Bonfire Party Ideas for 15 year olds?

The first and worst thing that would ruin your party would be if someone got hurt. So always, whatever else you do, consider safety of your home and your guests. That said, what do you know about bonfires? Have you participated in any before?

The reason I ask is that “bonfire” is not “campfire”. You’re not likely to be toasting marshmallows on a bonfire! But if you’re going to have a fire in your yard at all you need to consider wind and weather conditions, relative drought and likelihood of fire spreading from sparks borne aloft and deposited far from the fire site (including neighbors’ houses, for example, or dry woods or fields), and you absolutely have to have water, sand, shovels and other firefighting equipment on hand, as well as first aid (and training) to handle the minor burns which may be inevitable.

Spend 90% of your thought and concern for the safety of the event and all of the participants, and the fun will take care of itself, I think.

Cupcakes, bowls of sweets, chocolate, nuts, crisps, plenty of pop, cheapps pairs of gloves for people to wear when using sparklers, a bucket of water. Tealights, torches and fairy lights for when it gets dark have fun stay safe x
Fireworks code

@WasCy yeah i was thinking of starting off small like a campfire… then making it bigger as we get farther into the night. but thanks for the advice! i’ll keep it in mind!

You should also ask someone in town (the local firehouse would be a great place to start) if a permit is required, and for their advice, too. Apart from someone getting hurt, having the fire department make a run to your yard to douse the thing because it’s an illegal or non-permitted activity would put a crimp in things, too.

Make it a Ghost Story night. There used to be a really great show on Nick at Night called “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” It opened with kids around a bonfire in the woods, that had a club where the initiation was to tell a scary story. It was a great show. Perhaps tell everyone to bring a scary story, and take turns telling them. Practice one or two good ones.

Have people bring acoustic guitars and hand drums, harmonicas, etc., if any of your friends play.

@sakura thanks for the fireworks code, I’ll be sure to look over it again if we decide to light any fireworks!

Kimonos!

Tell your neighbors of your plans ahead of time or they may call the police and that would be the end of the party.
And definitely have marshmallows to toast and S’mores, if you like them. And hot dogs to roast on the fire.

We used to wrap potatoes in silver foil and let them cook in the ash at the base of the bonfire. We would later howk them out with a stick and eat them with butter and salt. Delicious.

I would wear old clothes as the smoke smell can get into the material.

We do bonfires frequently. They are quite large sometimes. It makes for a magical evening.
I’m not sure it they are legal where you live. Check first. In my town only outdoor cooking fires are permitted. If we place one hot dog on a stick near the fire pit it is considered a cooking fire.

We run 2 hoses so that we can cover both sides of the fire. Test the hoses and make sure they work.
We keep two large dry chemical fire extinguishers nearby and place several 5 gallon buckets around in the woods.

If it is windy, we do not light it off. Period! Sorry! End of story. Reschedule.
One week before the event I put a plastic tarp over the pile so it does not get wet and will burn well without much smoke.

Activities:
S’mores, hot dogs, lots of water for drinking and washing, talking, a lot of talking, ...

Do it safely and you will never forget the experience. You will like it so much you will even do it when you are an old adult. ;-)
Thank your Mom profusely.

Assuming you got everything @WasCy said covered, I’d say 6 to 10 is fine but 7 to 11 or 12 is better since it’s a bonfire after all and the fire is more magical when it’s really dark. You could probably come up with 30 minute to one hour activities like these for example,

First 30 minutes – Ask each of your friends pre-selected funny, exciting and thought provoking questions from Fluther. If you choose the right questions that will elicit interesting answers, you will have fun right away.

Next 30 – Play stupid games like which 3 man team would be the fastest to put out the ember from a piece of wood by spitting on it? You would need a timer.
Another silly game could be who could produce the ugliest facial expression while pretending to eat worms and insects ( which are actually just candies if you could find them ) The winner will be the one with the loudest cheer.
Another is paint each others face without anybody looking at a mirror as to how they look. ( actually you should do this at the beginning but you would need to prepare some colorful skin paint so…)

Next 60 minutes – cook, eat, drink, chat
Next 60 – yes, time for really scary ghost and monster stories. tell your friends to prepare good ones.
Next 60 – how bout doing stand up comedy? Maybe you or some of your friends have a knack for it.

All of the above. If you tell ghost stories, you can enlist your mom’s help ahead of time to scare the crap out of everyone. So much fun. My dad used to sneak through the woods to come up behind us when I had my friends over for a bonfire party. When he got into position, he’d fire up the chainsaw and come running out of the woods yelling like a maniac. Everyone would scream and run until they realized it was my nutty dad.

Another time (and this was an indoors party, but just to give you ideas) my dad put on one of those glow in the dark hockey masks like Jason from the horror movie and snuck out of the house during one of my slumber parties. He then went from window to window, staring in at me and my friends while we screamed and ran from room to room. Even though I was in on the whole thing and knew it was him, the sight of that glowing mask in the dark windows still freaked me out! I’m surprised people still came to my house, honestly.

Also, don’t feel like you need to fill up all the time with things to do. My friends and I used to just listen to music, talk, eat, and hang out. We could easily fill up half the night that way. Keep some ideas ready in case there’s a lull in the party, but if everyone is happy just to be there and do their own thing, go with it.

Have fun!