Over To You: What’s The Oddest Gig You’ve Ever Played?

Phil Morse | Founder & Tutor
Read time: 2 mins
Last updated 6 April, 2018

drez
DJ Drez plays at a yoga session. What’s the weirdest place you’ve ever played?

Digital DJ Tips reader Robert writes: “I started out my DJing career playing deep house at clubs but over time my sound has developed to encompass a large spectrum of genres that loosely fits within the realms of synth pop, future bass and experimental. I’ve found this new creative direction really satisfying but I find the places I want to play at are very different from the club scene I know well.

“I’d like to play things like art galleries, yoga classes and public parks but I have no idea how to get these kinds of bookings. How do I find these types of events and in what ways do I need to approach them differently from a club gig?”

Digital DJ Tips says:

It’s a natural progression, right? I played clubs for 20 years, but nowadays my DJing can be at charity events, beach bars, house parties, or any number of places where I feel I’d like to add some curated sounds – and my music has changed from club tracks to ambient, chill out, funk, soul, reggae, electronica, dreamy indie… dare I say it, clubs can be a bit boring after a couple of decades of them, with all this untapped great music in your collection begging for you to find somewhere to play it!

I think some of the same rules apply, though: You have to make your own scene here. If you think a local art gallery, clothes shop or restaurant would benefit from a DJ, you ask them. Maybe approaching the town council would get you DJing in public spaces. and of course, you can always throw your own parties in small or alternative venues to test out your ideas.

I want to throw this one over to our readers, though. I am sure we can find plenty of stories of weird gigs and I am equally sure we can get you lots of advice on how to go about acquiring such “alternative” notches on your DJing belt.

So, over to you. Where’s the strangest place you’ve ever DJed? How did you get the gig? Any advice you can offer Robert? Please leave your comments below.

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