Aussies Are Recreating Pub Trivia Nights From Home

Bars are closed due to coronavirus, but pub trivia nights, badge draws and even meat raffles continue -- with people stuck in isolation happy to play along online.

Aussie venues who are reliant on punters are improvising.

Licensed locations nationwide have quickly moved to delivery or takeaway models, swapping schooner glasses for large growler jugs and putting pub special meals in cardboard boxes for customers to take home.

But a bar is more than food and drink  -- for many, it's about the nightly favourite social events on offer.

To fill the void, there's been a mad scramble to serve up old favourites in new formats on social media.

"People really need the connection," Aimon Clark, who runs the popular Isolation Trivia game several nights a week, told 10 daily.

"Trivia is perfect because it's something you can watch but you're encouraged to talk and communicate. People could do a Netflix party but you're not meant to be talking, but with trivia you can do that."

Clark has hosted weekly trivia nights in Brisbane bars for several years, but that ended due to his regular haunts closing. He said he "missed seeing people" and about a month ago, started a free trivia stream on his personal Facebook page.

After good feedback, he started a dedicated Isolation Trivia page to host his Facebook live-streamed quizzes where he reads questions, re-enacts movie scenes and plays videos.

The page quickly ballooned to over 7000 followers, with the quizzes growing from 80 viewers to more than 2000 in just three weeks, attracting contestants from all over the world.

This week he will host special themed nights on 'The Simpsons' and 'Kath & Kim'.

"One of the rules is nobody is allowed to talk about COVID. It's nice, even if it's just for an hour," Clark said.

"I get a bunch of messages every night, with some people saying it's the only social interaction they've had all day."

Steffan van Lint is CEO and co-founder of Quiz Meisters, which hosts pub trivia nights nationwide.

He's also running Facebook quizzes several times a week, with thousands worldwide playing along at home, either in household groups or teams playing together remotely through video chat.

"It's a good connection to that world of things we're not allowed to do now," van Lint told 10 daily.

"People are playing in their normal pub teams, only virtually. It's not just watching TV, people need some kind of interactive live entertainment, and it's something they can do which is almost like what they used to."

Quiz Meisters, which van Lint co-founded 16 years ago,  had just launched a rebrand a week before pubs were closed -- but he said the coronavirus restrictions gave the company the push to try online games, an idea they'd already been toying with for some time.

"One of the big challenges is how do you make a live event fun online? Our quizzes are a bit cheeky, so we had to figure out how we capture that for Facebook," he said.

Quiz Meisters will soon launch a short "hump day knock-off" version for Wednesdays, and a weekend trivia game for kids. The company will also invite fans at home to make videos re-enacting famous movie scenes, to be shown as part of competition rounds.

Victoria, from Sydney, was one of those playing at home last weekend.

Joining a group of friends over video chat on Friday, she said the games helped bring a small sense of normalcy to her week.

"I miss going to the pub more than anything else. Drinking is beside the point, I can do that at home, but I miss just being in that atmosphere with my mates," she said.

"I think people are trying to get back to something normal, but I also think we just want something to look forward to. It sounds simple but knowing that I have trivia with some mates in a few nights is really making a difference."

But it's not just trivia keeping the pub vibe alive. Some venues are turning to Facebook and Instagram to recreate weekly meat raffle draws, and the Lord Gladstone pub in Sydney's Chippendale is even doing their regular badge draw via Instagram -- sort of.

"Someone asked if the badge draw was going to grow with the pub closed, and spur of the moment, I said 'every Thursday at 8 pm we'll go live on Insta, I'll draw a number out, and they've got a minute to get to the pub'," owner Ben Johnson told 10 daily.

"Obviously the pub is closed and they can't get there, so we have a laugh about whose name got drawn out, and the jackpot grows. Then that first Thursday when we open, the jackpot will be huge, and we'll give it away."

Hundreds of people tune in each week for the pub's badge draw, with heightening stunts to draw viewers, such as Johnson having his head shaved by Sydney rap group Triple One.

"It keeps the pub relevant, we're making the most of it and having a bit of fun," he said.

The Lord Gladstone is selling drinks like a bottle shop and has reconfigured its kitchen to begin offering takeaway food.

Johnson said the pub was lucky to negotiate a rent agreement with landlords and thanked loyal regular customers who supported the business.

"We love that people are still coming to buy beer, or just throwing support our way by staying in contact," he said.

"It's got this nice sense of community."