Category Archives: Walkabout

Party themes to consider

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It you’re prepared to do a bit of decorative work (or have the budget to hire a party organiser) then you can theme your venue or marquee to look like a beach bar, a scene from the Arabian nights or even the Wild West! Fancy dress is optional though it does help bring the whole thing together.

Possible theme locations include The Wild West, Beach/Tropical/Hawaiian, New York, Las Vegas, African/Safari, Ancient Egypt, Atlantis, Ancient Rome, Mardi Gras/New Orleans, the list goes on

In terms of making your venue look the part, you can choose from a wide range of props and accessories. For example, for a Hawaiian themed party you can hire a bamboo beach bar, free standing & table top palm trees, hula hoops, flower garlands, surf boards, fishing nets and sand pits!

Remember to ensure you have plenty of ice breakers to keep guests chatting and mixing. Close up magicians, caricaturists, meet and greet all work well, as do Chocolate Fountains! For something a bit different, try singing waiters who will really bring the house down!

Live Music. For a Las Vegas or New York themed party, have a look at Frank Sinatra or Rat Pack singers or celebrity lookalike singers. Use your imagination and your party themed evening will be a real treat!!

The arts

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If you are a fan of art then you could hire body painted models to recreate some of the finest paintings in the world. The thing about the National Gallery though, is that you have exclusive access to ogle these sensational works of art in complete privacy. Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Vermeer… The gallery holds some of the world’s most famous paintings and in terms of ‘set dressing’ for your event, you can’t get better than that!

When looking to hire a venue for a corporate event, private party or awards ceremony you will want something that is sure to amaze your guests and the National Gallery is a prime example of an events venue that will impress.

You might be thinking that the National Gallery might be a little difficult in which to have a ‘proper’ party because of the art on the walls. Not so. There are so many areas to the venue that music like DJ’s and Party bands fits in beautifully.

We could go on and on about the gorgeousness of The National Gallery by focusing on the interior but what of the exterior as well? Located on Trafalgar Square, you cannot get a more prestigious location in which to hold your event and attendees will remember the evening forever. With a multitude of production and lighting options available, there really is no reason not to enquire about booking an event with the National Gallery today.

Celebrity lookalikes

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Everyone wants their party to be memorable. One fun idea is to hire celebrity lookalikes to mingle with your guests at your private party or corporate event. Nothing loosens up a stuffy corporate crowd quite like sharing cocktails with Gaga or Elvis.

Just imagine hiring Michael Buble, Bette Midler and Elton John impersonators to work your party! After, the impersonators can mingle with your guests. Then your acts will continue doing the show again and then 30 minutes later Elton can take over the stage with a medley of his greatest hits,

We at Red Masque have obviously chosen our favourite celebrities but you can choose whoever you like to invite to your party. We particularly think Lady Gaga, Tina Turner, Prince, Beyoncé and other larger-than-life entertainers would all be great choices too.

There are absolutely loads of great celebrity lookalikes to hire and some will be hard to tell the difference. They can be hired for a many other events too, you could use a few celebrities to open up your new shop or restaurant. A perfect photo opportunity and a great talking point to get people talking about your business!!

So when you are next thinking about entertainment for your event, think about a celebrity!!!

18 Birthday Party

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18 is a time of coming of age and celebrating it in true style. Many 18th private parties are becoming quite similar these days so why not make your 18th birthday party one to remember.

We’ve chosen a 18th Birthday, but this could be for any Birthday, just tailor to the age.

Firstly, choose a birthday party venue; this could be your own house. Secondly choose a theme. Trust us, this will make your 18th birthday party that extra bit more unique and give your guests the excitement leading up to your party.

Finally, hire party entertainers.. make your 18th birthday party stand out from the crowd and have some of the most interesting and lively entertainment. Underneath is a variety of 18 birthday party entertainment ideas to help you!

DJ – Every party needs great music. You will not need to worry about changing songs over on your IPod when a DJ can do it all for you by using the latest technology. You can tell the DJ exactly what music you would like played so your music can be catered specifically for you!

