With 150 party animals packing the floor of the Andorra Banquets and Catering venue, DJ Paul Segal found himself with a perfect setup for the 2018 Crown Counseling holiday party.
The hall staff had set up the room with all the tables on one half of the room, with the food and the DJ’s mirror booth located on the other half. With the bar and dancefloor in the center, it made for an ideal DJ/TV setup.
“It was great to watch the people dance, other people watch the videos, and the mirror booth jam-packed all night long,” recalls Segal, entertainment director for 219 Productions in Highland, Ind., a Chicago suburb.
“The ladies loved the mixing of newer and older music, the videos, and the online music requests through DJEP. They’re always a dancing bunch – it’s the fourth year in a row they’ve had me as their entertainer – and the owner is always full of energy and games. She does [games like] ‘Heads and Tails’ and ‘Saran Wrap Ball’ with prizes for the employees, and this year they added a ‘Snowman Wrap’ and some quick raffles.”
For Segal, this was actually a typical party for his busy 2018 holiday season. He reports that his December gigs were up 50-percent over last year, between his repeat business bookings and new clients finding his business for the first time – none were hesitant to spend the same amount of money they’d invested in the past.
In fact, Segal says his only challenge this past year was staffing the 10 bookings that he snagged within two weeks of their events.
We polled mobile DJs throughout the nation to find out the status of holiday parties in 2018. Were bookings up or down, compared to last year and years past? Were corporates spending money this year, in what appears to be a good economy?
