Main Event Takeaway. The complete kid's indoor activity park. Kids love it, and it's a great place for birthdays. However, adults will leave with a headache if exposed for more than thirty minutes.
Attractions include bowling, laser tag, arcades, a ropes course, food, a bar, and billiards. The bar and billiards are separated into separate sections. The arcades give tickets you turn in for prizes. The food is mostly pizza, chicken tenders, and fries.
We had a mixed bag for my son's birthday. They agreed to something over the phone they didn't put in the contract and then forced us into a very odd time for food. It kind of ruined my wife's day. It's a much better place for someone else's birthday.
Roughly $20-25/person will get you $10 of arcades for 30 mins and an activity or two. Way out in Chesterfield, it's a drive to get to. Giant parking lot with shopping nearby if you drop your kid off for a party.
Main Event Chesterfield Summary
Oh boy. The main event is a bit of a conundrum, so I'll present it from two perspectives: the adult perspective and the children's perspective.
From a kid's perspective, this place is friggin awesome. You have everything you could ever want in life as an eight-year-old.
There's pizza and chicken fingers and fries. There's laser tag, bowling, a ropes course, an arcade, and a VR headset section, although that's been down the last few times we've been. And you turn tickets from the arcades into prizes. It's an eight-year-old's dream.
From an adult perspective, there's way too much noise.
You're yelling to talk, and your voice gets sore.
The flashing lights cause a headache.
You can't hear yourself think.
Kids run everywhere.
Pure lunacy.
We had my eight-year-old's birthday party this year, and he loved it. However, they agreed to something over the phone that they did not put in the contract, which caused a lot of stress when we arrived.
Given the situation, they were not super accommodating. For some reason, they thought we wanted to eat lunch at 10 a.m., even though they had agreed over the phone to have lunch at 11 a.m. They wouldn't budge when we were there.
So we will not be having our birthday parties here again.
It's about $20-25 per person, depending on if you're going for the day or having a party.
For the overall ranking, it's a tale of two cities with this one. My son gives it a 9 / 10. I'd give it a 3 / 10 primarily because of the headache I leave with when I stay for more than thirty minutes and the service we dealt with. As an adult, I much prefer to drop my kid off at someone else's birthday party and then go and get an hour of quiet time before coming back to pick him up for the last half an hour. For what it's worth, people on Yelp basically had the same experience.
Main Event Chesterfield Things To Do
The overarching theme of Main Event is that it's loud and intense but extremely fun for an eight-year-old.
Arcades and Prizes
Every birthday party ticket comes with $10 in arcade money. That usually takes the kids about thirty minutes to spend the $10. If you come outside a party or want to play more, you can add money to the card a-la-carte.
Main Event stocks almost every newish arcade game on the market. From VR headsets to Minecraft to basketball to ticket games.
Speaking of ticket games, they have a prize center where tickets can be turned into goodies. My son loves to spend a good ten minutes optimizing how to spend his tickets. He can turn them into a solid haul of candy and cheap plastic toys.
Ropes Course
My favorite part was the ropes course called Sky Rail, which I did as part of my son's birthday party.
You get strapped into a harness. Then, dangle up in the air from obstacle to obstacle.
Laser Tag
I haven't played this laser tag course, but my wife went in with the kids and came out alive.
Some of the eight-year-olds got scared by the laser tag premise/vibes and didn't want to do it. Of the party of 12 kids, maybe two of them opted out because they were too scared.
The lasers and scoring are all top-of-the-line. The kids who do laser tag come out of the activity happy and chatting about it.
Bowling
They have a good fifteen to twenty bowling lanes. Packed with TVs in the back and slightly separated from the arcades, it's one of the quieter spots in the place.
We didn't have bowling for my son's birthday, although he's been to a couple of birthday parties where they did. The staff puts up bumpers and turns on the neon lights for parties.
The lanes have automated scoring, so it's all good for kids.
The Food
The chicken tenders and fries are surprisingly good. They reminded me of the quality chicken tenders McDonald's used to have, but not Raising Cane's quality.
Add ketchup to the fries and tenders to make it an enjoyable meal for an adult. Just be aware that you're packing in more than 1000 calories in the process.
I have not had the pizza, but my son always enjoys it at the other parties we've been to at Main Event.
Bar and Billiards For Adults
There's a bar and a billiards section separated by a glass wall partition. I have not played billiards or had anything to drink from the bar.
Main Event Chesterfield Details And Info
As you can guess by the name, this Main Event is out in Chesterfield. That makes it a 20-minute drive from my house in the St. Louis burbs and thirty minutes from downtown.
It's part of the new construction on the east side of the highway, across from the outlet malls and major big box stores. Between Main Event, The Factory, and Top Golf, they've done a really good job of creating a reason to come all this way.
My big hack is to come here for other kid's parties. Now that my son is eight, I can drop him off and go across the street to Target. I have also gone to a Starbucks less than five minutes away to do some work. That way, you can return for the last thirty minutes and not leave with a headache.
If you do stay, it's probably the quietest in the eating area. Find a couple of parents to hang out with in the eating area while the kids run around doing crazy activities on the other side of the building.
It's much better to be a guest at a birthday party here than hosting your own, although the kids will like it either way.
Parking At Main Event Chesterfield
They have a giant dedicated parking lot. There are also Tesla chargers in the parking lot if you need another reason to delay going in.
Main Event Chesterfield Receipt
