The process is broadly the same regardless of size of event. For very large multi-supplier events, we reserve the right, and will likely multiply the timescale to ensure all requirements are catered for. Please see the example scenarios at the bottom of the page for realistic timescales for 3 typical common types of event.

1. During the initial call, we will note the primary services you require. We will then provide a “Supplier Available” notice withing 3 working days. This is to allow time for us to coordinate between us and our external suppliers, if required.
2. If we cannot find suitable suppliers within this 3 days window, we will speak to you to see if you would like us to continue or research, or you may choose to go else ware.
3. Once we have given you notice of “Supplier available”, the date will be reserved with all suppliers for 10 working days. During this time we will work with you on identifying more specific requirements.
4. Requirements will be forwarded to all suppliers and accurate quotes will be gathered and presented to you within 5 working days. However it normally only takes a day or so to provide a full quote
5. Once the initial quote has been issued, we will allow 10 working days for changes and refinement to the proposal, and will ultimately require a deposit by the end of day 10 to secure our services

This process is to ensure accurate quotes for the most complex events, however most enquiries get an accurate quote within 24 hours.

Case study 1 – 50th Birthday Party

Birthday party featuring:

• Live music soloist
• Photographer
• Basic A/V (projector and screen)
• Venue lighting.

From initial contact to full quote and acceptance of the requirements was 3 days. While the were many calls and emails after the contract was signed, these all fell well within the scope of the contract. These included agreeing a detailed agenda, arrival time, additional songs, file format conversion for the presentation, and specific photos during the day.

As our standard Photograph package includes 10 developed photos for each hour of the event, the client ended up purchasing additional photos after the event, as had access to the raw photos for them download and own.

The entire event was delivered by Heathfield Events with no external suppliers

Case Study 2 – Corporate Awards Ceremony & After Party

A major high-street financial services vendor approached us to provide a ‘Oscars’ style awards ceremony and after party for their UK IT department.

After the basic requirements were captured, our team brain-stormed the essential elements of a high profile awards ceremony, and submitted a design proposal and full quote.

We met with the client to discuss the proposal in more detail and collaborated on further refinements and produce several follow-up quotes. These were all finalised within the standard 10 working-day refinement period, and the deposit was received on time.

Further project reviews were scheduled and several additions and changes were discussed. It was agreed that one of these changes was withing scope of the signed contract, while another was outside the original scope contract and so a change request was raised to progress and include the addition in the event.

Ultimately Heathfield Events provided full room and event lighting, and high end AV including full room audio for a ball room audience of 800 people. Radio mics were provided for the awards presenters, along with high quality projection, live music ‘sting’s as award recipients collected their awards, and finally the main party band and DJ for the after party dance.

The sole external supplier coordinated by Heathfiekd Events was a local staging and backdrop supplier. The venue catered for the event and provided their own waiting staff.

Case Study 3 – Local Festival Sound

Heathfield Events were asked to provide a quote and deliver live sound services for the acoustic stage for a festival in Oxfordshire.

Heathfield Events Director Steve Robinson had personally provided sound at the the festival previously, however Heathfield were invited to quote in order to take the Hill Top stage up a notch from previous years.

While the stage was billed as an acoustic stage, several elements resulted in a challenging environment for live sound.

Firstly, the Main stage – only 150 meters away – was pointed directly at the Hill top acoustic stage all day. This gave the hill top stage major bass spill, meaning sensitive, quieter acts needed extra help to come across to their audience.

Secondly, the stage continued on for several hours beyond the main stage, so needed the capacity to keep the festival pumping at very high energy and volume levels not normally associated with an acoustic stage. These volume levels, and the smaller performer and audience space of the acoustic stage – yes still with acoustic instruments – presented significant challenges in terms of onstage performer sound, and of course audience enjoyment.

Heathfield Events deployed their very high-end RCF Line Array system, providing exceptionally consistent sound quality and volume over the entire outside audience area, while delivering a profound volume boundary for the performers on stage. The exceptionally low volume on-stage meant the performers could have more personalised monitoring, given them the confidence to deliver a better performance.

Despite the very high volume, multiple acoustic instruments and very confined space, there was zero feedback or undesirable audio artefacts from the acoustic stage during the entire 2-day event.

RCF is one of main 2 or 3 sound suppliers typically used by major artists such as Rhianna, Justin Timberlake, Muse, and Coldplay, and are amongst some of the highest quality sound systems available.

The RCF Line array system available through Heathfield Events is suitable for small to medium outdoor events of any type with up to 1500 audience members outside.

Every event is different, and each is a bespoke package designed for you, with it’s own options and discounts.

While some of the music and entertainment acts all have base prices, there are always extras such as radio mics, DJs, additional lighting, arriving early, finishing later, and so on that result in a bespoke  price.

Get in touch and we can get you a ball-park figure with just a few details.

No problem! Just give us a contact at your other supplier and we’ll ordinate with them to make your life easier.

Feel free to continue to talk to them about the details that matter to you, and we’ll coordinate the more the more mundane aspects with them.

