Lowertown Event Center

Overview:

From DJ Mike H:

Lowertown Event Center is a popular wedding venue just down the street from A'bulae and tucked all the way downstairs. It's located inside the same stretch of building where Barrio and The Public restaurant are located, but again, it's all the way downstairs.

The load-in depends on whether or not you'd like a cart. If you want a cart, call the venue ahead of time and ask them for a cart, they might not have one available, meaning you'll need a collapsable cart. Then you'll park on Sibley St. between 6th and 7th and there's a pretty big door where you'll walk in and then go down an elevator to get to the Event Center.

If you want to just carry your equipment, you can park in a parking lot and go down a set of stairs, then boom you'll be right in the main ballroom. It's quicker, but you can't use a cart since there's stairs.

Loading Options:

In this particular venue, you'll use the venue's preinstalled speaker stands and XLR cords (which dangle right next to the speaker stand and the DJ booth). Go ahead and place the speakers on the speakers stands (which is a long wood rectangle with a metal end to place the speaker. Then plug the speakers in and plug their XLR cords into the speaker and then plug the speakers in. The other end of those XLR cords are right next to the DJ booth, so go ahead and plug those into the mixing board.

It's very important that we place the lights in front of the DJ booth. You'll still be able to see just fine because they'll be raised up. This is a pet peeve of Charice (venue manager). Since there's an ATM machine by the DJ booth and then a chair which is used often for pictures by the DJ booth, we need to put our lights in front of our booth to ensure that we don't block or interrupt anything.

The DJ Booth is too small to fit both your coffin and your controller. See below for what I did in terms of how to handle the situation. I put the coffin under the table and put the controller on the table. It works just fine. 

Everything else is the same. You'll use your microphone for announcements/speeches. It's a pretty large room, but not so large that you'll have any issues getting sound all the way across the room during dinner. Ceilings aren't particularly high, so I don't think acoustics should be an issue at all. In fact, I bet the acoustics are pretty good there.

11:45 is the last song. Be sure to make an announcement at about 11:30 letting people know we have time for three more songs and then play the last song at 11:45. You need to be out of the room by 12:30. Not 12:31, but 12:30. Charice is pretty strict about this, so play the last song, tear down and then get out of the room, you should have plenty of time. If you don't, you can drag your equipment just outside of the main ballroom and get everything else wrapped up out there.

Have fun! It's a nice little space and we do quite a few weddings for them.

Load-In:

It could be a little time consuming depending on which route you take. Give yourself a little extra time.

Challenges:

You'll be using their speaker stands, which are not just right next to the DJ stand. They're in a good location, but it's just different. It mind sound kind of quiet to you since they're not right next to you like they usually are, but remember that's not necessarily the case. It's also a little different plugging in with cords that aren't our own, but it seemed very easy and the cords were placed right next to the stands and then right next to the DJ booth.

Special Considerations:

I met up with Charice and she was a little intense. Seemed friendly, but I could tell she's the type of person who might get upset easily. Be sure to call ahead of time and get basic venue call information. Also, she will call you honey. :)

Extra Venue Call Questions:

Where can I load in from?

Do you have a cart I can use?

What time is the last song?

Website:

http://lowertowneventcenter.com

The Knot:

https://www.theknot.com/marketplace/lowertown-event-center-st-paul-mn-607062