At this point in your career as a DJ would you DJ a kids party where they want the DJ to be interactive, and facilitate games with the kids? Coke/Pepsi, Limbo, Hula Hoop Toss style games as an example.
Would you DJ a car show and not play car songs? If you're booking kids events, why would you not play with them?
Sounds like a simple solution - if you don't want to entertain the younger generation(s), don't accept it.
if you think about it, kids parties tend to be shorter, but you can still charge full rate, more bang for your buck, BUT you can't adult DJ a kids party, 2 hour stint, easy right,... compare it to an 8 till 1am, where everyone wants "there special record" and never dances or thoes that "hey mate I can DJ/SING/KARAOKE/RAP" or the drunks that bump you 1200's or spill beer on your subsI just did a kids party this year. Not my first choice, but the money was right and was a 2 hour Sunday noon to 2.
Yes we played games
"yeah my dad is a DJ"Noooooo! , I do not have any desire to any kid/teen events, with the exception that my kids school since they found out I am a DJ want me to do their prom next year, I am only considering it because its not a typical public school.
nice post and great outlook, !Many of my first paid gigs were this type of work. I was a teenager at the time, and I was figuring it out.
They were typically 2 hour elementary school dances, and I think was making $200-$250 to do them.
My format was that every 10-15 minutes I would try to do an activity. So either a line dance, a scavenger hunt for a silly giveaway (often glowsticks). We'd do hoola hoop contests (I bought like 60 hoola hoops to facilitate this). We did limbo, all sorts of silly stuff. So it would literally be 2-5 songs of kids running around playing on their own, and then we'd do something else.
While I don't aspire to do that kind of work anymore, I had a lot of fun doing it back then. And as a young DJ the experience being on a microphone, commanding a room full of chaos, and figuring out how to program for it was invaluable for me.
With where I am now... I'm not pursuing anything like this. But if I were a full timer, I might do it again under another brand.
Set up a completely separate brand and website directed towards kids and school dance type events. Booking only available Monday - Thursdays. Send flyers to all the local elementary schools (there are 141 elementary schools in the county I live in). If you book 10-15 of those a year at $350 a pop... call it an extra $3-$5K from nights that would otherwise be totally dormant. I think it would be pretty easy to do actually.
Why wouldn’t you at least respond politely that you do not do these type of events but if I can be of assistance in the future please reach out and maybe even pass along the names of a couple of DJs who could help themI had two calls that I have not responded to yet. One came in Friday afternoon, and one came in yesterday.
One is for a Barmitzvah next April for 3 hours. Wants a DJ to play games with the kids. Wants a price quote. She was referred by someone to me, and I did not recognize the name she said in the voice mail. Maybe a previous client. Maybe someone who saw me at an event years ago. It is at a nice restaurant known for having a lot of bar/bat mitzvahs and weddings take place there. I could book this for what I would charge for a wedding, but it's more work.
Another one came in for 10th birthday party taking place in January. Wants games with the kids. Also a referral. ...For this, I doubt they will spend over $600, and I don't have any interest in booking anything games related for below what I can get on a wedding.
10+ years ago I would have tried to book both of these.
Today, I'm Debating if I want to even bother calling them back, lol