Cost of a party

[ampassasinbirmingham]

Hi Guys

A few of my friends are looking to put on a party. We know how much venues, flyers etc cost but what about dj's????

It seems a bit of a taboo subject. How much money do we need to save to book an act???

[nekro]

depends who you book obviously, you can be talking just expenses right the way up to £3000 for a well known dj. also depends on the size of your venue and how much you're charging for entrance

[TechMouse]

depends who you book obviously, you can be talking just expenses right the way up to £3000 for a well known dj.

A DJ who costs £3000 almost certainly isn't worth it.

I'll do it for £50 and a bag of crack.

[dirty_bass]

A DJ who costs £3000 almost certainly isn't worth it.

I'll do it for £50 and a bag of crack.

I`ll do it for £50 and the chance to bag your crack
You look great since the op

[Aratron]

depends who you book obviously, you can be talking just expenses right the way up to £3000 for a well known dj. also depends on the size of your venue and how much you're charging for entrance

i cost £30, including a bottle of fizz and a packet of crisps

[Aratron]

I`ll do it for £50 and the chance to bag your crack
You look great since the op

biyatch

[TechMouse]

I`ll do it for £50 and the chance to bag your crack
You look great since the op
Yeah, thanks for that by the way.

Would have cost a bomb if I'd gone to a proper surgeon.

Your scalpelmanship is magnificent.

[dirty_bass]

Well, it really is amazing what I can do with a sharpened spoon.

did I ever tell you about the time I performed an appendectomy with the lid of a rusty sardine cannnnnnn, or the time I removed a malignant tumour with my teeeethhhhh

All the art has gone out of surgery these days
all the know how and make do



"Nurse, I`m going to have to massage the heart!!!"
--Dr Benway drunkenly adds another few inches to a 3 inch incision
He takes the toilet plunger and swishes it around in the toilet bowl.

Nurse "shouldn`t that be sterilised Dr?"

Dr Benway " probably but there isn`t the time"

He advances on the patient and forces the head of the plunger into the incision.
He begins working it up and down.
Blood squirts all over the toilet cubicle, making a horrible shlupping sound.

Nurse "I think the patient is dead doctor"

Dr Benway "Well, you win some you lose some"

Dr Benway walks over to a bathroom cabinet.
Dr Benway "Nurse!!! get me anohter RX immediately, some goddamn bastard has cut my cocain with Sani-Flush!!"...


ah, Burroughs.....

[RDR]

Making the club, the party, the prices and the atmosphere should be your first priority rather than thinking about a big name DJ.

Getting people to return is what will make your party work, unless its a one off, in which case multiply my first comment by 5 and then at a Big name DJ.

Ensure your Residents are of the highest quality, rather than mates you wanna do a favour for. Cos if they're not good enough then you're shooting yourself in the foot.

Local well known names are often better at bringing in people than big names, espcially for a first night, unless you spend a LOT of money advertising it well before.

[ampassasinbirmingham]

Its quite difficult to fill clubs in Britain without at least one person people will know. All the above comments are helpful but its stuff Im already aware of. Ill be more specific.

Club capacity is likely to be around 400. We don’t want to make any money; in fact we will probably lose quite a bit. We want entrance to be cheap for people. We have around £500 for a dj. What sort of dj’s are in this price barrier?

[basslinejunkie]

be intrested to hear the outcome of this myself

[mattboyslim]

just a thought, but why not sack the named dj on the head, and get a load of people off here (many of which are big names in the scene anyway)

in fact, whether you do this or not, I think its about time we had a blackout event every few months

[Si the Sigh]

Sounds like a plan! :)

[nekro]

A DJ who costs £3000 almost certainly isn't worth it.

I'll do it for £50 and a bag of crack.

it is if your promotiing a rave for 10,000 people and he pulls in more than half of those through the door.

[ampassasinbirmingham]

just a thought, but why not sack the named dj on the head, and get a load of people off here (many of which are big names in the scene anyway)

in fact, whether you do this or not, I think its about time we had a blackout event every few months

maybe people that put on parties anyway could add blackout party onto the flyer add a few djs from here and then it would be in new places all the time.

There was one blackout audio party in Bham once. Was fun. Lots of people from here.

[BloodStar]

dont know how it is in UK, but what I have got experience from my country.

- think about and set the direction of your event in terms of musical style you want to go. If people will feel the continuity from first party to the next one they will most likely come next time.
- be sure you have got enough sponsors (partners), who will pay some part of costs or will donate a headliner
- be sure you advertise as much as possible (flyers, posters, banners)
- be sure you have money to have proper sound/lights/deco
- dont forget to offer something extra what people usually dont see/hear/feel on other parties

as for the DJs, I think there is so many aspects affecting the price, so it is very hard to say more on accurate prices. All depends on capacity of venue, entrance fee, situation on a scene in current location, communication with DJ(agent). Some DJs are open to discussing price more than others. Eg we had very nice prices from people like Headroom, Jel Ford, Jay Denham, Dirty Bass, Oscar Mulero, who seems understand that not everything on scene is now how it used to be, but on the other hands prices from big names like Dave Clarke, Cristian Varela, Jeff Mills, Hawtin was like from different planet......

