Gigs booked by event organisers

[DK Karaoke]

Have any of you had bad experiences of gigs that were booked by event organisers?

Having done some, I can say, they are not worth the hastle. You get them, telling you exactly what to play and when, and oh, if the dance floor, drops by say a couple of people, they come running up saying "change the music". Its even worse if you are doing karaoke as well. they seem to think that you should have people dancing at the same time as someone singing, and when no one is dancing they say "stop the karaoke":bang: :bang:

This ends up with a lot of dissapointed punters.

Had one particular experience before Xmas, where I stopped the karaoke, only to restart later, much to the annoyance of the organiser, but much to the delight of the guests. It turned out that people could not dance because, the dance floor was full of people crowded around my console, nagging me to put on karaoke.

So all in all, I think these gigs are not worth it, no matter how much they pay. What do you think?:)

[sleah]

So all in all, I think these gigs are not worth it, no matter how much they pay. What do you think?:)

I'm getting quite mellow about this type of situation. (must be my age showing:D )

If it were me, if the event was paying well, ideally above your normal fee, and there's no danger to your reputation (which there shouldn't be) then go for it.
Just make sure that during the event when people ask for karaoke etc that you make it VERY clear that it is the organiser calling the shots.
It's money at the end of the day.

Just don't take them when you know you will get a better job, such as during December:D

[colint]

Seems to me that to many of you judge you work on "the money" what should be more important is what your client wants! even if your booked by event organisers and the end of the day the paying client is more important! I've done loads of work for these type of people who always think they know better and always I stress on the dance floor I say what goes, they are paying you for your experience and you have to make that clear from the start (without being rude or obnoctious) if they cant deal with this then walk away! because in the end you'll always lose think about it like this, if 100 people each tell 5 others the Dj was no good...........

[PropellerHeadCase]

I generally find event organisers to be really easy to deal with. That whole "change the music now" scenario sounds like someone not actually used to organising events at all, or they were really uptight about pleasing this particular client but didn't know how to gauge that people were having a good time other than by bodies on the floor (a mistake that many a mobile DJ makes, I think).

A good event organiser will generally sort most issues out ahead of time.

If it weren't for working with event organisers I would never have had the opportunity of playing on stage with Tim Finn.

[Professor Jam]

Tim Finn.:D

[sleah]

Seems to me that to many of you judge you work on "the money" what should be more important is what your client wants! even if your booked by event organisers and the end of the day the paying client is more important! I've done loads of work for these type of people who always think they know better and always I stress on the dance floor I say what goes, they are paying you for your experience and you have to make that clear from the start (without being rude or obnoctious) if they cant deal with this then walk away! because in the end you'll always lose think about it like this, if 100 people each tell 5 others the Dj was no good...........

Why not do some jobs for the money??? :D
In the situation the OP described, as far as the DJ is concerned the event organiser IS the client. If you communicate with the punters and make it obvious you are working for the organiser then hopefully the bad rep. should follow the organiser, but I suppose you will also be tarred. Just don't use your disco name, if you have a name board, don't use it!:zip:

You mention at the start of your post about the paying client being more important - like I said in the above example the organiser IS your client after all if they get sulky they may try to avoid paying you if they say you didn't do what was asked of you.

You're are of course dead right to discuss it with the organiser at the time of booking for the reasons you give and decide from there wether or not to take the job and have a decent contract!

[colint]

So who pays the event organiser? thats the point i was trying to make! event organisers are normally the middlemen/woman so therefore I would have the people at the funtion/event as the most important thing on the night because they are the real clients, if there was a problem with the event organisers I would talk to the client to try to get sorted that way!
And although i don't use advertising at my gigs I wouldn't take down any if I had it because then you'd be depriving yourself! There's no better advertising than 300-400 people at a gig is there?

[DK Karaoke]

If it were me, if the event was paying well, ideally above your normal fee, and there's no danger to your reputation (which there shouldn't be) then go for it.
Just make sure that during the event when people ask for karaoke etc that you make it VERY clear that it is the organiser calling the shots.
It's money at the end of the day.

Just don't take them when you know you will get a better job, such as during December:D

Couldn't have said it better. I did not get paid more for this, infact got paid below par. ( all part of the marketing etc.)

I did make sure that the punters were aware that the organisers were to fault. Was told they would not be engaged again, instead we would be and have already got a booking for next Xmas.

Without mentioning any names the organisors client was one of the biggest organisations in TV and commumincations. I seemed to have done a lot of gigs for TV and internet provider companies before Xmas.

Goes to show, its always best to stick to your guns and do what you know best, after the DJ and the event organiser have different way of achieving the same goals. Ours is more direct (actually delivering entertainment) whereas the organisers, are trying to deliver the whole event, not just the disco, which at the end of the day, is the bit people remember.
;) ;)

[rob1963]

Seems to me that to many of you judge your work on "the money" what should be more important is what your client wants!



I judge MY work on the money. After all, the money is the reason I work!

If I accept the booking, the clients requirements are important to me also.

[sleah]

Goes to show, its always best to stick to your guns and do what you know best, after the DJ and the event organiser have different way of achieving the same goals. Ours is more direct (actually delivering entertainment) whereas the organisers, are trying to deliver the whole event, not just the disco, which at the end of the day, is the bit people remember.


Very true. A few years back I roadied quite a bit for a pro dj mate, and covered a few gigs for him.
Several of his clients were event organisers, to balance what the OP says, there are also some good organisers!
Generally, the one's we worked for booked my mate because of his reputation and were confident (and wanted to be confident) that he could just get on with the job and deliver the goods. Some of their clients would actually ask specifically for my mate.
Some decent organisers will put you in touch directly with their client to discuss the event, so everyone is happy:D

Just goes to show, that it's like any other business, there's some brilliant people and some total numptys!

[rob1963]

I wouldn't use an event organiser, especially for my wedding.

You give your instructions, and have to reply on the organiser passing them on correctly to the suppliers.

All you are doing is adding another unnecessary layer where things could go wrong. It's a bit like the "Chinese whispers" syndrome - where the last person hears something completely different to what the first person said.

I'd want to deal with all my suppliers directly rather than doing everything through a third party.

I'm not suggesting that people shouldn't use event organisers, I'm just saying that I wouldn't.