Category Archives: Hire

Halloween party

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Although Halloween lands on a Monday this year, there’s no excuse not to make the most of it.

Set a creepy mood.

The trick to instantly creating a mood is to focus on overall effect rather than intricate decor details. Simply dimming the lights in favour of candlelight (electronic or flame) will immediately infuse the room with spooky ambiance. A quick draping of black netting over existing furnishings — tables, seating, etc. — provides instant spook factor with minimal effort, and a scattering of decorative masks will dress up everything from the food table to the bar. Finally, a scary film with a mask-related plot point (think Freddie Kruger or one of the Saw movies) playing on the TV surround sound is a clever, effortless way to emphasize the theme.

Serving Drinks.

The two most important things to remember about hiring party drinks are quality and presentation. A choice of excellent lagers offered in ice-filled black cauldrons is much more interesting than a bunch of average Fosters crammed in the fridge. Serve a single signature cocktail jazzed up with themed stirrers or glassware and made with a premium spirit to make it feel special. Margaritas on the rocks are super easy and don’t require a blender (plus the mix can be made in batches in advance for easy pouring over ice once guests arrive).

Food.

A spicy pot of chilli served with tortilla chips instead of bread works perfectly with lagers and tequila, and a buffet of toppings allows guests to personalize their bowls. For snacks, a sweet-and-savoury dipping bar of crisps, fruit, and dips provides visual impact as well as variety. Salsa, hummus, and sour cream-based dips are must-have classics, while melted chocolate on marshmallows are a must, as well as a chocolate fountain with toffee apples.

Playing DJ.

Soundtracks to scary movies are a quick and easy way to infuse the room with doom. Extra points for playing spooky sound effects at the front door or in the bathroom. If you have extra time, make a playlist of your favourite horror movie themes and make a game of guessing which film goes with each tune.

Keeping Guests Entertained.

Give the classic games you played as a child a slightly more sophisticated spin to keep guests happily occupied. Replace pumpkin carving with decorating lanterns with stickers, markers, and chalk that guests can take home with them, and trade bobbing for apples in water for bobbing for toffee apples ice. Pick up a horror-themed video game for bonus points.

Dressing Up.

Invite guests to simply add a decorative mask to whatever they’re wearing for the evening. Feel free to set a dress code if you like, but letting guests come as they are makes it easy to accept your invitation. You can also set out masks on tables and let undisguised guests know that they can put one on.

Event ideas for businesses

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There are many ways to create a unique experience for your employees, customers, and potential customers. Hosting a business event like a happy hour or networking event is a great way to get in front of people and more about them at the same time.

Set your budget – How much can you afford to spend for the event? What will you need? Some of the usual costs associated with events include the venue, food, drinks, decor, marketing (printing/postage), giveaways and labour.

Create a guest list – How many people and who will you invite? How many people do you expect to show up? These answers will help you with the rest of the items on this list. Start by looking at your customer base and work from there. Use other networking events that you attend to pass out info about your event, if appropriate.

Select a date – When is the best time for your event? Select a few dates that work for you your potential invitees. Most people won’t be able to take time out from work just for your event. Keep in mind that your date needs to coincide with your venue availability. The more flexible you are, the better your chance of getting a great location, and a good price.

Research locations – Should your event be held at your business, or do you need to check out other locations that might work? How much room do they have? What does the venue include (i.e., food, drinks, staff, audio equipment)? Can you use their venue in exchange for getting more people in their door or in trade for something from your business?

Pick a theme – Having a theme can help brand your entire event from invitations to decorations, food, and drink ideas. Remember, the holidays are right around the corner and people LOVE holidays. Use Pinterest to your advantage for finding inexpensive and fun ideas for your theme.

Questions to ask yourself: How are you going to promote your event? What’s the right way to reach your target attendee, email, social media, print invitation? What will you offer people to get them to attend?

Send invitations – Try using different methods (paper, email, social media) to send out your invitations. You know your audience, what will work best for them? You may want to use multiple methods.

Find a similar or complementary business to co-host an event with you. You can use their customer list to gain more attendees for your event and possibly more prospects for your business.
Get donations from other business that might benefit from your event. They can sponsor different aspects of your event or help with giveaways.
Have invitations available at your place of business (if you have one), and on you all times to pass out. You never know when you’ll need them.
Social media is free! Make sure to use it to your advantage. You can offer invitees a deal for sharing your event with their friends.

Last but not least, play the host/hostess. Make sure during the event that you work the room and keep the event, conversation, food and drinks flowing!

Some deposits are Non-Refundable

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When you enter into a contract with your entertainment provider, whether it’s a wedding band, a magician or a DJ, you normally will be expected to provide some kind of non-refundable deposit along with your signature to secure the date. The amount may vary, but a 50% deposit is fairly common.

