What guests remember forever is the entertainment and theatre you provide

“There are priorities. However good the food is, you never come away from an event saying that you had the most wonderful piece of chicken! You come away saying you had the most amazing night, heard the most sensational music. For me, the two most important ingredients are entertainment and lighting and that would be where I’d recommend the initial investment. Once I’ve got a hook on what the client is looking to do, I can start to allocate the money. If the client has the budget, I work with a sensational party band from Paris – they’ve been all over the world for me and they are my first port of call for a fabulous party. Then I’ve got bands and DJs that I would use for different price brackets, all exceptionally good in their own ways. Celebrity acts aren’t always the right choice – where a band will play for five hours, a celebrity will do maybe four numbers, and people tend to stand and watch them, rather than dancing. The guy who does all my lighting and production is totally inside my head: he gets what I want. The lighting brings it all together. It’s as though you’re producing a play for one night only, with no rehearsal – that’s the kind of wow factor people are looking for. When you walk into a room that has been dressed, people stop at the door because it takes their breath away. It’s because the lighting has brought to life an interior that has been especially created for that event. By being creative with the lighting, you bring the detail to life. I have created Narnia: the walk through the coat of wardrobes, corridors of leaves in amber and pink, then blue with snow and huskies – and it’s all in the lighting. It’s just like when you go to the theatre: when the curtain lifts, what are you looking at? A stage set, theatrically lit.”

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