Photo booth – Why not keep a little memory of your 18th birthday party night by hiring a photo booth. Your guests will have so much fun trying on colourful props and overall having fun in the photo booth. Instant photos will be available for your guests and you will receive a DVD of all photos taken on the night.

Themed nights– Give your party that Vegas feel by having your very own fun casino. Spin the wheel, place your fun bets and have a laugh with all your guests. Get your friends having a laugh and the style of entertainment is top class. Nobody else will have a casino at their 18th!

Magician – A walk around magician is perfectly suited to an 18th Birthday party. The magician will stun your guests with various tricks that will definitely catch them out. The magician could also be a comedian on the side, so Dynamo mixed with a bit of Lee Evans will go down a storm at your 18th private party.

Fish and Chip Van – If you are unsure of the party catering you would like for your party, then why not hire out a fish and chip van. The food caters for everybody’s tastes and your guests will enjoy their very own freshly cooked food. You can tailor the food to your requirements as well, burgers, sausages, goujons… whatever you want you can have!

Overall, enjoy your 18th birthday party. This is your big night; it’s not every day you take that step from a childhood to adulthood. Your 18th birthday party will be all about you, show it off, and make sure to get the perfect entertainment for your party. But the best thing you can do is smile and create some amazing memories and plan the best 18th birthday party ideas right here!

The Tobacco Dock venue

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When you book a venue like the Tobacco Dock, a grade I listed warehouse from 1811, it’s good if you know how to fill it. It’s a brilliant blank canvas for corporate events and private parties but it’s also quite large, so this is the sort of space that not only benefits from more than one piece of entertainment but also by making sure that the acts are mobile. At a large event or party, many might end up at the back of the room far away from the entertainment and not always able to move closer. When you hire walkabout artists however, the fun comes to you!

When you think of Covent Garden, you will think of two things – the world famous market and the litany of entertainment acts who draw huge crowds.

When one thinks of London, they might think of the Pearly Kings and Queens. Why not hire some walkabout artists – one King and one Queen – in complete costume to wow the crowd. Not only can they sing a few songs, they are available to meet and greet guests.

Covent Garden isn’t just about music though. You will find comedy acts, dancers and acrobats that you will find a fair number on pretty much all high streets of the UK. London and Covent Garden are no different and we think you’ll agree that that any performers you hire from Red Masque will be second to none!

Finally you might think of magicians and circus performances drawing huge crowds of tourists. Their combination of acrobatics and juggling is filled with energy and dynamism will have guests breaking out in smiles. It will be truly a fantastic event and we urge anybody holding a party or evening this year to ponder going with a Covent Garden theme.

Origin of National Playday

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National Playday started way back in the UK in 1986 when money was tight and adventure playgrounds were under fire to have budget cuts. The idea arose for the great British public to have one day a year, usually the first Wednesday every August, in which they could enjoy the playground activities and highlight how important they are to society.

Well 27 years later the national day is still going strong and it is bigger and better than ever before! It is coordinated by Play England, Play Wales, Play Scotland and PlayBoard Northern Ireland.
Why is playing so important?
Playing is essential to a child’s learning and development. It teaches sharing, it encourages confidence and more importantly, it allows them to have an enjoyable childhood.
It is vital for the emotional, intellectual and physical development and it offers children of all ages, backgrounds and abilities to play together.

But that doesn’t mean that adults can’t get involved and be ‘big’ kids for the day.

Whether it is a low-key get together private party with family and friends or a big party full or entertainment in your street, get involved and play games.
Not sure what to do? Here are 6 funtastic ideas for all the family:
Walkabout artists for hire
Party Bands
Magicians for hire
Acrobats for hire
Party Entertainers
Games

Just let your imagination run wild and use as many party suppliers as you can to make your event run as smoothly as possible.

A Glamourous Corporate Event

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The Grammys are a perfect occasion for a party, as the award show provides you with all the theme you’ll need. Let’s examine a few of the things that make the Grammys so fun and such a great opportunity to party with your friends!

The Glitz

What would the Grammys be without the red carpet, the paparazzi, the atmosphere of celebrity? Decorate your party with all the accoutrements of fame. We suggest a gold and black design, punctuated with red highlights. Hire caterers and party suppliers to treat your guests like stars. The point is to create the right environment, so your guests will feel as special and pampered as the yearly nominees!

