Dancefloor so LIT a guest BREAKS THEIR LEG! Why good vendors are important!
I started DJing in 2009 back when I attended college at the University of South Florida in Tampa Florida. One of the first weekly DJ gigs I got was an 80’s night on Tuesdays at a local college bar, which was more of a small restaurant turned bar at night. Often the tables from the restaurant were moved to create a dance-floor area, but every so often a few tables were not removed by accident and 100% of those times, patrons at this bar would climb on top of those tables to dance. I know what you are thinking . . . 80’s night on Tuesday at a small restaurant/bar in 2010s doesn’t sound like a crazy rager at all. I personally claim that it is my amazing DJ skills and talent that would bring in this rambunctious crowd, but truthfully a lot of that heavy lifting was done by copious amounts of low-priced alcoholic beverages. I have seen more than a handful of those table dancers slip or fall off the tables before, one even landing on her head! But every time I saw them get up without injury.
Fast forward 10 years later, two of my USF college friends Anand and Nikita hired me to DJ for their Indian wedding weekend in Tampa, Florida. Being longtime friends, they have seen me DJ throughout the years and fully trusted in me for their weekend. They even asked me for catering recommendations. Since they needed vegetarian Gujarati food option, I told them to get in touch with Khasiyat. For their reception I recommended New Punjab Indian Restaurant. Their events consisted of Thursday evening Mehndi, Friday Pithi/Vidhi & Sangeet, Saturday morning Indian Ceremony followed by the Reception in the evening all in Tampa Florida at the ICC (Indian Cultural Center).
The Mehndi night was located in the ICC Lotus hall. This room already had a speaker system inside and the sound tech helped me connect directly into it. As a backup, we always keep an extra set of speakers just in case of any technical difficulties with inhouse sound. The Pithi, Vidhi and Sangeet would be located in the same room on Friday so equipment setup could remain in the same place. So far, no broken bones, both days went smoothly, thanks to the help of Britney and her planning team at Eventrics. Although I was DJing, it was also great to catch up and see many friends from USF I had not communicated with in years.
Saturday morning began early around 8am for the Baraat. The evening before I had moved my equipment into the Magnolia hall in preparation for both the ceremony and reception. For the Baraat, Anand arrived on a horse following a vehicle that I was DJing out of. To accompany my DJing for the Baraat, I had Nick playing Dhol. During the baraat Anand came down from the horse to join everyone to dance to a song he requested while different colored smoke grenades went off made for a picture-perfect moment all which were caught by Amita at Amita S photography. He definitely pulled up to the ceremony in style. If you have been to ICC before, you are familiar with the wood looking stage and normal look that it has. Suhaag garden came in and made a night and day difference to the hall with their decor, not only transforming the stage all white, but also draping the whole room too. The Baraat and Ceremony again went off without a hitch, sill no broken bones.
The Reception was Saturday evening in the Magnolia hall. The reception is everyone’s favorite event of the weekend, not only is it the finale of the weekend but it is where most of the dancing and celebrating happens. Being the DJ & MC of this event, I usually start the evening program with a quick introduction with a welcome speech followed by a crowd “hype” warm-up. My crowd “hype” warm-up usually involves me getting the crowd to practice cheering and clapping before the first entrances. Having a few tables of my college fraternity brothers at the event, once I finished my personal introduction, they started chanting my DJ name. At this point, I knew that a “hype” warm-up was unnecessary. The program which included entrances, speeches, cake cutting, dances and performances went flawlessly, and it was now time for the dance-floor.
About halfway into the dance-floor, it is brought to our attention one of the patrons has injured their leg and they think it may be broken. Now, legend told by me, has it that the dance-floor was so LIT that my DJ skills may have caused this injury, but that has yet to be proven true or false. More importantly than the future legendary story, was how to handle the situation at hand. Because of the location where the injured patron was located the stretcher would have to come to the side door to help him. This situation was handled by first making an announcement for the patrons’ wife to (who was a Doctor) to simply come to the DJ booth and helping the patron to a safe area. During this time, a few lights were turned on to help escort him safely, all while the Dance-floor did not come to a halt. Majority of the crowd including the guests of honor did not know about the incident until after the event concluded. This in our eyes is the unseen importance of having good vendors, that not only can put on a show, but can handle situations that could upend an event.
Tampa, I can’t wait to DJ and MC another Indian wedding for you again.
-DJ DiPMODE