Best entertainers in Hastings
Hastings is the other side of the Peninsula, the Western Port side, and its list looks different from Mornington's a quarter of an hour over the hill. A DJ lives in the town and a singer at Bittern, the next village down, and after them the closest acts are Mornington's and Frankston South's: a jazz band, a soloist, singers and a guitarist, a duo and a songwriter. The act at the very top is a cover band from Cheltenham, an hour away, there on the strength of a long run of reviews rather than the drive. Hastings is a marina and mudflat town, not a beach town, and the parties here are clubrooms, sheds and back decks, which the local DJ and the Mornington acts are built for.
Western Port is quieter than the bay in summer, and that helps you. The Mornington and Rosebud acts are flat out with winery weddings and holiday-house parties from November to Easter, but a Hastings sixtieth in a clubroom or a Tyabb shed is off that circuit, and an act that's already booked for Red Hill on the Saturday afternoon can often do the evening on this side of the hill. Full bands are the thin trade. The cover bands and wedding bands in reach are mostly Cheltenham, Berwick and the south-east, so for a dance floor with a drummer, plan on a travel line or on a DJ who can run the night.
Top picks in Hastings
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 Hastings. Ask each act whether they travel to your venue and what that costs.
Questions people ask about entertainers in Hastings
How much does a DJ cost for a birthday in Hastings?
The local DJ prices a Hastings party on hours and what the night needs, and there's no highway in it, which is the advantage of this side of the Peninsula. Lights, a microphone for the speeches and a late finish each move it. The from-price shown on the Hastings DJ's card is where the quote starts; a Frankston or Cheltenham DJ will add the run down.
Is a jazz band a good idea for a Hastings function?
For a long lunch at a Western Port winery, a retirement do or a fiftieth where the guests want to talk, yes, and there's one based at Mornington a short drive over the hill. Jazz sits behind a room without fighting it. If the same night needs a dance floor, ask whether they play a second, louder set or whether you'd want the DJ to take over after dinner.
Do the Mornington acts come to the Western Port side?
They do, and most of the singers, the soloist and the guitarist on this page are Mornington acts who'll call Hastings local. The road across through Moorooduc and Tyabb is a quarter of an hour, no freeway, no summer crawl. Where you'll see travel is on the acts from Cheltenham and Berwick, who are coming from the other side of Frankston.
Where do I find a full band near Hastings?
Not on the first screen, apart from the reviewed cover band from Cheltenham at the top. The bands within reach of Hastings are mostly bayside and south-eastern suburbs acts, which means an hour's drive and a travel line, while the local supply is singers, duos and a DJ. For a Hastings wedding, a local duo for the ceremony and the band brought in for the reception is the sensible split, and the band is the one to book first.
Booking tips
Bittern, Crib Point and Somerville count as home
The villages down the Western Port shore and up the road to Somerville are minutes from Hastings, and an act based in any of them treats the others as local. Put the actual town in the enquiry all the same, because Crib Point to Tyabb is a longer run than it looks.
The marina and the foreshore have their own rules
Functions on the foreshore or at the marina are on council or club ground, and amplified music has a finish time you didn't set. Ask the venue for it in writing and pass it to the act before they quote.
Mornington's acts don't add the hill
Mornington and Mount Martha are close enough that their singers and duos rarely show travel for Hastings. Cheltenham and the south-east do, so if you're comparing a reviewed band from up the freeway against a Mornington one, get the travel as its own line.