The Great Hall at Kelham is one of those rooms where you can fit two complete entertainment rigs and neither one feels squeezed. On a January evening, The Sisterhood shared the stage with a DJ for a corporate party after 600 delegates had finished the formal part of the day - speeches, breakout sessions, dinner. The band took the first set, high-energy and loaded with floor-fillers to get the room from seated-and-formal to standing-and-dancing. The DJ took it from there. Both running independent PA systems - The Sisterhood controlled the band’s sound, the DJ managed the room audio for their set. Clean handoff, no fighting for cable space or mixing desk real estate.
Load-in and the Victorian grandeur
Kelham Hall is a Victorian country house set in 42 acres near Newark - the kind of venue that photographs well and sets a tone the moment guests arrive. The load-in was direct but physical: a side door straight into the Great Hall, but with steps between the outside and the room floor. So the kit went in closer to the stage than it would at a hotel, but getting it up and in required the crew to manage some load. Once inside, the Great Hall is genuinely impressive - high ceiling, period details, space for 600 people at a long table or clustered for a party. The technical infrastructure was solid: power feeds for both our PA and theirs, staging was straightforward to set up, soundcheck happened while the room was still being cleared from dinner.
The band and the evening
The Sisterhood came in as an eight-piece - keys, bass, drums, two horns, two guitars, lead vocals. The brief was clean: one set after food, 600 delegates transitioning from the formal conference mode to the party mode. High-energy, floor-filled, hand off to the DJ clean. The Great Hall gave them room to spread out and take up the stage without eating the DJ’s space. When the DJ came on, the transition was smooth - same stage, both rigs wired and ready, just a flip of the faders and the room went from live band to electronic dance. 600 people dancing in a Victorian ballroom feels genuinely great.
Shared stage done well
What made the shared-stage setup work was that everyone was clear on the brief and the technical setup was sorted in advance. The Sisterhood knew what their PA was doing, the DJ knew what theirs was doing, the venue knew when each act should go on, and the timing was locked. There is no improvising when you have that many people and two rigs running at the same time. The Great Hall is big enough that the band and the DJ booth didn’t feel cramped next to each other - there was room to move, room for both acts to occupy the stage without collision. The Nottinghamshire events team at Kelham coordinated all of it and the evening ran exactly as the brief said it should.
Corporate events with DJs: the working model
This is how you run a corporate evening when both a live band and a DJ are part of the brief. Independent PA systems mean no compromise on either side - the band gets clean, uncoloured audio and the DJ gets the room coverage they need. Both acts are wired before the day starts. Timing is locked in. The venue knows the technical handoff and coordinates it. The band plays their set, the transition happens, the DJ takes the floor. The guests get live entertainment and then electronic dancefloor, all in one evening, all in the same space. Kelham Hall’s Great Hall proved it can hold that energy from both angles - period grandeur at the start of the evening, high-energy dancefloor by the end.
South Wales-based live bands for corporate events, regularly playing Nottinghamshire and the East Midlands. We work with DJs, other entertainment, as headline acts - whatever role the event needs. Get in touch to talk about your evening, gala or party.
