Out of curiosity….regarding a surprise party

[iheartthe80s]

If you invited 25 couples to a surprise 40th birthday party at a bar (side room off the main room), what does this mean? It's at 8:30 PM.  Would you be paying for drinks? Some drinks? Any apps/food? People will probably bring gifts. 
Just trying to figure out this evite I received...

[iheartthe80s]

This group has a habit of planning parties and relying on guests to provide the food and drinks. We are not going to the party anyway, since I have plans. I'm just curious.

[iheartthe80s]

Sometimes they request BYOB, bring an app and also $15 for food. This was actually at a party last summer. We declined.

[iheartthe80s]

Yep. It was for "meat, snacks and activities for the kids". LOL.

To clarify, it was 4th of July, so when I say meat….it was a cookout.

[chatterbox]

In my experience, the host would be paying for the food and drinks, but it sounds like you can't make that assumption based on what you wrote.