The Glamour

Really, it’s the dresses. From J-Lo’s notorious dress in 2000 to Lady Gaga’s entrance encased in an egg, the Grammys have become known for the beautiful and strange outfits gracing the red carpet. Challenge your guests to either show up in one of the fame gowns or just wear their most elegant ensemble. It isn’t every day we get to get decked out in our best, so encourage your friends to go all out!

The Entertainment

After all, it’s the Grammys. Your party needs music! Hire a DJ or a Party Band to play nominated songs during commercials. If you really want to get into the fun, hire a stand-up comedian to entertain throughout and, at the end, to give out awards for Best Dressed! Maybe hire a few performers to mingle with guests to really add to the celebrity vibe.

The Ceremony

Now, we bet you’re wondering how you can fit all of this into one party? Set up the show outside or rent a large venue big enough for all your party’s needs. Don’t forget to pass around a ballot for the awards. Whoever guesses the most winners can get–that’s right–a Grammy! Another fun idea: create drinking games around multiple nominees. Every time they win, take a drink!

The Grammys are a wonderfully elegant night, so make sure you take all these factors into consideration when you’re planning your party. You may not be attending the Grammys, but that doesn’t mean you can’t feel like a winner!

Christmas events to be planned

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Plan your next Christmas event as early as you can to avoid disappointment. If you want to create your own winter experience, either for a party, corporate event or business attraction, here are a few hints from Red Masque directory to make your Christmas event something special!

If you want a show as part of your Christmas party, you’ll need an inside space or warm, dry and well-appointed marquee to hold it in. Acts that look great in marquees include:

• Circus acts, especially aerialists, or silk acrobats!

• Dance groups who can fill the performance area with music, movement and style!

• Party bands that can play in all those cheesy pop hits we love at Xmas!

Make your event great by having sheer variety of entertainment on offer. So, offer lots of different acts to see, rather than one big attraction and people will enjoy the event more.

• Walkabout acts really are great and so are costumed characters, ice characters and stilt walkers.

• Generate a warm feeling with fire acts to light up the winter darkness

• Conjure up the magic of Christmas with street magicians performing close-up tricks and illusions

Food and Drink

• Hire a hog roast or BBQ for outside cooked goodies

• Offer traditional treats such as roasted chestnuts and mulled wine that fill the air with deliciously Christmas smells!

• Have a Christmas cocktail bar, decorated with ice sculptures serving frosted cocktails or frozen daiquiris (and non-alcoholic drinks for the drivers)

Visitors love interactive experiences. They don’t have to be very fancy, just lots of fun for any age.

• Turn traditional side stalls into Christmas fun, such as a snowball coconut shy.

• Book a winter or “Frozen” themed bouncy castle with integrated rain cover, so the weather doesn’t stop the fun

• Get your skates on and book an artificial ice rink – all the fun, none of the wet! Most ice rink suppliers offer a complete package with chalet, boot hire, and experienced staff trained in the required health and safety procedures.

Bring the community together

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Local events are a great way to bring communities closer together. Whether you want to raise funds for a worthy cause, bring about positive change in your area, celebrate something special or simply get to know your neighbours, a community event will help rally the masses.

Deciding what type of event you should hold will depend on your goals, as well as the size and demographic of your target audience. However, here are 10 tried and trusted ideas for community events that should help get everyone together.

1. Host a street party

Street parties are now being held at any time, for all ages, to build community spirit at the street level. They are a more relaxed affair with attendees asked to bring a dish to share or with a barbecue arranged.

2. Put on a film screening

Who doesn’t enjoy watching a great movie on a big screen with a tub of tasty popcorn? You can organise a film screening at a local school, church, community centre or even outside, under the stars. Choose to screen a recent blockbuster or go for an old classic and embrace a theme, like ‘The Rocky Horror Show’ with guests encouraged to come in fancy dress.

On the other hand, if you have a message to get across or are marking a particular occasion you can choose a relevant movie i.e. ‘The Dam Busters’ to commemorate Remembrance Day or ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ to raise awareness about living with cancer.

