Choosing the right entertainment for your event can be difficult, especially if you don’t know where to start looking. Whether it’s a corporate awards event or a kids end of season function, we’ve got some great ideas to help get you started:

Entertainment for Themed Events

Themed events are always easy to choose entertainment for because it’s easy to look at ways of incorporating the theme into the entertainment. For instance, if there is an African theme to the event there could be a performance taken from the Lion King (the musical), or you could hire a group of African drummers to perform some traditional music. If you have a theme, try to incorporate that into your entertainment.

Corporate Events

If you need to organise some rather formal entertainment, a live jazz band is always a good idea or a group of tenors. Singing waiters are always ideal for formal events when you want to inject a little humour into the evening. Here are a few more ideas:

• Salsa dancers-doing a live performance on stage.
• A singer with a piano or 4 piece band.
• A comedian – Some work places often opt for something a little lighter and a comedian can really create a great atmosphere and get everyone in the mood for fun.
• A DJ – Sometimes after a long presentation of awards a DJ and low lit dance floor is the perfect entertainment to finish off the evening.

IMPORTANT: Although some form of entertainment is important for the evening, you don’t want to have it go on for too long. Ensure that everything is wrapped up with enough time for people to socialise, mingle and enjoy dessert, tea and coffee towards the end of the night. With the exception of a DJ, which can continue until the event finishes.

TIP: If the entertainment is a major draw card for the event, it’s important that you take the time and research to find something that will get people interested in attending. If necessary, reallocate funds from other areas for the night, to ensure you have quality entertainment. It can make all the difference.

Kids Events

Perhaps you’re in charge of organising the entertainment for your child’s end of year soccer awards. Once the trophies have been handed out it’s your responsibility to arrange something fun for the kids. You have several options to choose from but, considering it’s a sports presentation, you will want to do something where the kids can be active. Perhaps arrange for a jumping castle with a range of fun sports activities the kids can play into the afternoon. Or:

• Arrange for the kids to visit a play land after the awards ceremony for a few hours of fun roaming on play equipment, trampolines and jungle gyms.

Whether you are choosing the entertainment for a corporate awards event, for your child’s soccer team or for a charity fundraiser there are a few key rules to follow. As long as you allocate the right amount of funds, consider the event and attendees preferences, and book in something that you think will really become a highlight of the evening, you really can’t go wrong.