It's Getting Harder

[phatmattuk 0]

Just a background to my story, I started djing in York in 1985 at the tender age of14, at 19 I set up with my friend doing social clubs, village halls ect and in 1994 gained some hotel contract work, which we still have, the point of my post is that back in the day, up to about 2007, party's were well attended, customers always stayed till the disco finished, the dance floor was always full from around 9.30 and always packed for the slow song, big finish ( new york, hi ho silver lining, ect ) the last few years have honestly been terrible, low numbers invited / attending, leaving early, usually after buffet, and seem to be struggling till midnight with very low numbers in the room, I have to ask, is this a problem uk wide or is it just me? Cheers

[McCardle 1]

I've noticed the same thing, I put it down to Pubs and Functions becoming more family orientated. Years ago, most younger kids were left with the babysitter or Grandparents, Mum and Dad could get a taxi, relax, have a few drinks, let their hair down and generally treat the event as a night out, nowadays parents take their kids everywhere with them, they are always on "Parent Duty", can't relax & always have to be setting an example and remain relatively sober. Often they leave early because its way past their Three year olds' bedtime.

 

And then there are the out of control feral kids, running around the venue, and sliding up and down the dancefloor, off putting to any Adults wanting to actually dance on it. Get a large number of kids in attendance and the venue rapidly becomes an extension of the local wacky warehouse.

 

Couple that with expensive drink prices and a recession and people can't simply afford to drink as much as they used to. Stress levels are also higher, worries about money, job security etc make it hard for people to just chill and enjoy themselves.

Edited October 1, 2013 by McCardle

[Brentford Bob 0]

It's not just me then!?

 

I've had the same problem recently - I did a wedding at a lovely hotel in Hants and it went well until about 10pm when I was left with an almost empty dance floor.

 

There were some many young kids there that they all started to fall asleep at about 9 o'clock and thus by 10 the parents were taking them off to bed and not coming back.

 

The bride was pretty much on her own from then on!

 

I also did a 40th recently where the birthday girl had booked the venue until midnight. She wanted the last hour to be totally "club" orientated so I played lots of 90's house, which is what she wanted.

 

Guess what - everyone went home and again, she had the dancefloor to herself for the last 45 mins. Don't get me wrong, she had a lovely time but it was pretty unintersting for me, playing to just one drunken woman for an hour or so!