Demand for Alternative Wedding Bands

PaulBrewer

Is there a demand in Ireland for bands who do music other than 'regular' wedding bands ?

I know Weddings, as a rule, ARE conservative affairs - but is there a market in Ireland for 'other' types of music - taking it that it would still be presented in a professional way.

clint_silver

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Is there a demand in Ireland for bands who do music other than 'regular' wedding bands ?

I know Weddings, as a rule, ARE conservative affairs - but is there a market in Ireland for 'other' types of music - taking it that it would still be presented in a professional way.

very little demand paul, lads wouldn't gig much at all. my own band can do a full night of alternative/indie and we offer that to couples if they want but as it gets closer to the date, bride usually calls and says can you just mix it up with a few songs during the night.

Had a real bad experience a couple of years ago, bride gave us a full setlist, and said under no condition were we to play a waltz or old cheesey stuff, so fair enough, happy to do it, we were 20 minutes in and the bride AND the grooms mams came over and told us to change it so older people could dance too and demanded a waltz. We said we were under orders not to, they called the bride over and said they were leaving unless it changed, bride comes over and says do the waltz.

Its difficult to please all, hence the mostly generic format. Certainly possible to mix it up during the night though.

PaulBrewer

Sounds like Hell !

PaulBrewer

We can only play in 4/4 😉

Milly33

I think among music heads there would be, but then unfortunately people seem to not appreciate music for what it is.. good idea I think people would look for it but not sure how you would get it off the ground

westernlass

Look on one fab day to see whats the norm for alternative. Its not that hugely different

whiskeyman

Milly33 wrote: »

I think among music heads there would be, but then unfortunately people seem to not appreciate music for what it is.. good idea I think people would look for it but not sure how you would get it off the ground

I'd consider myself a 'music head', however when I got married, we picked a band that played good wedding songs well.
We wanted everyone, old and young, to enjoy themselves and sometimes that means you have to give into the usual wedding setlist.
It's what the people want at the end of the day! :pac:

An alternative band would be v niche in my opinion.

eoglyn

clint_silver wrote: »

very little demand paul, lads wouldn't gig much at all.

I'm not sure that this is true. Notwithstanding people’s own first-hand experience, but OP, i hope that this is not your only market research in this area.

From doing my own research, as a consumer looking for what could be described as an ‘alternative wedding band’ in October 2012, I noted that there were around three or four bands at that time marketing themselves as ‘alternative wedding bands’, mainly based in Dublin, one based in Galway. I was getting married in the midlands so there may be more operating further afield, i’m not sure. Each were charging in the mid to high price range for wedding bands and each were either unavailable for any date the following summer or had very limited availability. That on its own might tell you something about demand.

Think about the market, every wedding is different, but most B&Gs today are paying for it themselves and are getting married in their early thirties, the largest cohort or the mode if you like, of guests, including the bride and groom, will be in and around the late twenties early thirties.

The second largest cohort of attendees at a typical wedding, parents, aunties and uncles, are mid fifties up to early seventies. These are the people who grew up listening to the Rolling Stones or Bruce Springsteen. They are not necessarily old fogies demanding waltzes.

Weddings are changing and people are looking for different things, do your own market research, it might be a hard market to break into with long lead in times and difficult to establish a reputation but you might eventually be able to make a decent living out of your niche, no doubt some people do.

FWIW, we moved our date to book the 'alternative wedding band' from Galway and we were very happy with our choice, their setlist is particularly well thought out with something for everyone, from the smiths depeche mode and violent femmes to elvis, the beatles and michael jackson. A friend did a timelapse of our wedding and the whole time the band was playing the large dance floor was actually packed, young and old were all up the whole night. We have recommended them to people after us and by all accounts they are more in demand now than they were then, commanding better prices.

Milly33

No still tend to not agree.. You don't have to have the same old music so everyone can enjoy you just need decant stuff

sweetie

I'm a wedding dj who specialises in alternative music. I get to play a decent amount of it at about 75% of my gigs. Sometimes it goes down great, sometimes I have to reign it in and stick with the standards to keep the floor busy. It helps that I often work with one of the wedding bands that play this type of music too and we complement each other. However, on occasion when they are asked for waltzes etc. they direct them to me! It's a nice genre to have experience in but in a market as small as Ireland not a feasible full time option.