If you are a parent than you will know that entertaining kids is hard work. Djing children parties require lots of interaction rather than just playing and mixing music. In this next chapter I will talk about my personal tips on how to DJ children parties. I will cover how to organize children parties, helpful tips on preparations, decorations, and fun games and activities to keep the kids entertained.
A small portion of the events Stukwan Entertainment books are in fact children parties. Djing children parties are entirely different from spinning in the clubs. You will have to keep it clean and keep order of kids that are ADHD and consuming even more soda and caffeine. To keep it clean, you will have to change your name from DJ Killer Murder to DJ Wiggles for the gig. I’m just kidding! It’s up to you to decide. When it comes down to business, you have to think about getting the next gig by making a great impression on the other parents. A little bit of organization will make your company look good. Work with the parents of the child and decide on a theme for the party. If it is a birthday party than you will have to purchase prize giveaways that will match the decided theme. For example, if they wanted Pirates of theCaribbean than I will give out inflatable swords and pirates beads. Pirate themed rubber ducks and plush pirate bears will also be a perfect match for the theme. You can get a lot of great deals from Oriental Trading Company. I like to give out prizes using a raffle like contest. I give everyone in the party a raffle ticket and throughout the party call out numbers and give out prizes. I would do the contests during their eating time. It draws excitement and attention of the crowd which will get you closer to your next referral. The prizes will be from teddy bears and inflatable guitars. If you want to spend a little extra than get a couple of $20 gift cards from Best Buy to Toys R Us.
So now I know the theme, it is time to compile the games and activities. There are a lot of games like the Freeze Dance, Touch the Ground, Hot Potato, Limbo Contest, Musical Chairs, Twist Contest, Name That Tune, Hula Hoop Contest, Spoon Racing, Simon Says and many more. These are the popular ones that I have used in a party. There are also Dance activities that will entertain the crowd like The Electric Slide, Cha Cha Slide, Chicken Dance, Chicken Noodle Soup Cotton Eyed Joe, The Hokey Pokey, Macarena, Conga Line, YMCA, Crank Dat and many more. Play any of these songs in any children’s party and they will have a great time. The games are classics and they never get old but the best thing is that kids love it. Every kid in any party wants to win. Use the games to give out the party favors. I’m going to talk about the games that I named before. The Freeze Dance is a game that the kids have to stop moving and freeze when the music stops. The last person remaining wins. Touch the Ground is a game that requires the kids to put their hands on the floor when the music stops. Hot Potato is when the kids form a circle formation and passes an object clockwise and when the music stops the person holding the object is eliminated. Musical Chairs is a game of kids walking around chairs placed back and forth with one less chair than the total number of players and when the music stops, the one that is standing get eliminated. Spoon Racing is when you form two teams of players and give them all plastic spoons. They will have to hold the spoon and run with a ping pong ball placed on the spoon. They would run to the decided distance and run back to the start and pass it off to the next player on their team. The team that finishes the race first, wins. It is up to you to set the distance of the relay race. As far as the dance activities, you will have to say something on the microphone to motivate the crowd to dance. Try to be exciting and exuberant. Sometimes you have to stop the music and speak for a little to get the crowd excited and play the famous dancing songs again. The ones I just named before is a good amount of dance activities songs needed for a party. These songs are placed in between sets of recent radio songs. You can play a couple of them back to back if you choose. Make sure you play the clean version of each song and not play the dirty version that drops F bombs like crazy.
Being hired for children parties is easy money. You can also make a good secondary income on the side. Another great tip is to offer secondary services to get additional money for the gig. What I do is offer magicians, clowns, costumed characters and rental equipment (cotton candy machine, inflatable playgrounds, popcorn machines, etc.). The first thing you need to do is research the extra services to make sure you work out the pricing with each service beforehand in order to charge a little more so you don’t hit them with an crazy outrageous number. I worked out a great price for the other services and got an agreement written out. The prices they charge me are low enough to charge higher and still compete with the market price. I have implemented these other services into my children party package deals. If you are starting off your company, you should offer them these services without making the extra money so they will be satisfied and get you more referrals. The purpose of any event is to get another one. People lead to people!
In conclusion, children parties are fun and pretty simple to organize. Take the advice I have given you and create some more unique concepts of your own. If you want to go the extra yard than have the birthday boy or girl give you a list of songs that he/she wants you to play in their party. This will assure you that you will be playing all of their jams. The one motto you have to live by when you are a mobile DJ is that you are being hired, so remember you playing music for them and not for yourself. If you live by this quote than you will be very successful. Good luck and have a fun time.
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