But don’t forget, under UK copyright law, if you are playing films outside your domestic or home circle, you will need to obtain a licence to do so (even for free of charge events and fundraisers).

3. Organise a pub quiz

A quiz night with general knowledge questions can appeal to a broad audience, or you can target particular groups by focusing on specialist subjects, such as football or music. Theming your quiz can also give it an extra edge; for example, how about holding one on Halloween with questions about horror films, along with spooky decorations to get everyone in the spirit!

The hardest part of holding a quiz night is inevitably writing the questions. If you research your own trivia on the internet, then be careful how you select the sites you choose to get the questions from. Do not just crib from the first list of horror movie facts you come across – your participants may well have been on the same website!

4. Gather a gardening gang

If there’s a green space in your community that has seen better days, why not organise a group of volunteers to restore it to its former glory? Digging out weeds, picking litter and planting flowers will transform it into something for all to enjoy and encourage people to take an active part in caring for their local area.

Or perhaps your child’s school has an area of unused playing field that could be put to better use? Approach the PTA about turning it into a vegetable patch with the help of parents and pupils, growing produce for school dinners while teaching the children about where food comes from.

5. Hold a swap shop

Holding a swapping event can have both social and environmental benefits for your community. Not only does it minimise the number of unwanted items going to landfill, it also helps those in need – according to official statistics, there are 4 million children in the UK living in households that cannot afford to replace worn out or broken furniture and electrical items.

A swap shop is a cashless local event where people exchange unwanted items for something they do want. Not everyone needs to bring something – the more takers the better it will mean you will have very little left over at the end.

You may choose to have an event at a specific venue or simply a day when everyone puts their unwanted items out on the street and anyone can take what they want.

Just remember to notify the local council first and arrange for the anything not claimed to be taken to a local charity shop or furniture reuse organisation afterwards.

6. Organise an arts & crafts festival

In every community there are budding artists and craft enthusiasts that you could bring together by creating your own arts & crafts festival.

The term arts & crafts covers such a magnitude of different disciplines, that there really isn’t anything stopping you setting up stalls selling anything you want; from pottery to water colours, knitted wear to jewellery, there’ll be something for everyone to buy.

7. Use a themed day

There are a multitude of different themed days you could utilise; you only need to look at the internet to see how many “National’ days are out there.

A firm favourite, which will also help your local library, is World Book Day. The best way to get the community involved is by getting everyone to dress as their favourite character from any book they choose. This could mean dressing as Where’s Wally, The Cat in the Hat, Mr Darcy even! The possibilities are endless!

Invite local authors, or even famous authors who have ties to your community. You can organise a selection of readings with an open-mic night, and why not organise a poetry competition and get a local bookshop to donate prizes?

8. Organise a performance

Amateur dramatics has been a long standing part of the community, so why not gather some aspiring thespians together and organise a show?

This doesn’t have to be on a stage in the community hall, why not change things up and create a walking performance? Get the audience to follow a set course around town, where they can watch parts of the play in certain areas. Have your actors do scenes or interact with the audience in-between stops, making them part of the performance.

Use the seasons to your advantage to entice people to see your performance. Everyone loves getting into the Christmas Spirit around December, so why not perform ‘A Christmas Carol’? Or you could make use of a nearby forest or gardens to perform ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ when the summer months are here.

9. Food Festival/Farmer’s Market

Who can say no to delicious food? Especially when the town is filled with the most amazing smells!

Whether you get some local farmers, caterers or local food shops together, this is a great way to highlight the local produce and local sellers in the area. As well as getting to eat all the delicious food at the event, people will know they will be able to buy this produce locally on any other given day.

Why not think Great British Bake Off and ask the community to create their own showstopper cakes and raffle them off. No one can turn down cake, especially if you have a tea stand nearby!

10. Fireworks / Bonfire Night

Fireworks always brings in the crowds. There is something about lighting up the sky that just amazes people. Add a bonfire to the equation and you have a perfect winter event. Serve hearty food like jacket potatoes, with a hot chocolate (maybe a Baileys hot chocolate for the adults) and you’ll keep the crown fed, watered, and more importantly, warm!

