The best DJs in Canberra

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Dan Rawson with a boombox

BoomBox2U Dan Rawson, one of Canberra’s most recommended DJs. Photo: David Beach.

If you’re hosting an event, and want it to be memorable, you’ll understand the importance of hiring a professional DJ to spin tunes that give guests a great time.

An experienced DJ knows how to read a crowd and select music that suits the style and type of your event. They specialise in enhancing events with quality sound and special vibes. That includes corporate events, special occasions like weddings, school functions and even kids party events.

In this article, we’ll outline the qualities to consider when choosing a DJ, and share where to find the best in Canberra.

What makes a great DJ?

Choosing the right DJ can make your event the best ever. It can also take the worry out of ensuring guests enjoy themselves. After all, you want a DJ who plays what you want, not what they want. And you want a DJ that plays music appropriate to your theme and age of guests.

It can be helpful to keep the following in mind when choosing a DJ.

  • Style. Choose a DJ that spins the style of tunes that will make your guests happy. Some DJs have a reputation for playing music they like, ignoring what’s best for the event. Others read a room super well. Also ask how much music they have in their play list and whether it’s categorised.
  • Experience. Experienced DJs are great DJs. They can monitor a crowd and switch matters up to get guests moving and grooving, or slow things down when the mood requires it.
  • Professional. You’ll want a DJ who dresses for the occasion, shows up on time, answers phone calls and emails, and acts like a pro. You’ll also want a DJ who is attentive and responds in a timely way when you need to make an announcement or when the program shifts from one phase to another.
  • Creativity and communications. If you’ve never hired a DJ before, it’s good to choose one who can share creative ideas with you. Also choose one who is a sound communicator. This includes being clear on important like set up time (leaving enough room for testing), and what will transpire throughout your event.
  • Equipment. Great DJs have great equipment (sound and lighting). Quality equipment makes all the difference with events. You’ll also want to ask your DJ if they have back-up equipment in case something goes wrong.

The best DJs in Canberra

Riotact’s editorial team has combed through 20 years of on-site comments to compile a list of the most recommended businesses according to you.

To be listed in our Best of Canberra series, each business needs to have consistently received positive feedback on Riotact and Facebook as well as maintaining a minimum average of 4/5 stars on Google.

BoomBox2U

A game changer in the industry, BoomBox2U offers all-in-one mobile DJ services to suit any musical style or taste. Their revolutionary life-sized units provide some interactive old-school fun that can be operated by with or without a professional DJ.

Each BoomBox has been artfully crafted in a retro fabrication with the highest quality materials. They provide more than just music and a DJ - they can also project photographs, logos, video, and even karaoke allowing guests to select their own songs.

Their unique look and interactive capabilities not only deliver great sound they are also completely portable. This innovative and convenient solution is perfect for all manner of celebrations. From children’s birthdays, school formals and discos, through to corporate events and weddings they have captured the interest of hosts and party planners far and wide.

BoomBox2U offer a variety of convenient packages with various inclusions to cater to individual client needs. BoomBox hire and professional DJ services start from $165 per hour. Karaoke packages come with two microphones and over 10,000 songs, while the kids party package comes with a range of fun games and prizes. For a seamless DJ solution for your next event look to BoomBox2U.

Ellie O'Donell wrote on Google, "Best DJ in Canberra! So reliable, flexible and accommodating for any theme/style of music. The BoomBox set up was fantastic (definitely a crowd-pleaser) and really added something extra to the event space. Amazing service - thank you so much!"

DJ Nate

DJ Nate owns Bass Beats DJ/MC, a mobile company that makes all events and special occasions memorable. He has a comprehensive library of current music and a back library of the latest decades’ hits. DJ Nate and Bass Beats use only first-class, industry standard equipment for the best-quality sound. They also supply top audio and lighting equipment for added effect. DJ Nate has been in the entertainment industry for around 10 years.

Vintage Events

With Vintage Events DJs, guests feel the vibe and experience the difference. With a talented line up of artists, Vintage Events specialises in weddings, birthdays and corporate events. DJs provide high-quality entertainment, special effects, as well as sound and lighting across Canberra and surrounding regions, making visions reality. Service is attentive and seamless. Vintage Events customises packages to suit any budget.

Suraj Deo wrote on Google, “Very good DJs who play up-to-date remix and other songs. Very professional.”

