The Buffet :)

[Corabar Entertainment]

OMG!

Even putting aside the knife & Fork bit, I am shocked that anyone employed by the party/event hosts would go and get stuck in with everyone else - even if they weren't invited!

I've got no problem with people going up after the guests have had their turn if they're invited to, and I don't have a problem with DJs having it stipulated in their contract they they are fed and watered on an all-day function, but to just go up with everyone else when you haven't been told to is probably one of the most shocking things I've ever read on here.

[funkymook]

OMG!
I am shocked that anyone employed by the party/event hosts would go and get stuck in with everyone else

The DJ definitely shouldn't be taking the cling film off the food!

[Shakermaker Promotions]

OMG!

Even putting aside the knife & Fork bit, I am shocked that anyone employed by the party/event hosts would go and get stuck in with everyone else - even if they weren't invited!

I've got no problem with people going up after the guests have had their turn if they're invited to, and I don't have a problem with DJs having it stipulated in their contract they they are fed and watered on an all-day function, but to just go up with everyone else when you haven't been told to is probably one of the most shocking things I've ever read on here.

I agree and you've said exactly what I would have said.
I personally would rather stay hungry (if I am hungry) than create the wrong impression.
I don't have a problem with other DJ's having something if they've been told that they can and maybe (more likely) not everyone is as paranoid as me.

[Jonathan Ford]

Reading this has made me chuckle. Oddly enough - no it not a wind up I bring my own knife and fork!

It's a buffet, the leftover food gets chucked at the end of the night anyway!

if you're working from say 2/3pm until midnight surely you should eat something?
I do bring a few snacks in case I don't have the chance to eat something.

I personally wouldn't dream of not giving the DJ / Band / Photographers etc something to eat if it was my wedding, I'm very surprised that some people don't even offer!

The fact that leftover food is thrown away is irrelevant. I never eat from the buffet even if I'm offered, either at the pre-event stage or on the night.

Also, I wouldn't expect to feed the suppliers I'd booked

[Excalibur]

At a venue where I've been providing cover lately, it's been particularly galling. Due to the layout of the room, you're set up on the "stage" ( it's 6" high ) and the buffet is there with you. Actually the buffet gets centre stage, and you have to fit in a corner. Sometimes the timings are such that eating beforehand is tricky, It's then piling on the agony, when you haven't been invited to partake, and before the end they tip the leftovers into bin bags to clear up. That happened to me on two consecutive occasions. And of course, on the one occasion when I had been invited to join in, it had been provided by the venue rather than guests, and was at best bland. ( And that's a very very kind description of it )

Join in without being asked though? No way.

[funkymook]

As a general question - why is it acceptable, and even expected, for a band and the photographer to be fed, have a rider, go to the buffet etc (and I've never heard or seen a disparaging comment form any guest or client about this) but many DJ's wouldn't dream of partaking even if it was offered?

We're usually onsite for more hours, probably have more contact with the clients over music choice, lighting colours, make more announcements etc.

[ukpartydj]

I think I've been careless with saying "Stuck in", I will give a fair time after the guests have finished to allow somebody to offer me some food, if they don't then I will get "Stuck in".

I do get hungry very quickly which may effect my opinion as being hungry and working effects my performance.

What seems to be ringing quite clearly is you guys don't take food from the buffet because you may feel you may look bad. I'm not the most outgoing person myself and I do feel awkward getting food however I just think you're just scared somebody might think of you negatively?

Bit like when somebody offers you a biscuit and you say "no thanks" because it's polite. It's not polite it's stupid, if you want the bloody biscuit take it!

Maybe I'm just the DJ that takes the biscuit though!!

[Mark Wild]

I do get hungry very quickly which may effect my opinion as being hungry and working effects my performance.

Take a few sarnies and a banana to 'work' with you then

[Corabar Entertainment]

Imagine you were working in an office, and your employer had clients in for a meeting which was going through lunchtime so sarnies had been ordered in.

In your work capacity, you had to go in to the meeting to set up the projector and screen (or anything else for that matter), would you then just go over to the table and take a few of the sandwiches without being asked?

....because that's exactly what you're doing as far as I'm concerned (except you've gone in with your own utensils too!

[ukpartydj]

Take a few sarnies and a banana to 'work' with you then

I normally do, perhaps I should cook a meal before i leave and pop it in a container or something then eat that... just seems a bit silly when there is a table filled with food.