This plan of the ballroom was posted by Felix Berghäll on his wall recently, and I noticed that the band stage was on the long wall of a rectangular room. This is pretty much the opposite of the way we set up rooms for concerts usually. But it makes much better sense if you want to be sure a room can see the band, from the dance floor or tables.
Looking at photos of the Cloudland ballroom, it also has the stage on the long wall.
I use a fair few ballrooms and dance halls around the place, from square ones (the lovely Annandale Town Hall) to round ones (the gorgeous Famous Spiegeltent). My preference as a DJ is a round room, or to have the DJ/band on the long wall of a rectangular room, so that it’s right in the ‘middle’ of things. It’s also better for sound, because the speakers don’t have to ‘throw’ down a loooong room. They can radiate from the middle of the room.
This is an issue for me at the moment, as I’m thinking about the dance we’re holding on the Saturday of the Little Big Weekend 13-15 May 2016 . It’s in the Glebe Town Hall, which is pretty much perfect. But it’s long and narrow, with a teeny-tiny (and wholly inadequate) stage in one corner.
So I was thinking we’d put the band on the long wall (opposite a large double door).
Question: will this leave us room to have a competition in front of the band? Asking for a friend*.
*Myself. I am my own friend.
