6 hour discos

[Thames Valley Discos]

i seem to be getting more and more people looking for 6 hour discos. This seems too long to me. Only so many good tunes you can pull up in one evening. What do you guys and Gals think?

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

i seem to be getting more and more people looking for 6 hour discos. This seems too long to me. Only so many good tunes you can pull up in one evening. What do you guys and Gals think?

It is quite long, but then at most functions, you have background music to start and during the buffet, so you hardly need 6 hours of top dance music.

To be honest though, I'd have more than enough floor fillers for 6 hours.

[Dragonfly]

i too have done loads of these recently and yes ive found them too long especially weddings people have been in the same room all day sat with people they dont know and to start a disco at 6 or on one occasion 5 was really hard going for everyone.

18ths 21sts etc say 7-1 have been ok done a couple of those since christmas not really a problem enough good music and imagination for that not to be a problem.

[Thames Valley Discos]

I dont think running a disco from 6-12 you will fill a floor all night regardless of how many good tunes you have. The magic hours are 10-2 for me,
These 6 hour requests are not for background either. That i can handle

[BeerFunk]

Not a problem finding the tunes, but assuming you're gonna be finishing at 1 the latest - who goes out at 7?! :confused:

[Thames Valley Discos]

Not a problem finding the tunes, but assuming you're gonna be finishing at 1 the latest - who goes out at 7?! :confused:
Thats kind of my point. Starting at 6 or 7 seems to early to me

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

I dont think running a disco from 6-12 you will fill a floor all night regardless of how many good tunes you have. The magic hours are 10-2 for me,
These 6 hour requests are not for background either. That i can handle

So people are asking you to play full on music for 6 hours?

You don't suggest to them that they might want background at the start?

[Thames Valley Discos]

So people are asking you to play full on music for 6 hours?

You don't suggest to them that they might want background at the start?
Yes i do. But most birtday parties dont want this, you seem to assume it is for weddings. I point out that most people dont dance or arrive untill atleast 7-7.30. I convinced one customer tonight to change from 6-12 to 8-2, although still 6 hours, i find most people dance later in the evening, so the first two hours would be wasted. Although this was a wedding tonight.
Anyway, i,m sure you kind of get my point hopefully

[ross@rds]

I think its long but if they want it u gotta do it lol seem to be gettin 18th & 21st running for 5 to 6 hours alot now.

[spin mobile disco]

Think thats bad , just got booked to do an 8 hour wedding, starting at 4 running till 12. Their having an afternoon reception and an evening reception straight after. Thank goodness for my rse amp rated for 365 days 24/7
wish I was.

[Vibrant Sounds]

Just after I started doing discos and keen to oblige, I was asked by a friend of a friend to do a birthday party for his daughter's 18th. It was to be held at their large home, outside on the patio between the swimming pool and the 12 man hot tub. It was to start by 2pm and finish at 11pm. It included Karaoke.

Don't worry about money my friend said, they will see you allright.

So in total with seting up/breaking down, loading the kit both end and travelling the day was about 13 hours in total.

The following day I could barely walk, my feet were so sore, it was a great party though, during the day most people were in and around the pool, had quite a few karaoke singers, and fortunately some of them could actually sing, had most of them dancing from early evening until the end (except those in the hot tub) and I gave out quite a few cards (from which I got 3 further bookings).

As I was leaving the owner of the house came up to me and gave me an envelope, thanks very much he said, great day, you really brought the party to life.

Eventually got home unloaded kit, made a cup of tea and opened the envelope. £100 :eek:

Taught me a valuable lesson though, I now ensure everyone, regardless of who, knows upfront what I charge and that is what they will pay, I do give a discount to family and friends, I know some do not, but I point them to the minimum charge as specified on my website and they can then see that they are getting a decent discount, if they don't like it, I don't do it.

[CRAZY K]

Think thats bad , just got booked to do an 8 hour wedding, starting at 4 running till 12. Their having an afternoon reception and an evening reception straight after. Thank goodness for my rse amp rated for 365 days 24/7
wish I was.

Its the customers choice, but it doesnt hurt to give advice to customers on these things based on your experience.

I did from 4pm to midnight at Xmas--but that was a Barn Dance for the first part of the evening followed by an evening Disco.

Yep--we were all cream crackered and got home at 4am.

Make sure you charge the proper price for these marathon gigs. which are long. physically demanding and increase risk of falling asleep at the wheel:eek:

I was expecting a man to call round my house last night to sort out some electrical work--he didnt turn up and no phone call--makes me wonder whether im pricing enough in my work to allow for 100per cent reliability and
guaranteed to turn up at these functions of a lifetime---Weddings etc.

:confused:

CRAZY K

[groovy-nights]

the answer is easy if you cannot do a 6 hour disco do not take the booking.

