How far ahead to book entertainment for a company party

The venue is booked, the date is on the calendar, and somebody in the office asks whether it’s too late to get a band. Usually it isn’t. Here’s how the entertainment decision tends to go for a company party in Denver, and what to have in hand when you ask us for a price.

Whenever you’re ready. Some companies ask about the band the same week the venue is confirmed, and some ask a few weeks before the party, once the rest of the plan has settled. A band’s calendar isn’t a ballroom’s, which is why the entertainment can come last in the order and usually does. If the party is coming up sooner than you’d like, no worries. Just reach out and we can often make something great work.

A growing share of companies hold the holiday party in January instead, and several Denver venues now write their holiday packages to run from the middle of November into the third week of January. If January is the month you’re looking at, our January office party ideas post covers what that evening can be.

When first-time planners ask the corporate event forums how to start, the most agreed-on answer is a sequence: budget, then venue, then food and drink, then activities or entertainment, then decorations.

The sequence is right, with one amendment. Ask the entertainment question at the venue stage, because the venue’s sound cap, its load-in hours and its power decide the size of the act you can book there, and a ballroom with a hard decibel limit and a restaurant with one outlet are different music problems. The technical page lists what each size needs, written to be forwarded to a venue before you sign with it.

The same order holds for the rest of the corporate year. A gala committee settles the venue and the honorees first and comes to the music once the program is decided. A sales kickoff gets its evening planned alongside the day program, often by the same person who plans the holiday party. A summer picnic starts with the park or the brewery patio and what it allows for cover and power, and the band comes after.

The paperwork is vendor onboarding, a purchase order, a certificate of insurance and a W-9. None of it is hard to get and none of it is fast, and it’s the reason a booking that was agreed in a week takes a month to sign. Start the vendor setup when you shortlist, and the music becomes the one vendor line that’s settled early. The corporate page sets out the finance path, and how a booking works walks the steps in order.

Have the date and the venue, or the two or three venues still in play. Add a rough headcount, and whether there’s a program and what’s in it: remarks, awards, a raffle, a video, an auction. Tell us whether the evening should end on a dance floor or at the coffee, and the venue’s rules if you have them, the decibel cap, the curfew and the load-in hours. With those, we can tell you the size the night needs and a price for it. Without them, you get a range and another round of email.

For a general view of what live music costs in Denver, size by size, see the cost guide, and how to read a band quote walks through the way a quote is put together. And whether a specific date is free is a two-line email: send the date and the venue and we’ll check it.