Camp That Site: Enjoy BC with the right site the first time

Friends recently introduced us to the game Hitster. It has quickly become a favourite with each group we have introduced it to.

We love music, both at home and while camping. Hitster taps into the power of music and the memories it creates. What makes this a great camping game is the flexibly to create any combinations of teams and players, regardless of their age. And for an added bonus, it doesn’t matter if your picnic table is uneven.

Teams compete to arrange iconic songs from the last 100 years into a “music timeline”. The goal is to be the first to collect 10 song cards by placing them correctly in chronological order. Teams take turns drawing a song card, which are then played by scanning the QR code into the game app. The team then declares where in their card timeline that song was released. After locking in their answer, the card is flipped to reveal the answer. If the team was correct, they add the card to their timeline.

This game requires a cell phone for the game app and Spotify but it works on the paid or free version. You also need cellphone service, which might be the biggest obstacle, and a bluetooth speaker is helpful.

To keep the pace up we adapted the game’s standard rules by winning at 7 cards, and simplifying out the bonus tokens that are normally won by guessing the artist and year.

Everyone who played loved it because it brought back memories of childhood, high school, club days, dating and so on. Songs range from the occasional 1930’s to the mid 2020’s. Once a team locked in their guess it was open for lively discussion from the group. Another challenge was getting teams to keep their mouth closed when it wasn’t their turn, everyone jumped in right away to share a memory or opinion.

It was such a success that for the rest of the camping weekend every time a song came on it generated the same conversation: what year did it come out and what were people doing at that time.

Some will say this is too loud, electronic or technical for camping and I respect that. We love games and music so for us it is a win.

There are several expansion versions for those with niche tastes. The game isn’t expensive and doesn’t take up much room. I would highly recommend it for home or camping. Below are some of the expansion packs available.

Hitster: The original game with more than 330 of the greatest hits from the last 100 years

Hitster: Guilty Pleasure Features the most outrageous hits from past decades, described as more challenging.

Hitster: Summer Party Focuses on sunny, nostalgic hits from the past century.

Hitster: Rock Dedicated to iconic rock songs.

Hitster: Soundtracks Film & TV: Focused on famous movie and TV show music.