[Dragonfly]

the answer is easy if you cannot do a 6 hour disco do not take the booking.

no one is saying they cant do it ?????? all people are saying is that its exceptionally hard going on us as service providers which we are paid to do fair play but also hard going on guests at these events who are shut like battery hens in these function rooms sometimes for 11 hours and to bombard them with flashing lights and 100db music for 6 hours of that time ...... i wouldnt stay till the end.

darren is right on the background front usually thereis some at the start while people meet and greet auntie valerie who hasnt seen them since they were 5 and for the buffet.

ive only done one long gig where this was not the case and its where your music knowlege really comes into play alot.

my stance lies with the guests tho. did a wedding before xmas wanted 6 hours.

- no meal caterers had been rumbled defrosting chickens on the radiators by the groom on arrival.

- heating was up the shoot in dec so all sat in coats shivering

- one toilet working not one block but one toilet working in the building

dragonfly had an early night despite "you'll all warm up when you get dancing encouragement"

[theoloyla]

Over the years I have done lots of marathon gigs. In the 70's and 80's clubs used to start earlier; so it was not unusual to work from 8 till 2. Armed service balls often used to go on till breakfast (dont many of them now) and many black tie jobs were likewise running on into the early hour. I agree that it can be dificult to get a party atmosphere going during daylight hours. I did a 4 till midnight wedding last year. I charged extra of course and it was physically and mentally hard work. Basically the first 4 hours was for children (of which there were dozens) whilst the adults chatted and drank and then at 8pm the bride and groom did their first dance and the children were replaced on the floor by adults. The bride and groom gave strict instructions to ignore any requests from minors after 8pm. It worked very well.

[Danno13]

I've got a few weddings this year that go on till 1am, instead of the usual 12pm. However, they're all for younger couples or people who've asked for lots of a specific type of music, indie for a couple, 90s dance and house for one, funky house for another.

So it'll be normal disco from 7 - 12, with a the usual background at the start and then the last hour will be the club/indie stuff as I'd imagine it'll mainly be the B&G's friends left at this time, rather than older family.

For a birthday party, I can't see it being too much of a problem, as time goes on and people drink more, they're going to be less fussy about what they dance to. I usually find the last couple of hours fly by without even having to think too much about what to play.

I've done one wedding that was 4pm till midnight, and to be honest there was hardly any point me being there in the afternoon, was mainly just background music and most wouldn't even come and request anything. Easy money though, and gave me a chance to play loads of stuff i wouldn't normally get the chance to play.

[soundmaster mobile disco]

i hope that they pay you well for a 6 hour disco,yes you do have a point most people tent to enjoy themselves later on in the night when they feel relaxed after a few drinks.
i occasionaly get asked to play on untill i1 amif its a 12 midnight finish.they always offer you extra cash.make sure that you get it,i was conned on saturday night that way.

[Creature]

6 hours is short gig for me :):):)

[Candybeatdiscos]

6 hours is regular for me to be honest - usually 7 till 1. our pubs stay open to 12 every night. so if working a pub its usually 7-12. anyway.

[BeerFunk]

6 hours is regular for me to be honest - usually 7 till 1. our pubs stay open to 12 every night. so if working a pub its usually 7-12. anyway.
Yes, but I bet you don't start 'proper' DJing till at least 9? As in, just leaving a CD to play for the first couple of hours?

[robbiedj]

6 hour shows are common.

Our regular pub has a 2am licence, so starting at 8 is quite a long night. We don't just play a cd for 2 hours, we use the early evening to gauge the mood of the punters that night and often have requests from the start.

For the marathon we start at 8-30am and end around 3 to 3-30pm, depending on how many are still running.

And charity fundays are often 12 noon to midnight.

Not all shows are 4 hour parties you know.

[spin mobile disco]

I think a lot of people forget that as we are on for a long session we dont get a tea break or lunch stop all evening, Im personally not the sort to put on a cd and let it play through. Mind you at christmas I had so many christmas gigs I recorded an 80 minute session wrote it to disk and used it most nights as background while they ate. Lets hear it for cooledit pro lol.

[pagan_flame]

Ahh those lovely short 6 hour gigs... when I got started in 2001 it was mostly DJing biker weekenders.

Arrive Friday afternoon, set up for around 6pm and then DJ through til 2am or so... start again Saturday lunchtime at 12 or so, again through to 2am (but usually with bands / raffle etc in between, sometimes one band on the Friday as well)

Some people still do that - eh Creature? :D :cool: :beer1:

D^mn right I use background music! Have a variety of playlists on the laptop for such occasions... e.g. at Xmas, just background music until after the meal, if it was full-on all the time people would be moaning about the volume very quickly.

[electricnite]

to be honest nearly all my functions are 7 til 1 so we just have to get on and do our best. thats showbiz as they say !!!!!!!!

[magicfm]

I hate anything beyond 4 hours.

I done one gig and started after band at 5.15 ish. I wondered if I would make it to midnight as I had a bit of a tummy bug and was extremely worried about pukeing :sick: :( on the stage or worse - developing diahorea. :eek:

Anyway I was getting closer to midnight and with a full hall and loads of dancing punters the manager told me at about 11.30 that it wouldn't be long until 1.00am finishing time. :doh: :angry: :argue: It was the bars fault for giving me the wrong finish times but I had no choice but to go on.

7 and a half hours - never again. I still have nightmares about it. :( I'd much prefer 4 hours or less.