Start with a large, colorful warehouse.

Throw in some loud and trendy music, its rhythmic beat bouncing off the four walls.

Add several gigantic bounce houses, a couple of video games, and a few pool, ping pong and air hockey tables.

Finally, mix in 125 preteens, and you've got yourself a recipe for some good, clean middle school mayhem.

On Friday night, the city of Murrieta debuted its first ever lock-in event at Sky High Party Zone to a sold-out crowd of local students.

From 7 to 10 p.m, the kids were allowed to run wild inside the business, and that's exactly what they did.

Most of the boys' hair was wet with sweat as they horsed around on the bounce houses, got busy on the dance floor and ran around the room, the energy of the event taking hold.

Not to be outdone, the girls enjoyed their fair share of dancing, bouncing and pool playing, although many were noticeably more subdued than the guys.

"It's actually pretty fun," said Thompson Middle School eighth-grader Danielle King, 14, one of the girls who showed off her dance moves. "They are playing good music."

Shaynna Zapasnik, a 12-year-old seventh-grader from Shivela Middle School, summed up her night succinctly as she ate some pizza in the break room:

"Jump. Eat. Play. Laugh. Fall down."

And sixth-grader Austin Loving, 11, from Thompson Middle School, spent his evening playing pool for the first time in his life. While he waited his turn, he would shake to the music.

"This is pretty awesome," he said.

Beau Davis, the city's recreation coordinator, said he considered the event a surprisingly huge success. Earlier in the day, only five kids had registered for the lock-in. Later in the afternoon, the count was up to 25, he said.

But when 7 p.m. rolled around, the kids starting filing through the doors, he said.

"This is beyond expectation," Davis said while standing in the middle of the warehouse, preteens zipping by him left and right. "I love it when I see something like this come together."

It's especially gratifying because the city's traditional event for middle schoolers, a dance party called Club M that was often held at the community center, had "lost its luster," he said.

At the last dance, only four kids showed up, he said.

"We wanted to do something new, and so far so good," he said, adding the city will likely host another lock-in sometime in the summer or fall.

Davis gave the credit for the idea to have the middle school event at Sky High to Dallas Moon, who serves on the city's Youth Advisory Commission.

Moon, an 18-year-old senior at Murrieta Valley High School, also works at Sky High and helped chaperone the event.

"This is a really good turnout, and it's something positive for the kids," Moon said.

The co-owner of Sky High, Robert Simkins, also got in on the action by deejaying the event. Simkins added that he appreciated the irony of the city of Murrieta hosting the lock-in at his business, considering only a few years ago City Hall officials made him stop offering similar events for local students.

"I was like, ‘It's OK for you to do it but not OK for us to do it,'" Simkins said, but quickly added, "But hey, it's OK. It's all about giving kids a clean, safe place to have fun."

Parents dropping their kids off had similar sentiments.

"I feel it's a safe venue," said Murrieta resident Dave Fogg, 59, as he dropped his twin 13-year-old boys off. "It gets them out of the house, and I like the concept that they have a lot of freedom but they are not going to go outside."

Posted in Murrieta on Saturday, February 20, 2010 6:34 pm Updated: 10:22 pm. | Tags: Cal, News, Murrieta, Education