Children's Party Entertainers in England

Top Hat Kids based in London, are a children's entertainer featuring music, magic, bubbles, games, prizes and much more! They have some great tips if you are looking to hire an entertainer to keep your little ones amused!

What do you need to know from an organiser in order to provide a comprehensive quote?

For us to provide a comprehensive quote, we generally only require the length of the show required - between 45 minutes and 2 hours - as we include all misc costs in the total price. We do not charge extra for petrol, the number of children or other factors. The only exceptions to this are if you hire a character entertainer, which carries a £30 supplement, or any additional physical products such as party bags.

What advice would you give to a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?

Firstly, you want to see whether the entertainer has experience. There are an awful lot of companies who send out inexperienced teens with poor equipment and low pay which leads to low-quality entertainment.

Another important thing to consider is that most good children's entertainers will have timeslots on busy weekend days. You will find your choice of good entertainers limited if you are determined to have a party at an awkward middle-of-the-day time like 1 pm as this limits the entertainer's flexibility to accept another party on the same day. Generally speaking, you may have to consider either a slightly earlier or slightly later party if you want to book a good quality entertainer, and so a good rule of thumb is to secure the entertainer first and then the venue second.

Please tell us a little bit about how and why you started the business.

I started out with a degree in Music Production but was finding it difficult to break into the industry. Since my first love was music, I decided that I must work with music...so I was going to start a business that involved music at all costs!

Fast forward a few months and I was a fully-fledged Events DJ, DJing events such as my local gym's Christmas party, 40th birthday parties - the lot. I decided to go up a level and get into wedding entertainment the following year.

I noticed something interesting - there were always lots of children at weddings getting under the feet of the adults. So I asked myself - why not entertain the children at the wedding? With this in mind, I started offering discos where I entertained the children before the evening disco at weddings, and it was a hit!

And that question 15 years ago was the spark that started this business. Not long after, I started offering children's parties without the evening disco, and Top Hat Kids was born!

Please tell us about a booking you've had through Add to Event, how did it go? Would you recommend us to others?

I have only just joined Add to Event but am looking forward to my first booking through them very soon!