Originally Posted by
Corabar Entertainment
Putting things from the other side of a coin: we work very closely with a marquee site and have done for a couple of years now. When they first started, they just hired the land and people could book whatever suppliers they wanted. However, due to numpties, things have gradually changed. When EH got involved because of noise complaints is when we got involved (we were booked privately by a B&G, and there weren't any noise complaints that night), so since then, we've been providing the PA for every wedding, and it's actually written in to their licence from the Council that we supply it.
These days, the fee for the hire of the land includes some basics - ie toilets, generators, and our PA, and a list of recommended suppliers (that the clients book direct, so no fee taken by the venue). However, as of next year, they are going further: there will be an admin fee of £100 if they want to choose a DJ that isn't on their recommended list (which includes us and a few other local DJs that we recommended to them). Why? Nothing to do with wanting to make money, but everything due to the fact that we've had some right idiots there who haven't got a clue and end up spending hours and hours with them bitching, moaning, complaining, chasing for documentation, sorting out their 'issues', teaching them (what should be) basics, etc. These issues haven't happened with any other types of suppliers, so there is no surcharge if they don't choose off the recommended suppliers list for other suppliers, but both we and the site owners are fed up with dealing with the issues from bands and DJs, so the surcharge is being imposed to at least compensate us a little for the time we spend if they do choose someone not on the list.
It may be unfair on decent DJs (and we've been on that end too, where a client wanted us but the venue refused), but after seeing what the venues have to put up with, I can't say I blame them wanting to minimise those issues.