Of course the atmosphere among the DJs is perfect during these nights. People drink, talk and laugh together. Most of the time, because of the low entrance fees, the clubs are packed, too. These low entrance fees are possible because most DJs are playing these events for free.
I feel that these events are a big threat to all regular events which are held on or around the same date. If people have to choose between a big birthday line-up for 10 euros, or a normal line-up with one or two headliners and some local DJs, they’ll more than likely choose the bigger line-up. This is an understandable choice.
A clearly noticeable result of these birthday events is that the number of visitors at regular events is shrinking. This development hurts the promoters that work hard to put on events where every DJ is paid their normal fee. Of course people are going to visit the cheaper event with an equally impressive line-up. They’d be crazy not to because the line-ups often have many of the same DJs on them!
Because of these big birthday party line-ups people have started to expect these ridiculously big line-ups at regular events, too. So the major events now have to book at least 40 DJs to make their line-ups look even close to interesting. Another result is that many DJs at these events are now playing 45 minute sets. And remember that almost 50% of these 45 minute sets are battles! This means that a DJ will often have only about 23 minutes (if he’s lucky) to try and deliver his musical message! Perhaps the most saddening result of all this is that due to the short length of these sets, a lot of DJs choose the safe path and play sets comprised only of ‘hits’.
In the past we (as DJs) were able to play sets ranging from 90 to 120 minutes. These longer sets allowed you to actually build up your set and showcase more styles and tempos. In short: it allows you to delve deeper into the music we all love. DJ-sets are much more interesting if a DJ’s set is given room to breathe.
As Endymion we have never celebrated our birthday in a club full of people. And to be honest, I don’t think we ever will. Last year we started to decline almost every single booking request for a birthday event. And if we do decide to play at such an event we’ll charge a fee out of respect for other promoters.
I think we (all hardcore DJs) should think twice before deciding to accept birthday bookings. Or even better… think twice about throwing a birthday party ourselves. Of course it can be fun to play at these events, but in the long term I feel we have to be more selective and give DJs the option to play sets that are at least an hour long, and give hard-working promoters a chance to survive.
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Bart Revier
Endymion
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