Best entertainers in Budgewoi
Budgewoi is a holiday town with a lake on one side and the surf on the other, and it has more entertainers living in it than a town this size usually manages. A cover band and a singer-songwriter give Budgewoi as home, a wedding act and another cover band are at Lake Munmorah a few minutes north, and the fire performer at Noraville and the singers around Gorokan and Kanwal are all closer than the shops at Lake Haven. Be warned about the school holidays, though: the caravan parks fill, the surf clubs and bowling clubs put music on every night, and the locals are gone first.
Past the first ten the list runs down through Lake Haven, Wyongah and Tuggerah, then jumps to the Gosford end of the Coast and up to Newcastle, where the bigger wedding and party bands are based. Blacksmiths on Lake Macquarie is about the same drive from here as Terrigal, so for a band it's worth opening both. The local ten are for the reception in a surf club, the sixtieth at home, the Sunday afternoon at the lake with the neighbours.
Top picks in Budgewoi
Top picks are the nearby performers with the most visible reviews, then rating, then the closest; further afield the closest come first, and premium listings break remaining ties. Distances are straight-line from Budgewoi. Ask each act whether they travel to your venue and what that costs.
Questions people ask about entertainers in Budgewoi
How much does it cost to hire a band in Budgewoi?
A Budgewoi band is priced for the night, not the trip, since the cover bands here are in town or five minutes up the road at Lake Munmorah. What moves the figure is how many sets, whether they bring lights as well as a PA, and whether it's a Saturday in December or a Wednesday in July. The from-prices on the cards above are what the local bands are quoting at the moment.
Is Budgewoi part of the Central Coast or Lake Macquarie for entertainers?
Both, in practice. It's the top of the Central Coast on the map, but the Lake Macquarie acts at Blacksmiths and Swansea are as close as the Gosford ones, and the Newcastle bands treat the northern lakes as their southern edge. So search this page first, then Blacksmiths and the Central Coast, and don't be surprised when the same act turns up on all three.
Do entertainers travel to Budgewoi from Newcastle?
They do, and for most Newcastle acts it's under an hour down the motorway, which many treat as local work. A late finish is the thing that adds a line, not the distance, so tell them when the music stops. For a singer or a duo you shouldn't need to look that far; for a full band it's the obvious next list.
Booking tips
Christmas and New Year book first
Between the caravan parks, the surf clubs and the New Year's Eve parties on the lake, the last two weeks of December are the busiest of the year for the acts up here. Ask about a summer date before the venue is even confirmed.
Three pages, one pool
Lake Haven and Lake Munmorah have their own pages and they show the same acts from a different centre. Read this one, and if the act you want is at Kanwal or Gorokan, the drive is nothing either way.
Ceremony act and night act can be one call
There's a wedding act at Lake Munmorah and a cover band in town, and a common Budgewoi booking is one for the ceremony and canapes, one for the dance floor. Ask each whether they'd cover both before you pay for two setups.