Complete Entertainment

The mission of the mobile DJs at Complete Entertainment is to turn special events into incredible experiences. For 30 years, Complete Entertainment has serviced Canberra and surrounds at events of all kinds and for guests of all ages and interests. With high-quality PA, lighting and special effects hire, Complete Entertainment creates engaging experiences.

On Facebook, Gabrielle Connolly wrote, “Complete Entertainment helped us map how our reception was going to work out and was totally happy to do whatever we were after!”

Vintage Events

Vintage Events provides high-quality entertainment, effects, sound and lighting across Canberra and surrounding regions. DJ artists ensure every event is treated as unique. They’re committed to making each client’s vision a reality. Vintage Events covers intimate weddings to extravagant parties, creating stress-free and unforgettable experiences.

On Google, Dasun Rajapakse wrote, “These guys were great! Very professional in how they went about everything leading up to the big day, and on the day itself.”

Runaround DJs

Runaround DJs, a mobile DJ service, has been livening up events and special occasions for people of all ages for over 11 years. That includes playing carefully selected music for special parties, weddings and corporate events. DJ Sue has the dance floor pumping with hits to please all ages. No-obligation quotes available.

On Google, Helen Zontanos wrote, “We had DJ Sue play at our wedding. She was fantastic and very accommodating with all music requests.”

If you’re looking for more information on events in Canberra, you might like our articles on the best function venues, best kids birthday party venues, best wedding venues, and the best sound and lighting experts Canberra has to offer.

Your experience with DJs in Canberra

Thanks to our commenters who have provided insightful feedback. If you believe we have got it wrong, please let us know.

Have you had experience with any of the DJs listed above? If so, share your feedback in the comments below.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I choose the best DJ for my event?

Research is key in choosing the best DJ for your event. Head to websites and read about their style, where they’ve played and for what type of events. Also check reviews online. Feel confident about asking for referrals.

How do I brief a DJ on my event?

The best way is to provide the DJ with a verbal or written brief on what your vision is for your event. What type of event are you hosting? What is it’s personality? Who are the guests and what ages? What style of music is best? A face-to-face meeting with your DJ can help you brief for your event.

How much does it cost to hire a DJ?

The cost for hiring a DJ varies depending on many factors. This includes event location, its length and the style. You’ll also want to check with your DJ on what happens if the event runs overtime.

What happens if the DJ starts to play music we don’t like?

Talk to your DJ about the mood for your event so they tailor music to suit. If things get off track, don’t hesitate to have a quiet word to the DJ and have them adjust what they’re playing.

Do all DJs specialise in all types of events?

Many DJs specialise in a wide range of event types, but some specialise in niche areas. They may specialise in weddings, for example. Or they may specialise in a style of music. Talk to DJs about these matters before hiring them.

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katcrichton7612:10 pm 17 Jul 21

+1 for Juke Entertainment

cliffordreddog4:37 pm 31 Mar 21

I recommend Juke Entertainment, they made my event a great experience and were very easy to deal with.

Sarah Andrews10:48 am 20 Mar 21

Juke Entertainment!!!

Shameless plug – we are always happy to help. We have a team of Canberra’s best DJs providing the highest quality in sound, lighting and effects equipment.

https://www.vintage-events.com.au/

Brett Michael2:33 pm 25 Jun 19

I would 1000% recommend Bryant from Juke Entertainment he was fantastic! – http://www.jukeentertainment.com.au/

+1 for stan ! 😀

Kerryhemsley said :

Does Hughie finish with “Love will Tear us Apart” to send them off on their honeymoon with heads spinning?

From memory, he didn’t want to stop playing, and the function went waaaay over time until the caretaker booted us out of the venue as he wanted to close up and go home! I’m sure he wouldn’t play that joy divison song, unless of course someone asked him to.

Kerryhemsley10:05 am 27 Nov 12

EvanJames said :

Hugh Ford http://www.joydivisionn.com/ did a function I was at recently, and he did it with evident enjoyment and ease. He specialises in 70s and 80s, he reckons he can play ANY 80s song you request, including all the obscure indie new wave stuff.

He also spends a lot of time up dancing with the ladies, and as an ex-olympic middle-distance runner, he can keep it going all night from what I observed. Top bloke, I’d book him no problem.

Does Hughie finish with “Love will Tear us Apart” to send them off on their honeymoon with heads spinning?

