The type of event you hold will greatly influence the type of entertainment you should hire. Whether it’s a formal corporate function, wedding, 21st birthday, family reunion, or fundraiser, you need to choose the right entertainment for the personalities of your guests as well as the occasion. You can choose to organize the entire event yourself, including booking the venue, choosing the food and booking the entertainment, or you may prefer to contact a party rental company and have them take care of everything. Regardless of what you choose, entertainment still needs careful consideration.
Formal Corporate Events
For a formal event, be it a gala dinner or a business event, appropriate entertainment should be arranged that is more conservative. Having a roaming belly dancer would not be appropriate, nor would a heavy metal rock band. You can choose to start the night with drinks in a separate lobby and have a string quartet play or an A Capella group sing. Your entertainment could also be in the form of ice sculptures that are placed around the venue and are carved in the shapes that best represent the night or the company.
Theme Event
Themed events can range from an elegant formal soiree to a casual party or daytime gathering. Themes are great to work with when planning an event because you can link everything from costumes, food, decorations, and also your entertainment. For a corporate meeting, you can choose a masquerade ball or a theme from the Arabian Nights. This is where hiring a belly dancer to entertain guests is appropriate, even if it is a more formal occasion it is acceptable within the theme. Themes open the doors to a wide variety of entertainment ideas, limited only by your creativity. Choirs, face painting, storytellers, dancers, bands, puppeteers, artists or even a fire-eater. The event could turn into a show if you have the right theme to work with.
A step back in time
Similar to choosing a theme, you may want guests to dress in period costume and have the event based on a particular decade. Guests often love to wear costumes and it’s a great way to break the ice at any party as guests will, more often than not, be talking about your costume. You can choose to take your guests back in time, to ancient Rome or the Middle Ages, or you can simply choose a more recent decade, such as the 1920s or 1940s. When choosing an era, think about how you can decorate the venue, what food would continue with the theme and also what kind of music would follow. It can be a bit difficult to replicate lutes and other instruments found during Camelot’s time, or it can be a bit boring to dance to, so maybe you could pick some time in the 20th century. A 1920s-style swinging jazz band or a 1940s-style big band would get everyone dancing and would be a party hard to forget.