Best entertainers in Eltham
This is the Eltham on Melbourne's north eastern edge, the one with the mudbrick houses and the potters, not the village in northern New South Wales that shares the name. Nobody on the first screen gives Eltham as home, which is a little odd for a suburb with that much of an arts history behind it. The nearest names are Melbourne's, about twenty minutes down through Greensborough and Heidelberg, with one cover band coming from Cheltenham on the other side of the river.
Twenty minutes is nothing, so treat the whole city list as yours. What's worth thinking about instead is the venue, because Eltham's are unusual: gardens, mudbrick halls, houses built into a slope with the reception room halfway down it. A band that plays function centres all year will have questions about a garden with one power point and a set of steps between the car and the stage, and the sooner you answer them the better the quote.
Top picks in Eltham
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 Eltham. Ask each act whether they travel to your venue and what that costs.
Questions people ask about entertainers in Eltham
Do Melbourne bands charge travel to Eltham?
Most won't for a standard evening, because it's a twenty minute drive from the inner north and the acts on this page treat the north east as home ground. Where it starts to appear is a late finish combined with a hard load-in, since that's an extra hour on both ends of their night. Ask whether the figure you're quoted assumes they can park near the door.
What kind of act suits a garden wedding in Eltham?
Something that can work without a stage and without much power. A duo or a solo singer for the ceremony and the drinks, then a decision about how loud the night gets, because a full band in a bush garden needs a flat spot, a generator and somewhere to shelter the gear. The soloists and duos are well represented on this list, which makes the ceremony the easy half.
How much to hire a band for a party in Melbourne's north east?
Band size first, then how long they play, then the awkwardness of the venue. A four-piece doing three sets in a hall with a stage is the straightforward end; the same band carrying gear down a garden path to a marquee is not. Victorian long weekends and the run of spring Saturdays push it up too. The from-prices on the band cards above are the current starting figures.
Is this the Eltham near Melbourne or the one in New South Wales?
This page is the Victorian one, in the Nillumbik shire past Greensborough, and the acts listed are measured from there. There's a second Eltham near Lismore in the Northern Rivers with its own page on this site. Put the state in your enquiry anyway, since plenty of these acts take bookings interstate and a bare town name can be read either way.
Booking tips
Steps, slopes and a long carry
Plenty of Eltham properties put the party down the back or down the hill from where a car can stop. Measure the walk and say so in the enquiry, because a long carry with a drum kit and a PA changes what an act charges and how early they arrive.
Gum trees eat the sound
An outdoor ceremony on a bush block doesn't carry the way a lawn does, and a solo singer without amplification will lose half the guests. Ask what small PA the act brings and whether it runs off a battery.
Ringwood and Preston are the same acts
Both have pages a quarter of an hour away and both draw on the same city pool. Use whichever page is nearest the venue and compare the distance on the cards rather than the town in the address.