Hugh Ford http://www.joydivisionn.com/ did a function I was at recently, and he did it with evident enjoyment and ease. He specialises in 70s and 80s, he reckons he can play ANY 80s song you request, including all the obscure indie new wave stuff.

He also spends a lot of time up dancing with the ladies, and as an ex-olympic middle-distance runner, he can keep it going all night from what I observed. Top bloke, I’d book him no problem.

Whatever you do, avoid the short, fat ginger bloke. I encountered one of his staff one night who was on his first gig on his own. He seemed to be playing 70’s disco and nothing else. When questioned, he said the laptop he’d been supplied with was broken and that he hadn’t been given any backup CDs to use with the house CD player. The short, fat ginger was at a wedding and wasn’t going to turn up for a number of hours. If the short, fat ginger treats his staff like that, I can only imagine how bad his performance would be. Interesting too that the establishment he and his staff work at had the grand total of 18 people there at midnight on Saturday night.

Andrew Leigh will act as a DJ if you hire his marquee. They call him Dr Funkenstein. I’m sure he’s really almost quite entertaining:

http://the-riotact.com/andrew-leigh-expanding-his-marquee-hire-business/60215

yep Ardanien Entertainment was amazing. Ask for Emile – he was our DJ and he was outstanding

passepartout4:59 pm 26 Nov 12

I’m in the industry and i can tell you most of the DJ companies in Canberra are rubbish! DO YOUR HOMEWORK WHEN BOOKING A DJ.

best in Canberra is ARDANIEN ENTERTAINMENT (www.ardanien.com.au).

always wear a suit, produce the best nights and they can actually mix

Geez, $600 for a “DJ” for a night?

My missus and her band used to do live gigs for not much more than that, and it was mostly the same sort of songs you hear at weddings anyway.

Henry82 said :

Truthiness said :

Given how most wedding music ends up being chart trash direct from the propaganda industry anyway,

maybe that’s because people request those songs? or they don’t give enough instruction to the DJ?

I. Agree. With. Henry82.

Must………. go take a shower.

On topic, exactly. You give proper instructions to a DJ, and they’ll do the right thing.

Two possible outcomes:

1. Give good instructions to a crap DJ = crap.
2. Give bad instructions to a good DJ = she or he will subtly un-crappify your crap requests.

Just because you can belt out Inagoddahowevayaspellit in the shower note and beat perfect doesn’t mean it’s going to fly when Aunt Mabel and Uncle Reg plus your pi$$ed idiot friends from uni/the office/netball team want to get down on it.

Henry82 said :

maybe that’s because people request those songs? or they don’t give enough instruction to the DJ?

It is usually a showcase of the bride and groom’s terrible music taste spurred on by the drunken nostalgia of uncoordinated family members. Sure someone requested it, dredged up from the extremely limited set of singles they’ve remembered over a lifetime of exposure to the austereo network’s abominable American tripe.

Get a live jazz band, it’ll save you the misfortune of mainstream music and lend an air of sophistication, hopefully enough to offset the bad lighting and crappy catering.

Golden-Alpine said :

mouldy said :

It astounds me that in this day and age these sorts of businesses can make money. I was groomsman at a few weddings where the DJ was given a set list of songs to work with, and he played about 10% of them. The rest was whatever it was he wanted to listen to. All you need is a computer with i-tunes and some good speakers and you have yourself your own playlist that you have 100% control of (and for a fraction of the cost!).

Probably because that is illegal as your music you have bought or downloaded don’t have the appropriate licence for playing in public. Venues in Canberra should not allow this to happen.

+1 3D Entertainment.

More copyright nonsense from an industry of dinosaurs, if a venue I’d hired told me to turn off my music on licensing grounds, I’d leave on the spot and never come back.

Yet another reason to just have the reception at a nice house, no hire fee, no insurance, no “dj”, no corporate music police.

Truthiness said :

Given how most wedding music ends up being chart trash direct from the propaganda industry anyway,

maybe that’s because people request those songs? or they don’t give enough instruction to the DJ?

Given how most wedding music ends up being chart trash direct from the propaganda industry anyway, you may as well just leave a radio playing “hit songs and dedications”.

Golden-Alpine2:38 pm 05 Sep 12

mouldy said :

It astounds me that in this day and age these sorts of businesses can make money. I was groomsman at a few weddings where the DJ was given a set list of songs to work with, and he played about 10% of them. The rest was whatever it was he wanted to listen to. All you need is a computer with i-tunes and some good speakers and you have yourself your own playlist that you have 100% control of (and for a fraction of the cost!).