You may be limited to using fireworks to certain nights of the year like Guy Fawkes Night and New Year’s Eve, but there isn’t anything stopping you having your own bonfire night with all the added activities to go with it, like lighting sparklers and toasted marshmallows.

Charity event tips

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Tip 1- The purpose – You should decide what the purpose of your charity event is and confirm this early to start initial planning. Is this full a fundraising event? Or does it have other goals in mind such as gaining awareness, publicity and to reach out to a new network of people. Many charitable events have more than one goal and these need to be decided before any further action takes place. Confirming and planning the details for your charity event will depend on knowing what goals you are trying to achieve.

Tip 2- Date, Time & Venue – Give yourself plenty of time to organise any type of event. At least 3 months in advance. You don’t want this to be a rushed job so ensure that all aspects are planned to perfection. Your venue is also entirely up to you, yet should reflect your theme, your purpose and your charity. If you believe that your house can hold the demand, then feel free to do so but for a large event then a venue such as a hotel may be better suited. Ask the venue for some freebies, if you don’t ask then you will never know.

Tip 3 – Budget Plan – Every fundraising event plan should contain a detailed budget plan of all of the expenses that will be required to hold the event.

Your budget plan should include staff, invitations, venue, catering, entertainment, utilities, and anything else that will be required to make the event successful. Your budget should take into account your fundraising goal, ensuring that you raise that amount above and beyond all expenses. Top tip for your budget is to always have a spare amount, you just never know when an emergency will appear and that extra bit of cash could really help you out

Tip 4 – Round up your troops – For your charity event to be a true success you will need a strong workforce behind you. This could be family and friends, volunteers of the charity or even try and recruit some new volunteers to help. Your team could help you in so many different ways such as helping you with the planning, collecting money outside supermarkets, selling tickets for the charity event and also on the day of your event it is always great to have a spare pair of hands.

Tip 5 – Read All about It – You have to let the public know
about your charity event, or nobody will know anything about it. Ask the charity to help by putting up the information on their Facebook page, create some simple flyers and leave them in shops in your area, create an “event” on Facebook and invite people, go and speak to your newspapers and get them to interview you about the charity event and if possible ring your local radio station and get a small interview slot. The more people know about the charity event, the more of a success it will be.

Tip 6 – Entertainment is key – Your entertainment has to be fresh, exciting and fun. Why not hire a fun casino which is great fun and also brilliant for fundraising? Or a magician who can walk about the room and make your guests “wow” in amazement. You could even hire out a crazy golf course;
you may even have the next Tiger Woods in your mists. The event entertainment needs to be organised quite early on in the planning process if you don’t want to be disappointed.

Tip 7 – Stick by the law – I would advise anybody to always go and research the laws and regulation when organising any event, especially a charity event. There are certain guidelines which need to be put in place to surrounding fundraising in public areas; you would need to speak to the local council about these. They are only small regulations so should not be anything too serious to worry about, but always check and get support from your local council

Tip 8 – Collecting the money- On the night of your event, you have to collect s the money if it is a fund raiser. You could collect the money by walking around the room with a branded bucket, have a raffle and collect the money when selling tickets or you could place an envelope for each guest
at their table where they place their desired amount into and you collect at a designated time of the night. There are so many options on how to do this, but these three seem to be
the most effective.

Tip 9 – Mind your manners! – Always remember to say Thank You both straight after the event and in the days that follow. Your guests, volunteers and sponsors need to be appreciated. They have taken time out of their lives to help with your charity event. Make a small speech simply thanking everybody for coming along, send a personal email again thanking them or even send them a moment of the night. Take a group photograph of everybody who attended and print these out for each volunteer and sponsor. A simple thank you on the back is all that is need and it gives your event that personal touch.

Tip 10 – HAVE FUN – You have done your planning, you have done your research and you have everything in place. Now it’s time to have fun. Mingle with your guests and have a laugh, if they see you relaxed then they will also feel relaxed. And remember it’s for charity, so no matter what you do you are making a difference.