If you’re a bride, or planning a corporate event party and this is first time you’ve ever hired entertainment services, this can be a scary thing. What if the event gets cancelled? What if someone dies the week before? What if it rains on our outdoor beach birthday party? Do I get my deposit back?

Of course the answer will depend on the wording of the deposit clause in the contract, but most likely if the event is cancelled because of unforeseen circumstances; you will likely be out your deposit. But let’s dig deeper.

It’s easier for people to understand why a caterer or even a venue would request a deposit. They have to buy food or they are reserving the space exclusively for you and must turn down other business. But a musician isn’t purchasing any perishables, right? Well, not exactly. The busy nights for any event entertainer are Saturdays, followed closely by Fridays. There are only 52 Saturdays in a year and each one represents an opportunity cost. If for example a family tragedy occurs 2 days before your graduation party, the band still needs to be compensated for that Saturday night that they committed to your party. It is entirely possible that they have turned down other clients to commit to your party. While it’s very sad that a member of family decided to pass two days before your big event, this is not the fault of your hired act.

What can you do if the unforeseen happens? The first thing is to have a conversation with your hired entertainment. While they may be under no obligation to reschedule, many will try to work with you and apply part or all of your deposit to another date. The flexibility they have will depend on how in demand they are, how full their calendar is and on what day of the week you want your new date. You certainly can’t expect them to bump another client because you need to reschedule. And nor can you expect them to give you another Saturday night on the busiest part of wedding season. But maybe they’re willing to apply all (or some) of your deposit to a Tuesday night, or an off-season Friday night.

This is a conversation you can have with your entertainer BEFORE signing the contract. Ask the “what if” scenarios. Just understand that if this conversation drags out too long, your vendor may start to question your commitment to the date.

Another option is to take out Event Cancellation Insurance for your date.

What is typically covered by event cancellation insurance?
Fire, earthquakes, flooding, blizzards, hurricanes, terrorism, headline entertainers or speaker cancellation, outbreak of disease.

Event cancellation insurance probably won’t cover things like lack of ticket sales, or the time spent planning the event.

Entertainment for a real surprise

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Events are an intriguing proposition. Depending on the stage at which you are at in life, certain acts may be perfectly suited to you. Others perhaps less so. You’re hardly likely to book a wine tasting for a child’s birthday party and the less said about the ‘Happy 75th’ bouncy castle booking the better. With that in mind, we thought it may be useful to run through a few ideas you may wish to have a look at depending on the life stage within which you currently reside.

Who can forget childhood? A time when you were completely carefree but were still liable to be dragged along to events at your parent’s insistence. Thankfully, many times there were acts at these events that were tailor made for you. Ah, life was hugely enjoyable when you were being entertained by such acts like a balloon modeller and a children’s entertainer that you happily got involved, all memories of missing your favourite cartoon on television completely forgotten.

One of the most important part of your day is the party entertainment. Everything else is window dressing but hey, you want the finest window dressing there is. To that end, splashing out for a great venue, nobody will forget a knock out venue in a hurry. Book party entertainment to suit the theme, stilt walkers and aerialists is a great idea. With the photo booth images providing a fun way to scrapbook your event, everyone went home happy.

Of course, many of the acts depicted here can’t really be compartmentalised and we have lots of ideas that you can look through on our entertainment directory. So have fun, pick some entertainers that would be a real surprise and make your whole event a magical one…

Planning your next corporate event!!

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Every year you have to organise the annual corporate event. So, what are the best of the best for corporate entertainment acts for your next corporate event in 2017? Red Masque directory have the hottest trends and acts for corporate, and company parties to ensure your VIPs are very impressed and your boss is very happy.

Aerialists use aerial circus and dance theatre with dynamic lighting and music to create evocative shows using trapeze, ropes and silks. Available as a solo artist for smaller venue, or as large a troupe as you wish, their show can be tailored to create the atmosphere you require, whether humorous, quirky, elegant. With a range of associated acts, including aerial champagne pouring.

Circus entertainers have given the world of corporate entertainment a whole new generation of aerial artists, defying gravity to present unique. Even if you haven’t got a skyscraper to use as your stage, these circus-inspired artists can perform in almost any space, for any corporate event.

Offer your guests a total 007 experience: an elegant stately home or iconic venue, set up as a celebrity lookalike James Bond complete with elegant hostesses serving martinis (shaken not stirred by expert cocktail waiters). Then add musical entertainment combining iconic Bond movie soundtracks and characters with dance and spectacle, such as a top party function band with a James Bond set.

Bespoke dance groups provide a superb spectacle that transcends language, and can be precisely tailored to your corporate event theme. From ballet dancers to contemporary rock dancers, your guests can enjoy a show full of energy, passion, augmented by state of the lighting and sound systems.

