It was great to be back with Leduc Junior High School  for their winter formal.  This is one of my favorite functions to do each year.  I really enjoy doing school dances as the kids just love to dance and have fun, I wish my adult parties were more like this. 

The staff at Leduc Junior High again show what great people they are.  This is an outing where the students must be dressed appropriately, no blue jeans allowed.  First, they all go to a movie at the local theater and then come to the Denham Inn in Leduc for a semi-formal lunch followed by a dance.  Mrs. Ponich was telling me that when they got to the movie theater that some staff did not make in that morning and some of the students that work there on a part-time basis jumped in too fill those spots to allow the function to go that much better.  This really shows the quality of the students at Leduc Junior High.

The students and staff all arrived about 11:30 am to the the Denham Inn and even though it was a bit cold outside everyone was in good spirit and everyone really seemed to be enjoying themselves.  Everyone was very well dressed and not a hair was out of place.  Lunch was served buffet style and it was a good mix of Chinese food. 

Right after lunch we jumped straight into the dance and we started out with some songs from their social dance program at the school  Dancing is such an important party of our adult life and knowing how to dance is a great thing to know.  As and Edmonton DJ I have been with Leduc Junior High for years and I am always surprised how enthusiastic the students are when it comes to social dancing.  In fact, more kids were on the dance floor for the social dances then for the top 40 dance hits.  Even funnier, is that a lot of the requests were for more songs that were “older” like the “YMCA” and “Macarena”. 

There were lots of door prizes, good food and dancing for everyone.  I really enjoyed myself and hope I have the privilege of being able to come back again and again.  One of the staff at the Denham Inn stated during setup that she still remembers coming to this event and stood out as a great memory from her junior high school days. 

Please see the enclosed video below for some highlights of the day.

Being an Edmonton DJ is more than just playing music.  The University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine Grad was a win event for both client and myself.  I worked closely with the grad committee and was able to save them hundreds of dollars by providing the entire infrastructure for this event.  Doing an event of over 800 people is no small feat and this function had a few challenges.  Most Edmonton Events of the type generally cost the client more as they end up using multiple companies to provide all of the services needed.

Puttin’ on the Hitz is more than just an Edmonton DJ Company, we can also handle the production side of any event.  By providing the DJ Services and adding in the screens and projectors and a live camera to shoot the speeches allowed for the customer to do two big things.  First, they only had to deal with one company for all their production needs allowing them to make better use of their time.  There is less meetings and less confusion with no problems on the day of the function.  Secondly, the customer saved money.  Since we are already there for the DJing it made is far easier to provide the screens and projectors for this event.  As there is only one company traveling to the Shaw Conference Centre the cost to do the show was decreased.

We also tied in my computer to the video screens and we were able to show some pictures from the day in the background during dinner and we played music videos during the dance.  This added an extra touch to the party to give the guests something to look at as they enjoyed their dinner and for those that did not dance something to look at on the screens.

 A special thanks goes out to the staff at the Shaw Conference Centre as they made sure both myself and the videographer (David Matthew Bonner) had dinner even though we had to eat off the back of my speaker stack as the organizers forgot to include us in the seating arrangement.

 I cannot remember the last time this room ever looked so good.  Sheldon from Infinite Event Services did a great job of decorating the room and the seating areas next to the dance floor were a great touch that really made the room.

The speeches were very well done and everyone spoke like a pro.  I was very impressed with the speakers and add in the fact that they were very entertaining and not to long-winded made for a great formal end of the evening.

After the speeches we went into the dance and it started off like a wedding and it took it a little while to get off the ground but by about 12:00 AM it got going and we had a great time right until 2 am.  What surprised me the most was that they liked the older music more than the newer, with the big song of the night was Kylie Monogue – Loco-motion.

Please watch the video below for highlights of this function as an Edmonton School DJ.

Leduc Junior High is one of my favorite places to DJ.  With the best staff I have ever worked with I consider myself lucky to be a part of their special events.  I am treated like family every time I am with the staff and students at Leduc Junior High.

This year’s grade 9 farewell was one of the best.  All the students showed up well dressed and ready to have a great time.  You can tell that this is a great place to go to school as the kids are very well behaved and I have no problems DJing there.

We began the night with O Canada that was performed by 3 very talented students that did a very nice job of our national anthem.

The evening was hosted by two very well spoken students that did a great job of MCing the night.

The Principle of the school, as always, did a great job of sending the students off and providing some great words of wisdom as the students get ready to head off to grade 10 next year.

The evening was closed out with a great slide show that covered the entire school year and this year they moved from power point to a digital format that made for a very nice ending to the evening.

The Dance

The dance gets started and we start the night off with social dances.  This is one of very few schools that has dancing as a part of the phys-ed ciriculum and it GREAT.  The students all have to participate and right from the get go they are all on the dance floor having a great time.  From Fishin’ in the Dark to O Johnny they are all signing the words and having a great time.  What is funny that there are more kids on the dance floor for the social dance songs then when I was playing a request like Poker Face.

What suprised me the most about this time a Leduc Junior High as as the night went by the kids started asking for more of the social dance songs and when I played them they all go their partners and hit the dance floor.

 A big thanx to the teachers and staff at Leduc Junior High, I hope that more schools follow in your foots steps of doing more than the minumum.  Have a great summer and Looking forward to see you at Christmas.