Wedding Band Travel Costs

discombobulate · 21-02-2017 12:29pm #1

Just wondering what the standard travel rates bands charge would be? The band we're looking to book are €2k for a standard set. They are based in Dublin and have travel rates for various venues listed. Ours is in Cavan (around 1hr 40 mins drive from Dublin) and they were looking for €390 for travel. They've offered to reduce this by €100 but does this not sound very pricey? There is no travel charge around Dublin.

Just wondering if this is normal or sounds a bit much.

clint_silver · 21-02-2017 3:48pm

discombobulate wrote: »

Just wondering what the standard travel rates bands charge would be? The band we're looking to book are €2k for a standard set. They are based in Dublin and have travel rates for various venues listed. Ours is in Cavan (around 1hr 40 mins drive from Dublin) and they were looking for €390 for travel. They've offered to reduce this by €100 but does this not sound very pricey? There is no travel charge around Dublin.

Just wondering if this is normal or sounds a bit much.

How many in the band? whats the date? Is 2k with or without the travel?

2k is there or thereabouts the going rate for a band but 390 seems like a strange figure to quote for travel. Normally it might be a flat rate of 200-300 depending how far outside newlands X it is but that would be within a certain limit. There are some outer areas that there might be a bit more on but these will be known before you book.

Cue the usual posts along the lines of.... "Charging for travel, thats madness, how dare they treat it like a business, sure I hired a band for 50 euro, a 9 piece brass section they had. They travelled from donegal to cork on donkeys and even made us breakfast the day after while keeping the dancefloor full for 43 hours in a row"**

**may or may not happen...:P

GingerLily · 21-02-2017 3:51pm

We got quoted 250 for travel and it's to a remote area, we also haggled and got it removed so, yes, 390 sounds very pricey considering the location isn't that remote, are they transporting an orchestra or something?

discombobulate · 21-02-2017 3:58pm

clint_silver wrote: »

How many in the band? whats the date? Is 2k with or without the travel?

2k is without travel. 3 piece band

clint_silver · 21-02-2017 4:00pm

discombobulate wrote: »

2k is without travel. 3 piece band

If that's through an agent I could take a guess at who it is. Id haggle there.

Then again, if its a peak season date, they can afford to ask for more as they know they'll get hired in Dublin anyway so they get the same without travelling if you get me.

discombobulate · 21-02-2017 4:05pm

clint_silver wrote: »

If that's through an agent I could take a guess at who it is. Id haggle there.

Then again, if its a peak season date, they can afford to ask for more as they know they'll get hired in Dublin anyway so they get the same without travelling if you get me.

Not through an agent. Wedding in 7 months and they're free on the day so i'd imagine it's unlikely there's too many people leaving things as last minute as we are.

clint_silver · 21-02-2017 4:15pm

discombobulate wrote: »

Not through an agent. Wedding in 7 months and they're free on the day so i'd imagine it's unlikely there's too many people leaving things as last minute as we are.

Id def haggle then.

21-02-2017 6:01pm

clint_silver wrote: »

How many in the band? whats the date? Is 2k with or without the travel?

2k is there or thereabouts the going rate for a band but 390 seems like a strange figure to quote for travel. Normally it might be a flat rate of 200-300 depending how far outside newlands X it is but that would be within a certain limit. There are some outer areas that there might be a bit more on but these will be known before you book.

Cue the usual posts along the lines of.... "Charging for travel, thats madness, how dare they treat it like a business, sure I hired a band for 50 euro, a 9 piece brass section they had. They travelled from donegal to cork on donkeys and even made us breakfast the day after while keeping the dancefloor full for 43 hours in a row"**

**may or may not happen...:P

Yep, although that depends on what is defined by 'band' for that price. For €2k plus 20% travel costs in the OP's case, I would expect more than a 3 piece band to show up on the day. It doesn't have to feature brass or non-playing backing singers, just a 4-5 piece maybe with some keyboards and/or another melodic instrument, or even a dedicated front-man.

About the travel costs, are they renting a chauffeur for the special day themselves? The wedding is 120kms up the M/N3. €390 wouldn't be so bad if 4 members had to drive individually from somewhere down South or from far in the West, but as it is the journey isn't the worst. It would be interesting to know their travel costs for a spin to Donegal, Mayo, Kerry, Waterford etc. where the mileage would be multiples of the trip to Cavan.