Whatever the occasion, you’ll find a dance troupe to suit; that can offer themed events such as Arabian Nights, Argentinean Tango, Burlesque, Flamenco, Irish Dancing, Ballroom Dancing, and Vegas Showgirls for example.

It will be All Light on the night!!

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Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are a major feature of most modern technology such as TVs, tablet computers, mobile phones and remote controls. Read this to find out why LEDs are so important to Red Masque’s artists, musicians and even their existence…

It’s one of those little things we take for granted, the glowing LED light that shows us that something is ON. Be it red or green, it’s a light that says, “Notice Me”, and it’s probably the one thing you can see at a gig when all the lights go out on stage.

LED’s everywhere and extremely cost effective nowadays. They can brighten a whole stage and make a dark and gloomy place look wonderful. The power of LED’s is almost evident everywhere you go, for example:

• Most of Red Masque party and event entertainment directory musicians use a PA system, and try finding one of those without LEDs on it.

• All of our artists have mobile phones, so they can contact us and clients about bookings, wherever they are in the country. What lights the screens? LEDs.

• And, of course, you wouldn’t be able to see our website in all its glory on your mobile or tablet without LED technology either.

There is one set of performers, however, who literally wouldn’t exist without LEDS; our LED light show performers. By whirling and twirling LED sights, these talented artists create intricate patterns and optical illusions in light for both inside and outdoor venues, without the concerns over fire regulations and health and safety of their ‘real’ fire and glow counterparts.

Equally, any artists using a mobile device in their act, from iPad magicians, artists and caricaturists to function bands offering iPod-based DJ services would quite literally be out of a job.

And DJ’s and rock band lighting would be heavier, more expensive and considerably less exciting, as LED lighting is lightweight, energy efficient, cool to the touch and can create a whole variety of colours without the need for coloured ‘gels’.

Dare we mention Christmas?

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It will soon be almost that time of year when you dig out your fluffy jumper, drink mulled wine and enjoy the holiday with friends and families.

Did you know that almost 11 million Brits will go to their works’ Christmas party this year? It is an annual event to let your hair down and have fun and what Christmas party would be complete without some embarrassing dancing?!?

If you haven’t yet started thinking about how you will celebrate this year, now is definitely the time to get brainstorming. Restaurants and venues will start getting booked up and before you know it will be just a few weeks away and you’ll have nothing planned.

So without further ado, here are 10 fun ideas for your work party in 2016:

1. Santa’s Grotto

This can be a truly magical way to bring some fun into the office! Why not get the boss to hand out everyone’s Secret Santa presents in a grotto whilst dressed like Father Christmas himself against a Winter Wonderland backdrop?

2.Snow Machine.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Add some festive spirit to your event with fake snow. Activate it to sprinkle soft snow drops over everyone as they arrive to the party. Everyone loves snow and it can transform the venue into a magical wonderland.

3. Rodeo Reindeer

Who can resist having a go on a bucking, spinning and twisting bronco reindeer? Everyone in the office will have a barrel of laughs trying to stay on as long as possible. The question is, who out of the team will win?

4. Santa and Elf hire

If you don’t want to dress up, why not hire a Santa and Elf characters? They are the perfect addition to your Christmas event and can help liven up the crowd to create a fun, memorable evening.

5. Santa’s Thrones

What better way to surprise the boss than hire an Elaborate Santa throne? Fit for a King (or Queen), these beauties would look amazing in your office and definitely create a festive feel to get everyone excited for the holidays.

6. Christmas Prop Hire

If you just plan on throwing the work’s do at the office during work hours, go to town with Christmas decorations! We have a fabulous range of props that you can hire including a cute frosty snowman, beautifully decorated presents to put under the Christmas tree, reindeer ornaments and much more.

7. Christmas Cash Grabber

Take your mind back to The Crystal Maze and ever wondered how you would do in the final trying to grab all that cash quickly? Well you could find out for real with our fun Christmas Cash Cube Grabber. And you decide what the flying paper targets are be it vouchers, funny money or stickers! They can be perfect for office promotions.

8. Photo Booth

A better way to get all the staff together and have fun than in front of a festive background, wearing funny props and making fools of themselves? Hiring a photo booth can be the perfect entertainment idea and the staff can even record their own holiday cheer messages to each other with a video option.

9. Casino Tables

From poker to blackjack to enthralling roulette, casino tables offer a thrilling and addictive experience that will leave the entire office wanting more! Even if gambling isn’t your forte, we guarantee everyone will have an amazing time and our authentic casino tables will definitely impress.

10. Christmas Tree Buzz Wire

Have you got nerves of steel to take on the Christmas Tree Buzz Wire challenge? Who in the office has the steadiest hand and who will crack under pressure? This simple but fun entertainment idea will have everyone biting their fingernails in anticipation. With the timer counting down and your heart beating out of your chest, will you be able to withstand the tension to come out victorious?