[Tiny]

Depends what syle of music your nights going to be, although i'm guessing since you've posted it in a techno forum its gonna be techno?

House dj's are a lot more expensive than techno ones (in general) We've done a load of house parties (excuse the pun) and they tend to be more expensive to put on. It also depends on how long your night has been running for, and your bargaining skills. Not mentioning any names as i know dj's dont like to discuss thier fee's but one dj when we first booked him was not far off the 2 grad mark plus driver, but the last time we booked him (we've booked him 3 times) he was a grand all in.

Agencies have a tendancy to bump the price up for nights that are just starting out as they are untried and the agency has no clue on whether your night will be busy e.t.c They will sometimes tell you to put an offer in for a dj rather than give you a definative price. The problem with this is that most inexperienced promoters will offer an amount they think a dj is worth, which tends to always be more than what an agency will except for a dj.

Techno dj's seam to be cheaper, we have only put on 2 techno parties, due to Holodeck being the main night for Techno in South Wales and we didnt want tot tread on their toes (im a resident for them so would be like shooting myself in the foot lol) The SUF guys are spot on and we had Guy Mcaffer down to Swansea for an absolutely wicked deal. Ade Fenton was a decent price as well. As is always the case with the techno community compared to other genre's everyone seams a lot more interested in having a party rather than ripping everyone off.

I'd say 500 quid should get you a decent enough name in the techno scence as long as you strike up a good relationship with the agent, and as long as your not hoping to get a Verala or a Clarke!

Booking more than one dj from the same agency will also normally get you a good deal.

[TechMouse]

it is if your promotiing a rave for 10,000 people and he pulls in more than half of those through the door.
If they're charging £3,000 then they're an insult to the word "rave".

IMHO.

[davethedrummer]

speak to the promoter of another club in a different area
and do a double on a good dj for the weekend.

[ampassasinbirmingham]

Depends what syle of music your nights going to be, although i'm guessing since you've posted it in a techno forum its gonna be techno?

House dj's are a lot more expensive than techno ones (in general) We've done a load of house parties (excuse the pun) and they tend to be more expensive to put on. It also depends on how long your night has been running for, and your bargaining skills. Not mentioning any names as i know dj's dont like to discuss thier fee's but one dj when we first booked him was not far off the 2 grad mark plus driver, but the last time we booked him (we've booked him 3 times) he was a grand all in.

Agencies have a tendancy to bump the price up for nights that are just starting out as they are untried and the agency has no clue on whether your night will be busy e.t.c They will sometimes tell you to put an offer in for a dj rather than give you a definative price. The problem with this is that most inexperienced promoters will offer an amount they think a dj is worth, which tends to always be more than what an agency will except for a dj.

Techno dj's seam to be cheaper, we have only put on 2 techno parties, due to Holodeck being the main night for Techno in South Wales and we didnt want tot tread on their toes (im a resident for them so would be like shooting myself in the foot lol) The SUF guys are spot on and we had Guy Mcaffer down to Swansea for an absolutely wicked deal. Ade Fenton was a decent price as well. As is always the case with the techno community compared to other genre's everyone seams a lot more interested in having a party rather than ripping everyone off.

I'd say 500 quid should get you a decent enough name in the techno scence as long as you strike up a good relationship with the agent, and as long as your not hoping to get a Verala or a Clarke!

Booking more than one dj from the same agency will also normally get you a good deal.

cool, this is the sort of information i was after. Anyone got a list of good agencies. I think we may go down the line of booking 2 from the same agency!

[ampassasinbirmingham]

also we were looking to book the party around the dj's schedules, but one agency i contacted wouldnt give me the artists diary dates so we could see who was available and when? WTF is that about?

[Tiny]

also we were looking to book the party around the dj's schedules, but one agency i contacted wouldnt give me the artists diary dates so we could see who was available and when? WTF is that about?

Thats a bit shit, most good agencies will give you a list of when certain dj's are available. Although i doubt you'll get very far with most if you havent already got a definate date booked. Most will have the dj's schedule on their websites as well. What sort of dj's are you after?

Stay Up Forever are a damn good agency, look after all the Liberators, Guy Mcaffer, Rackitt e.t.c

If their up your street, have a look on their website, thier contact details are on there, you'll prob need to speak to Rachel who is spot on.

Havent got the details of any others as i'm in work, but if you need any more help give us a pm will try and get some more for you.

[Mucky Beats]

main thing i think is to know your crowd...if you already have at least a 100 following of friends and there friends then look at a headliner round you £500 mark and really push your pr and you should do ok . but if its just a small crew and you want it to grow i surgest you put on smaller partys with just good solid residents that play well and grow your crowd untill you hit that 100 - 150 mark then get headliners round 300 to 500 pound mark and then you could cover things better. trouble is £500 sounds a lot to spend and people think you should be able to book a club filler with that...tbh tho is not the case always... is all about the right pr /word of mouth and following, you could be trowing the £500 away if you dont have all of those.
To be fair tho can get some great djs for around £500 just gotta make sure you back it up with right night.

hope that helps.