Calgary Trail South Edmonton Canadian Tire at the Sawmill Banquet Facility.

This event was exactly what a corporate function should be.  Good people, good food and lots of fun.  Last year I also was the DJ for Canadian Tire and even though it was a really good party it ended a little early due in part to it being held on a Sunday.  This year management agreed to close the store early on Saturday which in turn led to a more successful party.  As some of the employees had spouses and partners that normally would have to work on a Monday morning, therefore causing them to leave the party earlier on a Sunday that if the party was held on a Saturday.  Needless to say this year’s holiday party was way more successful than last year.

I would like to thank the staff at the Sawmill Banquet Facility for being very accommodating to my style of DJ.  As an Edmonton DJ many venues can be a challenge to work at.  Maria Baert was very helpful with a number of things that evening to make my job easier and is well better.  The Sawmill Banquet Facility is a very nice venue on the east end of Edmonton just off 34th Ave and 76 St. 

The room was split in half to accommodate two smaller events.  For me this was the exact same room we were in last year.  The only thing I like to do one in this room is placed my DJ equipment in the middle of the dance floor along the false wall that separates the two rooms.  This creates a better look and feel for the dance floor and allows me to interact with the crowd in a far easier fashion.  In order for me to do this the buffet line had to be moved slightly away from the wall it was great to see the staff willing to make this adjustment happen.

Leaving start at about seven o’clock and everyone was in good spirits right from the get-go.  I recognize the a lot of the same people from the year prior which makes it more enjoyable for me as a DJ to work with people over and over again.  We played a fun Christmas game in order to pick the order of the tables for the buffet line and that went over very well.  Dinner was very well done, buffet style, with lots of items to choose from.  What I really liked about the buffet line was that each item had a name tag so you knew exactly what the item was.  There are a lot more fussy people today than ever before in this allows them to know exactly what they would be eating.

We started the dance right around nine o’clock and coordinated our dance start time with the room next to us.  This is a great idea to prevent music, which is normally played at a higher volume for a dance, from being heard overtop of someone else trying to speak and do speeches after dinner.  The venue was right on top of this issue making sure both events were the best they could be.  We had a full dance floor right from the get go and what really made this party great were about six people that really liked the dance and got the ball rolling which in turn made everyone else want to dance.

You can tell that everyone really get along quite well with everyone else as a good part of the night everyone was dancing in a circle as one or two people showed off their moves in the middle of the circle.  This normally happens when you have a group of people that like each other and like to have fun.

The highlight of the night was when one of the gentlemen dancing decided to take off his sweater in a mock striptease.  Everyone was cheering and laughing as this all happened and it truly elevated the party to another level as I do not think this is normally something this person does on a regular basis.

It is nice like this to continue to make me want to keep being an Edmonton DJ.  Thanks again to the staff and management at Canadian Tire for having me back this year and I hope to see y’all again next year.

Please see below for some video highlights from tonight’s event.