CORPORATE
Company picnic entertainment ideas in Denver
Eight ways to run the summer company party, from the lawn to the patio to the evening it turns into, with what each one needs from the weather and the power.
- A picnic is the one company event where the entertainment has to work for families in the afternoon and for the crowd that stays into the evening, and those are two different bookings.
- In Colorado the afternoon weather decides the stage. Covered, level and dry, with power run to it, and a move-indoors call written before the day.
- The lists you find for a company picnic are games lists. Music is the missing idea, and it's the one that reaches the whole lawn at once.
- The picnic that turns into a party at dusk is one booking: an acoustic act through the afternoon, a band or a DJ when the sun goes down.
The company picnic is planned in spring by the same person who planned the holiday party, with half the budget and twice the variables. It has to work for a six-year-old and for the sales team, in the sun and possibly in the rain, on a lawn where the nearest outlet is a hundred feet away. The lists that come back from a search are games lists. Music is the idea that reaches everyone on the lawn at once without asking anybody to queue for it, and it’s the idea those lists leave out.
Eight ways the day can run, with what each one needs from the weather, the power and the crowd.
The Americana band on the lawn #
Acoustic guitar, fiddle, upright bass and drums, playing the Colorado songbook in the afternoon sun: the Grateful Dead and Tom Petty beside Nathaniel Rateliff and the Lumineers. It’s the sound a Colorado lawn expects, it plays at a level a picnic table talks across, and it turns into a dance set when the sun goes down. The Americana band page has the builds and the outdoor requirements.
The acoustic duo by the food line #
Voice and guitar playing covers people know at a volume they can talk across, set up where the crowd actually gathers, which at a picnic is within sight of the food. An acoustic duo is the smallest real outdoor booking, and it fits an 8 by 6 foot corner of a pavilion on one circuit.
The DJ afternoon #
The simplest to approve and the easiest to run: one line, one load-in, music from the first burger to the last raffle ticket, and an announcement microphone for the raffle. An open-format DJ reads a picnic crowd the way it reads a ballroom, families first, the floor later.
The yacht rock evening #
When the picnic is really a summer party, a patio or a rooftop in July with the sun going down, the yacht rock band is the act: the Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Hall and Oates and Toto, sung in harmony with the saxophone out front, for a crowd that wants to sing every chorus. It pairs with a duo through the afternoon on the same contract.
The solo guitarist under the pavilion #
For the smaller company or the department picnic, a solo guitarist sets up in 6 by 4 feet under the pavilion roof on one circuit and plays the afternoon. It’s the booking for forty people and a shelter, and the one that needs the least from the site.
Games and activities, and who they reach #
Lawn games for adults, the inflatable for the kids, the tug of war, the cornhole bracket. They work, and they reach the people playing them. A picnic of two hundred has a dozen conversations going within minutes of the first arrival, and a game reaches the eight people in it. Music reaches the lawn. Run both, and let the music be the thing that ties the afternoon together.
The family hour and the evening after it #
Most company picnics are two events with the same guest list. The afternoon belongs to families and needs music at talking level and a raffle mic. The evening belongs to the people who stayed and needs a floor. That’s one booking here: an acoustic act or the Americana trio through the afternoon, and the same band with drums, the yacht rock band or the DJ when the sun goes down, on one contract and one load-in. The corporate page covers the contract and the paperwork.
What an outdoor stage needs in Colorado #
A covered, level and dry performance area with power run to it, and a move-indoors call written before the day. Colorado afternoons turn fast, instruments and electronics both stop behaving in the wet, and a pavilion or a tent with a deck is the difference between a band and a band packing up early. The stage footprints and the circuits for every size are on the technical page, and the outdoor rules in full are in what changes when the reception is outdoors.
| The idea | The booking | What it needs from the site |
|---|---|---|
| The Americana band on the lawn | Trio or quartet | A covered deck, one or two circuits |
| The acoustic duo by the food line | Duo, the afternoon | An 8 by 6 foot corner, one circuit |
| The DJ afternoon | DJ | Shade for the booth, one circuit |
| The yacht rock evening | Four to six musicians | A covered stage, two circuits |
| The solo guitarist | Solo | A pavilion roof, one circuit |
| Games and activities | A rental company | Lawn |
| The family hour into the evening | Acoustic act, then a band or the DJ | One stage, one load-in |
| The picnic that stays a picnic | Whichever act, the afternoon only | Whatever the park allows |
