After-parties
The after-party is the part of the night people talk about.
The emcee says good night, the DJ brings the first song in under the applause, and the floor is full before the house lights come up. The hour after the program, at a conference, a gala or a holiday party, is the part people talk about on the flight home, and it can be a DJ with a live musician over the set, a band that lets the crowd sing, or a soul band on the ballroom floor, all on the sound system that’s already up.
Denver hosts conferences of several thousand people at a time, and the hotels beside the convention center run their after-parties and the city’s largest galas. The after-party goes on one contract with the rest of the evening.
Trusted and booked by
Hear it
See Tony Medina live.
Tony Medina playing Purple Rain, which is the kind of song that gets an after-party going.
Who plays it
Five ways to fill the hour after the program.
Each one runs through the same sound system as the dinner music, on the same contract, so the dance floor opens the moment the program closes.
- The DJ, with a live musician over the set
- An open-format DJ reads a dance floor of people from six cities, with a saxophonist or a bassist playing over the set. A solid DJ gets people moving and is the most common single booking of the corporate season, and the live musician gives the crowd something to watch as well as dance to.
- Live band karaoke
- A real band plays the 80s and 90s hits on its own and hands the mic to anyone who wants a song, with the words on a screen and a host on the floor. For a conference crowd that spent the day in a ballroom, it’s the after-party they describe to the colleagues who skipped it.
- The soul and R&B band
- Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Al Green and the Motown songbook, sung out front with a horn on the choruses, for a ballroom floor in a gala’s second half or a holiday party once the awards are done.
- The yacht rock band
- The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Hall and Oates and Toto in three-part harmony, for the crowd that wants to sing every chorus, and for a summer after-party on a terrace.
- Little Moses Jones
- A six-piece band playing the 90s and 2000s R&B and hip-hop a conference crowd grew up on, Usher and TLC through Outkast and Missy Elliott, with the verses rapped live and its own sound engineer on the crew. The clean version of the show is the one for a gala.
A DJ can also carry the late set after the band wraps, through the same system and on the same contract. The DJ page covers how that handoff works.
Which nights end this way
The occasions that book an after-party.
- Conferences and incentive programs
- The closing night of a customer conference, the hospitality evening a sponsor hosts, the last night of an incentive trip, booked like the rest of a company event, in Denver or on a mountain retreat.
- Galas and award nights
- The dance floor after the last award.
- Holiday parties
- The back half of the office party, once the speeches and the raffle are done.
- Weddings and private parties
- The late set after the first dance and the toasts at a wedding, or the birthday that keeps going at a private party.
Questions
After-party questions
Stage sizes and power for every act are on the technical page, written so you can forward it to the venue as it stands, and more booking questions are on the planners question list.
- Can the after-party start the moment the program ends?
- Yes. The sound system goes up before the doors open, so the band or the DJ is set and checked during the reception, can play dinner quietly if the night wants it, and starts the dance floor on the emcee's last word, with no changeover the guests can see.
- Do we need a second sound system for the after-party?
- No. Sound support that's the right size for the venue is included, and a band, the DJ and a live musician over the DJ set all run through it on the same contract. A hotel's house system is built for speeches and won't carry a dance floor across a ballroom, which is why ours comes with the booking.
- What does the hotel need to know?
- The dock time and the elevator window, one or two dedicated 20-amp circuits depending on the act, the sound cap and the curfew, and the run of show. Setup runs 45 to 90 minutes depending on the size of the act, and we can send whatever paperwork the hotel needs. We settle all of it with the events office before the day.
- Can conference attendees request songs?
- Yes. The DJ reads the floor from the first song and builds an open-format set for a crowd from six cities, and live band karaoke takes requests by definition.
- How loud can it be, and what about the curfew?
- As loud as a dance floor wants and the venue allows. Let us know the hotel's sound limit and curfew when you book, and we'll plan the set around them from the start, so nobody has to turn it down on the night. The downtown hotels and the convention-center properties each run their own rules, and we settle them with the events office.
Book the after-party on the same contract as the dinner.
Live music for your event, from a solo musician to a full band, with sound support that’s the right size for the venue and a personal contact for the night.