course out of pieces of string for people to climb through
- Set up cardboard boxes with holes to throw beanbags into
- Create makeshift tunnels to crawl through by hanging old bed sheets and blankets over rows of chairs
- Lay hula hoops along the ground for people to hop between
- Lay rope on the ground in different patterns to walk along and test people’s balance
- Create “stepping stones” using circles of rope and play “the floor is lava” – if they miss a stone and touch the ground outside, they go back to the start
13. Sack Races
Hunting for more classic Field Day games for adults and want something suitable for groups of any size? You can’t beat a sack race. Channel your inner child, climb into a hessian sack, and hop, skip, and waddle as fast as you can to the finish line – racing your teammates every awkward step of the way!
Sack races work great in relay races, too.
You could do an entire relay sack race, where the hessian sacks replace ordinary batons. In this case, participants would hop down a track to the next teammate along, who’d then take the sack and climb into it before hopping as fast as possible to whoever’s next. The first team to hop across the finish line wins. Alternatively, you can incorporate the sack race into one leg of a relay!
And, of course, climbing into sacks and hopping a set distance would also make an effective obstacle in your obstacle course.
14. Panty Hose Game
Have you ever heard of “Minute to Win It” games? They’re exactly what they sound like! 60-second games that are over before you know it.
You can play for longer if you wish, but the idea is to keep things fast-paced and free-flowing. They’re ideal games for warming up, setting the tone for the day, or for whenever you want a quick-fire activity to fill a gap (or be part of another one – such as in a relay race or obstacle course).
Anyway, this Panty Hose Game is one example of a minute-to-win-it game that always goes down well. Here’s how to play:
- Lay rows of 5+ water bottles on the ground, with one row for each person/team
- Give everyone playing a small ball (e.g., a baseball) and some pantyhose
- Tell them to shove the ball into the foot of one pantyhose leg
- Tell them to pull the top of the pantyhose over their head, so the ball dangles at the other end like a strange antenna
- Their task is to move up the line of bottles, swinging the ball (no hands allowed!) to knocking each one over as quickly as possible
- The first person/team to knock their bottles over wins
15. DIY Disc Golf
Disc golf is a sport where you sling flying discs (AKA Frisbees) at special targets made of metal chains and buckets. Like golf, the idea is to get your disc in the target in the fewest possible throws.
When it comes to Field Day games for adults, disc golf is awesome. But unless you have an actual disc golf course on-site, you’ll want to do things the “DIY way.” Create your own course by making targets out of big buckets of water (washing baskets also work) and placing them at different points around a playing field. You can then proceed around it, taking turns throwing Frisbees at the targets.
The goal? Get your Frisbee in the bucket with as few throws as possible! Each throw represents a “stroke.” Keep track of how many strokes it takes to hit each target, and then add them up at the end. The lowest score wins.
16. Parachute Volleyball
Imagine playing an ordinary game of volleyball. However, there’s a catch: you can’t use your hands. Instead, you and your team are holding a parachute – having to work together to move around the court so you can catch the incoming ball and sling it back over the net at your opposition!
That, in a nutshell, is parachute volleyball. As you can imagine, it’s a recipe for pandemonium! But it’s also great fun, fantastic for team-building, and another unique sporting activity for your upcoming Field Day.
Try these Field Day games for adults this summer
As you can tell, there’s no shortage of Field Day games for adults. This list only scratches the surface of all the fun activities you can do! Nevertheless, we hope it’s given you some useful inspiration for how to spend the day. Whether you incorporate one or all of the games we’ve covered, you’re sure to enjoy an event that makes people laugh, brings everyone closer, and creates lasting memories.
Now you know what to do on your next Field Day team building event, the next job is to make it happen! If you want help with logistics, don’t hesitate to reach out.
