Dances, Concerts and Pep Rallies for Thousands in California

“Come on, baby, light my fire
Try to set the night on fire.”

-- The Doors
Light My Fire

Entertaining on a grand scale was something that I had always wanted to do, but had been frustrated in pursuing as a youngster. When I was young, our family lived in a small two bedroom house on a tiny lot in San Bernardino, California, which is located halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs at the edge of the Mojave Desert. If you had put people elbow to elbow, you could probably have fit 16 standing people into our living room and dining room combined. Our back yard and patio weren’t any larger. While my friends often ran large parties for 40 or more at their homes, I didn’t see how it would be possible at our house.

But I always wanted to throw big parties like my friends did. One day that opportunity became available. As a high school student, I was elected as the director of activities for my senior year. This meant I was in charge of running retreats, concerts, assemblies and dances for our rather large school of over 3,300 students. During those days I got used to the idea of planning and putting on entertainment for over 3,000 people. In fact, I got a little spoiled because bands who wanted me to hire them would put on free rehearsal concerts for me. They also gave me free tickets to come to other dances and concerts they were running.

My girl friends and I had an exciting, brief career as rock promoters. As all of this ended, I hoped that someday I would be able to throw big events again, but assumed that I wouldn’t.

So you’re past high school age, you say. Well, you still have a great opportunity to host big parties. You need to get involved with nonprofit organizations that want to raise money. These organizations often throw big parties as a way to attract funds. And they need lots of people to organize and run those parties. You can start small as an assistant and work up to running the whole event. A friend of mine got to be so good at this that nonprofit organizations compete for her talents in this area.

Political campaigns offer similar opportunities. Candidates arrange to speak at a local place, their organizations drum up people to attend, and they need someone locally to organize and host the actual entertainment part of the event. You can be one of those people. I have also been to some terrific large campaign parties in exchange for a donation that wasn’t much different than the cost of eating out. In many cases, wealthy supporters will loan their beautiful homes for the purpose. The candidate's staff will introduce you to the right people if you don't already know any.

Artists provide similar opportunities to host openings for their newest work. Generally, artists are more interested in creating art than in organizing the openings. You can easily become the person they rely on to organize and help them host these events. Usually, a gallery will provide a location and some funds to help pay for the event. The artist will usually pay for the rest.

Donald Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell