Aerialist hire in Australia: the complete guide

Before you look at a single performer, ring your venue and ask one question: is there a certified rigging point, what is its rated load, and who signs off on using it? The answer decides whether this booking is possible at all. Everything else about an aerial act, the silks, the hoop, the costume, the music, is secondary to a piece of steel in your ceiling and a piece of paper that says what it can hold.

The aerialists on this site are based mostly in Melbourne, with performers in Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and beyond. Prices are live from their listings below, and they often cover the performer only. Rigging is frequently a separate line, which is why two quotes for what looks like the same act can be nowhere near each other.

An aerial apparatus hangs from a point that takes dynamic load, meaning the forces generated by a body dropping and swinging, not a static weight. That is many times the performer's body weight. A beam that looks solid, a ceiling hook that has been there for years, a pergola, a marquee frame or a tree branch are all unrated until a qualified person says otherwise in writing, with a figure in kilograms.

Ask the performer to send you their rigging requirements as a written document: the load they need, the height they need, how the apparatus attaches, and who they expect to rig it. Then forward that document to the venue and get a written reply. Do not accept a verbal yes from a duty manager. The gap between what the performer assumed and what the venue assumed is where every aerial booking goes wrong.

Plenty of Australian function rooms have no rated point, and that does not end the conversation. Freestanding aerial rigs exist: a self-supporting frame that the performer or a rigging company brings, builds and certifies. It needs floor space around the base, a solid level surface underneath, height above the performer's highest point, and time to assemble and check before guests arrive.

It also costs real money, sometimes as much again as the act, and it needs a truck and access. So ask about it early. Ask what the footprint is in metres, how long the build takes, whether it can go outside, and whether the quote includes the rigger. A freestanding rig quoted as an afterthought two weeks out is how budgets blow up.

Silks need the most height because the fabric is long and the drops travel. A hoop, called lyra, works lower and spins, so it needs clearance around it as well as above. Straps, rope, aerial sling and hammock each have their own envelope. Trapeze swings, which means the clear space in front and behind matters as much as the height.

Give the act your ceiling height in metres, measured from the floor to the actual rigging point rather than to the light fitting, and the clear floor area underneath. They will tell you which apparatus fits and which routine they can perform in that space. A silks act squeezed into a low room becomes a hoop act, and the good performers will say so rather than quietly cutting the best parts out.

Ask what matting the performer requires and who supplies it, and treat the answer as a requirement rather than a preference. Ask too whether they need a spotter or ground crew person, and whether that person is inside the quote or something you are meant to provide. Some acts will not work without one, and an act that insists on it is telling you they take the job seriously.

Then give somebody the crowd. At a party with a bar open, a guest will walk underneath an apparatus to get a photograph, and the performer thirty seconds into a drop sequence cannot manage that. One named person whose only job for those few minutes is keeping the area clear. Brief them properly, because a polite gesture at a determined guest does not work.

We list performers and we do not verify anyone's insurance, training, qualifications or rigging certification. A listing here is not a check we have carried out for you, and it should never be read as one. The only version that protects you is a document in your inbox, so ask each act directly for their public liability certificate and any rigging or safety paperwork, and sight it yourself.

Most working aerialists have this ready to send within the hour, because it gets requested of them at almost every booking. If an act is slow or vague about it, that tells you something. And forward whatever arrives straight to the venue, since the venue is the party that will refuse entry on the day if the paperwork is not in their hands.

Aerial setup is not a fifteen minute job. Rigging, a safety check and a warm up all need to be finished while the space is still empty, which means the act is on site well ahead of their performance slot. Ask for their required arrival time and build the run sheet around it rather than telling them when to turn up.

The performance itself is short, five to seven minutes is typical, and it works best with the room's full attention and the lights on the act. Put it after a course or after speeches, tell the photographer when it is happening, and let the venue know so nobody is carrying a tray of mains through the space at the moment it starts.