Guide To Throwing A Memorable Party As A DJ

There is no better way to announce yourself as a DJ than at your own party. After having practiced your DJ techniques for weeks and months, there is no better way to build confidence in your skills than by playing in front of other people, regularly.

However, landing gigs as a new DJ can be hard, but fortunately, you can throw your own parties and DJ at them to get
that regular opportunity to play in front of others. This is how you will start getting noticed by your friends and family that will eventually open up opportunities for you to DJ at their parties, as well.

But how do you get started with the party preparations? Read on ahead as we break down the steps that you need to take to throw a fun and memorable party as a DJ.

Find the right venue for the party

When throwing a party, it is always tempting to invite as many people as you know. However, the rule is to do the opposite and start with the smallest number of people that would help make your party a success.

This is important because when you’re starting off as a DJ, you want to connect with the crowd and take in their feedback. That is difficult to do when you have 100s of people at your party.

Now that this is established, start making a list of people that you will be inviting and come up with a number. Let’s say you are going to invite 40 people to your party, the next step is to find a venue.

Here are some tips on how to find the right venue for your party:

• Make sure that the venue allows for loud music and has the DJ equipment that you need. This is important because if there are restrictions on loud music or late hours, then you might have to compromise on what’s most important: your ability to showcase your DJ skills.
• Think conservatively about the venue size – the reality is that 90 people in a 100-person venue is much better than having 100 people in a 500-person venue. Remember, not everyone that you invite will show up to the party.
• Strike the right chord with the venue manager to minimize your expenses. Promise them that you will be bringing people, providing the music and DJ, and handling the tickets. This works because most venues make profits from their bar, and that is where the people you invite come in. Discuss the entire thing like a membership – offer convenience to the manager in return for a concession for the hire fee or venue fee.

Promote the party and send out invites

The best time to start promoting your party is about 2 – 3 weeks before the party. This ensures that you have ample time to start preparing for the party and get a sense of how many people will be joining in. Don’t expect a crowd if only a handful of people have shown interest.

The first step that you need to take is to reach out to your family, close friends, and friends of friends. Do this in whatever way you can: be it in-person, via SMS or email, or through social media. The rule of thumb when promoting something is to make sure people hear about it through multiple sources so it’s important to be creative here.

One thing that you will need regardless of the medium you choose is some good DJ posters for the party. This is essential because not only are you sharing all the necessary information in one place, but it also lets others promote your party for you. There’s no simpler way for your friends to help you promote your party than by forwarding or resharing a poster that you shared on your social media or sent them via WhatsApp.

Make sure that your poster includes all the relevant information about the party including the venue, timing, and theme (if any). Here’s an example of a good DJ party poster from DJ Coach Tsekeleke.

But how do you get started with designing such posters yourself? We recommend using a graphic design tool such as PosterMyWall for this. PosterMyWall lets you choose from a wide range of DJ poster templates that you can easily customize within a matter of minutes. You don’t need any prior design skills or a steep learning curve because the tool is very simple and intuitive to use. Once you’ve made your design, all you need to do is publish and print them to hand out to people or share it with others via social media and WhatsApp.

Learn about the audience’s music preferences before the party

When sending out invites to your guests for the party, it’s important that you ask for their music preferences, as well. For any party to be a success, you must set the right atmosphere for the crowd and there’s no better way to do that than ask the people themselves.

For example, if people are looking to celebrate or dance at your party, the music will be completely different than if people want to socialize and enjoy some background music. Creating an atmosphere for the party is just as important as the food and drinks at the party, so put in some effort into that.

A good way to learn about people’s preferences is to get them to fill out a quick poll on Facebook and Instagram. You can put in music genres that you are comfortable playing such as Hip Hop, Pop, House, etc., and then let the people decide. Once you know the genre and preferences, you can then move on to curate your music collection for the party.

Start preparing for the party

Now that you have decided on the venue and have sent out the invitations, the next step is to start preparing for your party. This is where you start making all the arrangements for the gear, music, food, and decorations that you will need for the party.

Here is a checklist of what you need to do to prepare for the big night:

1. Figure out all the gear that you will need for DJing at the party. Make a checklist of all the equipment that you will need so that there is no confusion on party night. Here is a list of equipment that most DJs will need for a party (feel free to add in more as necessary):

a. DJ controller
b. Cables and power leads
c. Headphones
d. Speakers
e. Microphones

2. Ask the venue if they have all the gear you need or if you need to bring anything yourself. Once you know the gear you need to bring, think of what you have available and what you need to source. For sourcing, we recommend that you borrow or rent rather than buy, especially if it is just for the party night.

3. Next up is decorations – while the venue will take care of most of the decorations for the party itself, what you will need to take care of is the branding. For instance, the posters that you designed earlier can be put up in different places in the venue. Similarly, you can do a full-wall logo with your DJ name and picture so that people remember you. Keep in mind, the purpose of the party is to promote yourself and get as many people as possible to be familiar with your DJ name.

4. Finally and most importantly, start planning out the music. You will already know the genre(s) that you will be playing by this point but the questions to ask at this time are: What music tracks will you play? What order will you play them in? How will you mix things up between different genres? It’s best to know the answer to all of these before party night so you can practice and get ready for the event.

Remember, hustling is important

We have listed down the major steps that you need to host your first party as a DJ but this is not where it ends. If you want to become successful as a DJ, it is important that you keep hustling and hosting parties like this.

In fact, we would recommend that you start planning ahead for the next party immediately after you’re done planning the current one. This way you can let people at the party know about the next event and where it will be. Those who enjoy your party will definitely want to come to the next one and this is how you start building a fan following.