I don't know the band and they could be the best trio in the business, but for the guts of €2400 I think there's better value to be found for the OP. Even with knocking the €100 off travel costs.

Addle · 22-02-2017 11:39am

They might be making a night of it?

Jwacqui · 22-02-2017 11:46am

My band are €1900. They are based in Waterford and travelling to Laois - not charging any travel.

Jwacqui · 22-02-2017 11:46am

My band are €1900. They are based in Waterford and travelling to Laois - not charging any travel.

tobdom · 22-02-2017 12:11pm

It's nearly 4 years ago now, but our band were €1600 (4-piece) including doing the DJ'ing afterwards and travelled from Kildare to Galway. I think we may have given them €50 for travel. They were booked for ~4-5 more weddings as a result of family/friends seeing them at ours.

Can't say I'm up to speed on going rates, but whatever about the cost for the band, the travel prices seems way OTT.

Jwacqui · 22-02-2017 1:03pm

Oh I forgot to say my DJ is included in that too.

clint_silver · 22-02-2017 1:54pm

Like most wedding vendors bands can be cheap, good and available. But you only get to pick 2. You got lucky if you got all 3.

pconn062 · 22-02-2017 3:44pm

2k for a 3 piece band even if it includes DJ is on the very expensive end of things to me, and that's with another €400 for travel. My band only charge travel when it's over 2 hours away from us, apart from that it's a standard price. Even at that it would be nowhere near €400 quid. Shop around would be my opinion.

GingerLily · 22-02-2017 3:53pm

That band sound like they're using the travel charge as a sneaky way to up the price, poor form!

discombobulate · 22-02-2017 3:58pm

pconn062 wrote: »

2k for a 3 piece band even if it includes DJ is on the very expensive end of things to me, and that's with another €400 for travel. My band only charge travel when it's over 2 hours away from us, apart from that it's a standard price. Even at that it would be nowhere near €400 quid. Shop around would be my opinion.

That's the plan now. I haven't had the time to really get into doing research on who we want but I was told they (Mixtape) were very good at a wedding friends were at and liked some of the videos of them I found online. Hard to find a band as i'm not in Dublin so very hard to go to showcases and my venue is 2 and a half hours from home so can't check out anyone local.

pconn062 · 22-02-2017 4:12pm

discombobulate wrote: »

That's the plan now. I haven't had the time to really get into doing research on who we want but I was told they (Mixtape) were very good at a wedding friends were at and liked some of the videos of them I found online. Hard to find a band as i'm not in Dublin so very hard to go to showcases and my venue is 2 and a half hours from home so can't check out anyone local.

I know nothing about that band and my comments were just general comments about the price, maybe they are worth it! Just seems a little expensive to me.

It can be hard to hear bands alright, but any good band now will have tonnes of videos and reviews on their website. Not the same as seeing them live but it can help filter them down. Also, most bands travel extensively for gigs so if you see one you like it can be worth contacting them to see if they have any weddings/events near your home. We are based in the North East but we gig all over Leinster and regularly get people coming to our gigs to see us from all over the place.

Milly33 · 23-02-2017 11:39am

I would have more of an issue at paying €2k for a three piece band... Paying €100 for travel would be normally enough

Gumbo · 24-02-2017 5:22pm

Van, insurance, petrol, tolls

honerbright · 24-02-2017 10:59pm

discombobulate wrote: »

That's the plan now. I haven't had the time to really get into doing research on who we want but I was told they (Mixtape) were very good at a wedding friends were at and liked some of the videos of them I found online. Hard to find a band as i'm not in Dublin so very hard to go to showcases and my venue is 2 and a half hours from home so can't check out anyone local.

I had a feeling this is the band you were talking about! We had them play at our wedding a few months ago. There were no other bands we liked at all, so we were willing to pay that bit extra for them. They were one of the biggest costs at our wedding, but they were completely worth every cent. Everyone loved them and we had a small enough wedding but they kept the dance floor full the entire night.

Wedding Band Travel Costs

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