Probably because that is illegal as your music you have bought or downloaded don’t have the appropriate licence for playing in public. Venues in Canberra should not allow this to happen.

+1 3D Entertainment.

Heh, its funny how terms evolve, I tend to think of DJ’s as musical artists in their own right. I guess most people don’t want real musicians, just a nameless schmuck to stand near the laptop and make sure it doesn’t stray from the “hot hits of the eighties”. What you’re looking for sounds like Karaoke.

If you want a DJ who will play your song selections and stick to the running order of your reception then DO NOT go with Ardanien Entertainment. They turned our reception into a comdey of errors, which I can laugh at now, but it was not very funny on the night. We got sucked in by their offer of a free video of the reception, only to discover after the event that they don’t have the rights to reproduce the music on the video… So we have a 5 hour silent movie of our reception! Don’t waste your money on a DJ who will only disappoint you and ruin your wedding, put your favorite music on an iPod instead!

I can’t sing the praises of Vinn from Ardanien Entertainment enough.

My Wife and I were very happy with his handling of our wedding back in 2009, with a couple of good meetings beforehand to knock out a playlist (or really, a list of stuff we wanted to say “Don’t play this one, EVER”). He was a pleasure to work with and a great guy to boot.

Can’t remember the price at the moment, sorry.

capn_pugwash8:30 am 04 Jul 11

another vote for Stan from 3D entertainment – he knows what to play and when to play it & when to get on the mike and when not to. He DJed our wedding and everyone had a great time. Other DJs we’ve seen at weddings make it all about them whereas Stan sets it all up and keeps it going without being too much center of the spotlight.

laura_2716 said :

What did they do instead of ‘mixing’ the songs? Just played one after the other? At this stage we are tossing up between Moby Disc and DJ 4 U, can anyone give us more information about hiring a DJ from these companies?

Yeah, they just queue them up after one another. from memory they rocked up about half an hour before and had it all ready to go in a self contained unit. They come with two speakers on stands, and from memory there was a light bar. The guy was polite, we showed him where the toilet was at the start, and that was it. He played when required, took a break during the meal, and had an external mic for speeches. They also have 2 folders with the song lists, and a note paper/pen for requests.

They charge extra for the karaoke function which kinda turned out not to be as entertaining as planned. Mainly because everyone was trashed by that time (and didnt like anyone elses song choice), and the lyrics were on the one screen (not ‘in front’). But i doubt you’d use that in a wedding.

Its been 2-3 years since i used their services, so you might want to double check what i’ve said.

Henry82 said :

You get what you pay for, they’re not going to ‘mix’ the songs per say.

What did they do instead of ‘mixing’ the songs? Just played one after the other?

We found Dean from Select Sounds and 3D entertertainment to both be a bit pricey (we are spending wayyyy too much money on this wedding already). At this stage we are tossing up between Moby Disc and DJ 4 U, can anyone give us more information about hiring a DJ from these companies?
Also, have emailed creative sound concepts for a quote.

It astounds me that in this day and age these sorts of businesses can make money. I was groomsman at a few weddings where the DJ was given a set list of songs to work with, and he played about 10% of them. The rest was whatever it was he wanted to listen to. All you need is a computer with i-tunes and some good speakers and you have yourself your own playlist that you have 100% control of (and for a fraction of the cost!).

I’ve had good experiences with mobydisc (x2). You can build a playlist on their website (new) or print off the songlist, and highlight the songs you like and bring it in on the day. Even with absolutely no guidance they were able to pick songs that people liked. This wasnt a wedding though, so you might want to read their songs list. You get what you pay for, they’re not going to ‘mix’ the songs per say.

I have been working as a DJ in Canberra (including many weddings and functions) for a number of years and could meet all of your requirements above. Happy to arrange a competitive quote for you as well.
Check out http://www.creativesoundconcepts.com.au/dj if you want more information.
Good luck with the planning!

Stan from 3D entertainment is great!!!

Wouldn’t recommend MobyDisc

I can recommend 3D Entertainment and ACT Selectsound, both good and both around $600 from memory depending how long you need them for
http://www.3dentertainment.com.au
and
http://www.actselectsounds.com.au/

We used Dean from ACT Selectsounds for our wedding in 2010. He met all of the requirements you’ve listed above and cost around $600 from memory.

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