So there you have it; 10 sure-fire ways to make your office Christmas party that little bit different this year! After all, who wants just boring party with a DJ and food when you can have a bucking bronco reindeer and a photo booth.

Sugar and Spice and all things nice

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Cotton Candy, also known as Candy Floss, Fairy Floss, Papa’s beard and even Old Woman’s Hair is made by spinning flossine sugar. The first records of Candy Floss in Europe date back to the 18th century, with it becoming popular in 1904 after the invention of the candy floss spinning machine we are all now familiar with. It was in April of that year that Candy Floss was taken to the World’s Fair where over 68,000 boxes were sold for 25 cents each (approx. £4 today), which was half the cost of admission! It was clear from this day onwards that candy floss would be extremely popular for people of all ages.

If this has got you craving some of the fluffy goodness, we can certainly help! At Red Masque, we have a great selection of Candy Floss options for your event amongst lots of other sweet treats.

Candy floss carts are a great feature at any event. Your guests can grab a stick (or bag) of the sugary stuff from our friendly fun experts, or see a demonstration on how to make the Candy Floss, before having a go themselves.

If popcorn is more your thing, then a popcorn machine is just the thing for your event, whether it be a birthday party, wedding or corporate event entertainment you’re after. That sweet smell of popcorn will draw all of your guests in and have them coming back for more and more!

If you really want to be taken back to those childhood days of filling up a paper bag with your favourite sweet treats, then why not hire a Pick N Mix cart to sweeten your guests taste buds. If your event has a specific colour scheme or theme, then why not choose a range of sweets that tie in with theme or personalised rock which will be a special touch.

Sweet treats don’t stop there though, if you are planning an event for next summer and would like a sweet treat to cool your guests down, Ice cream bike hire will do just that! Alternatively, if you would like a healthier treat, fruit selection carts would be great.

Birthday Celebration Ideas

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Initially, only royalty was deemed important enough to have a birthday celebration, but the tradition soon spread with the introduction of the children’s party in Germany, the Kinder Feste.

The tradition of holding a party to celebrate the anniversary of birth began centuries ago in Europe when it was feared that evil spirits sought out people on their birthdays. To protect them from harm, friends and family would gather around to bring good thoughts and wishes. Giving gifts brought even more good cheer to ward off evil spirits, and candles were placed on cakes to transport the birthday wishes directly to God.

For the trivia buffs amongst you; the lyrically astounding ‘Happy Birthday to You’ song was written in 1839 by sisters Mildred and Patty Smith Hill!!

Birthday party fancy dress themes work really well let your imagination run wild…

It’s good to ensure there are plenty of attractions to keep guests talking& mingling so you could also consider casino tables which can tie in nicely with a James Bond theme, for example, and create a space for guests to meet, mix and break the ice. Also check out our celebrity lookalikes who will work the floor & get people talking.

For a rocking party, you could book a band to play songs fitting to that theme or just a general Rock, Pop, Soul, and Swing or even hire a Jazz band to keep your guests dancing all evening long.

Celebrity lookalikes of your birthday girl/ boy’s favourite celebrity would be a great touch. For a great surprise you could hire some comedy music acts who can act “incognito” for part of the evening before bursting into song when your guest’s least expect it!

How to select the right music

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It’s good to choose your music when hosting a party. This is very important when you’re using the services of a DJ or when you’re hiring a band. You don’t just allow them to play any type of music they want. You can offend your guests if you allow them play as they wish. Selecting music at events is never an easy task. Here are simple tips to follow:

Engage a Live Music Band

You can engage a live music band for your party event. You still have to pick specific music files for the band. You have to arrange a meeting with the band ahead of time. You need to iron out some issues before hiring the band. You have to ask the managers some questions regarding the band’s instruments, attires, songs and other aspects.

Consider the Party Theme

You need to consider the theme of the party before selecting the music. The theme depends on the type of party you’re hosting. If for instance you’re hosting a Christmas party, you may consider selecting music pieces or songs that depict that season. If you’re hosting a cocktail or dinner party, you should also choose music files that will suit the occasion.

Hire a good DJ

You can hire a good DJ for your party and also select specific songs for him. You have to give the DJ specific instructions regarding the songs he will play. You should try as much as you can to hire a professional DJ who can render quality services.

Meanwhile, there are different kinds of songs you can choose when thinking of selecting music at events. You can go for gospel songs, rock music, jazz, disco, and so on. The type of party you’re hosting determines the kind of songs to select.

If you’re using the services of a DJ or a live band, you have to be very careful. You need to ask questions before choosing any band or DJ. You can make inquiries from a reliable entertainment directory such as Red Masque.

Before you choose any band or DJ, you need to get in touch with them at first. You can arrange a special meeting to iron out things with the professionals. You’ll end up making the right choice when you invest enough time in selecting the best musical pieces.