Best entertainers in Mount Waverley
School terms shape more bookings here than weddings do. This is a suburb people move into for the schools, seven primaries and a large secondary among them, and the events follow: fetes in the first half of the year, presentation nights and end-of-year concerts crammed into November and December, fundraisers in between. The other half of the calendar is family, and with one of the biggest Chinese-Australian communities in Melbourne's east living around Stephensons Road, Lunar New Year is a busier fortnight here than it is in most of the city.
None of the nearest ten gives a Mount Waverley address. They are city acts, about fifteen kilometres up the freeway, apart from one reviewed cover band closer in from bayside, and all ten carry real client reviews. Fifteen kilometres on this side of town is not a journey anyone charges for, so read the list on what the act does rather than on the number under its name.
Top picks in Mount Waverley
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 Mount Waverley. Ask each act whether they travel to your venue and what that costs.
Questions people ask about entertainers in Mount Waverley
What entertainment works at a school fete?
Something with a start and a finish that a crowd can gather around, rather than background music running for five hours. A magician, a roving act or a short band set repeated through the day all do the job, and a DJ can hold the middle ground between them. Ask the performer how many sets they would do and how long a gap they need between them.
Can I hire an act for a Lunar New Year event?
Yes, and the thing to do is book it a long way out, because the demand for the right performers in Melbourne compresses into about two weeks. Traditional lion dance and drumming are their own trades and are worth searching for separately from the music categories on this page. Say the date early, since it moves each year and some acts plan around it.
Is anyone on this list actually from Mount Waverley?
Not in the closest ten. Nine are pinned to central Melbourne and one reviewed cover band comes from the bayside side of the freeway, which the distances on the cards show honestly. For an eastern suburbs booking that gap costs you almost nothing, so treat a local address as a tie-breaker rather than a requirement.
How much does a DJ cost for a party out this way?
Three things move it, in this order: how long they play, how much equipment they have to bring, and which night of the year you have picked. Supplying lights and a vocal microphone for the formalities is a heavier job than turning up to a room that already has both. Starting figures sit on the cards above wherever an act has published one, and those are current rather than an average.
Booking tips
School halls are bare rooms
A stage, a lighting board nobody can find the key for and a couple of power points at the wrong end is the usual set-up. Ask the act what they bring and check with the school whether the hall's sound system is actually working, not just present.
Book the December nights in August
Every school and club in this corner of Melbourne wants the same handful of evenings before Christmas, and the acts with a track record go first. A Thursday is easier to fill and usually cheaper than a Friday.
Ask about a second language directly
Some Melbourne performers carry Mandarin or Cantonese material and a few work bilingually as a host, and almost none of them advertise it. Put the request in the enquiry with a couple of example songs rather than trying to guess from a profile.