Smart event planners know how important the role of entertainment is to a successful event. Whether the event is the wedding of the year or a 50,000 person music festival, entertainment can be the glue that holds all of the other event elements together. The choice of the entertainment for events is influenced by various factors, the biggest one being the role that the entertainment for a particular event will play. For example if you are producing an event, such as a large scale live concert, it is important to select entertainment that you know will help to sell tickets and pack the house.

The past weekend at the III Points event in Miami, DJ Shadow performed an amazing show at a large scale venue in Miami. Other notable performances by LCD Sound System front man James Murphy and Jamie XX from The XX were also included in the 3 day long music and arts festival. Although this was the first year for the music festival, these events were highly attended due to the entertainment selection.

Entertainment can be used for creating the hype prior to the event. In this case entertainment is used to publicize the event and draw many people to the event, For example an event planner can invite a celebrity guest host, like a musician or a comedian to be part of an event and offer entertainment to guests. Many people are likely to be drawn to the event if their favorite celebrity is going to be there.

Another very important function of entertainment in an event is that it breaks the monotony and reduces boredom in an event. A concentration of serious talks and business of the event can cause boredom to the invited guests. This calls for entertainment to be integrated in the business of the day. For example a poem by an artist can be integrated between different speeches. Performance of musicians could be integrated between different sections as this kind of entertainment may require a little bit of reorganization of the stage. For this role of entertainment to be achieved it is important that the planning team for an event allocate time wisely. In addition the choice of the entertainment at a given time should be very considerate.

Entertainment for events also plays the role of communicating the theme of the event. This occurs majorly in events such as launch parties, promotions and community related events. In this case, a poem can have the theme of an event and lead the participants towards a given direction. If entertainment is playing this role then the cost and time allocated to it can be increased as more benefits will be reaped. It is very essential for a company to pre determine the cost of entertainment so that the cost used in entertainment for an event does not outweigh the benefits reaped.  The planning team should also source for entertainment that is quality but also considerably cheap.