A typical booking for a party, wedding, or cooperate event is 2 hours spilt in two 1hr sets of music, with a short break in the middle. Background music from a playlist, or even sometimes a DJ will play music before, in between and after the live music sets.

Additional sets, different length sets, or even different acts earlier in the day at another venue – Church Vs reception – are all possible, just let us who what you want.

About Us

We are fully insured for public liability (for accidents) and public indemnity (if we can’t supply) upto £10,000,000

We carry fire extinguishers and fire blankets to every event.

PAT electrical checks are carried out when there is a venue requirement to do so. Please note however that PAT testing is not a legal requirement and does not test for equipment safety, and most electrical issues we encounter are a result of poor electrical maintenance at venues. Any issues found with our equipment are immediately repaired, or replaced if unrepairable.

All our equipment is ensured for accidental damage, so if something happens the day before you have booked it, we can replace it quickly.

About You

Ensuring the safety of everyone involved is the most important aspect of every event. Event suppliers are often asked to produce many safety and insurance certificates, but the responsibility for safety goes both ways.

You will ensure the environment we will work in is safe. We will test the safety of your events power supply and will not plug in our equipment if your power supply is seemed unsafe. This includes the presence of ‘live leakage’ and ‘earth loops’ that can give performers electric shocks, and can damage our equipment.

We are fully qualified PAT testers ourselves and carry the testing equipment with us, so can test your equipment on site, at a cost, if needed. If any faults are found, we will not plug our equipment in until the venue electrical safety issues are resolved.

Our insurance only covers services supplied through Heathfield Events and covers our staff, contractors and any equipment we hire in and use for you event. Services not provided through Heathfield Events will need their own insurance and other health and safety protections. As stated above, we can provide emergency PAT testing at events.

To date, we have never cancelled any service of any event. We have a large core team, and a large network of trusted suppliers to help cover a wide array of situations. But it could happen.

Similarly, only extreme – and national factors – have so far caused 2 days worth of events to be cancelled across everything we have ever done, so very, very rare. But again, it could happen (again).

Deposit policy

When Heathfield Events are the sole and direct supplier, there is no deposit.

If we are providing hired-in equipment from a 3rd party that requires a deposit, this is the deposit we ‘froward’ to you. The hired-in equipment cannot be considered secured until the deposit is paid. If left too late, it is possible the equipment may no longer be available, and another provide at a higher cost may need to be sought. If left very late, it may not be possible to find a suitable supplier, so getting the deposit paid as soon as possible de-risks any of these eventualities.

Heathfield Events will not be at fault if the equipment is not secured because the client failed to pay the hired-in equipment deposit.

If you cancel:

Cancelling may refer to a single service or supplier such as band or florist, or the entire offering from Heathfield Events which may include multiple suppliers i.e. a band, florist and caterer. The cancellation would applier to each service or sub-contactor.

If you cancel a service over 31 days before the event date,
You will get a full refund of the deposit. There is plenty of time for us and our suppliers to fill that date with another event. Fresh food and flower bookings can be safely cancelled without any costs incurred by those providers or Heathfield Events.

If you cancel within 14 days of the event
You forfeit the deposit. This is because there is reduced chance for the date to be rebooked, and date, and some fresh items such as food and flowers may have already purchased or processed.

If you cancel within 7 days of the event setup date
50% of the remaining cost will be required to be paid, so 7 days out this will be the gap between the deposit and 50%. of the full cost. This is because many items will have already been ordered and paid for. 7 days offers little opportunity for musicians to get re-booked, and so they loose business, and being self employed, directly effects their ability to pay their bills. Bespoke items, and fresh produce including fresh flowers will have already been picked and will be on route to us.

If you cancel 48 hours or less before the event
The full amount will be required. Everything for your event will be packed and ready to ship to the event location. All allocated money will have already been spent. Suppliers will have ordered fresh food and flowers that will likely all be wasted, hired in equipment will have already been picked up and suppliers will have people working on the event, all that require paying.

If we cannot 100% supply as agreed

If we are not able to provide the previously agreed specific services, we will do our best to provide an equivalent for each service at the same cost. Any additional costs will be absorbed by Heathfield Events or our suppliers. In this scenario, the event would go ahead with no material changes. This may include a different sax or pianist of the same standard, a slightly different height stage, changing one chocolate desert for another, or a different sound engineer of similar standard.

If the you are not happy with the available replacement but choose to continue with the event, we will provide the replacement service at a 50% discount. This could be something such as changing the band or act for a different genre, or changing a chocolate dessert for a fruit desert

If we cancel

In the very unlikely event that we cannot deliver any of the requires services within between 31 and 7 days from the event:

• Any desposit paid will be refunded,
• We will absorb any costs from third parties that maybe incurred.

If we cancel mre

Once ‘failure to supply’ insurance gets triggers, the likleyhood of a reasnable outcome for both parties dimninshes so other potential resolution may be offered

• Discount on future events
• Contrinution to other costs you may have occured
• Should we have any other event booked, these will be discount
• Should you incurreShould this this be If your requirement changes after the scope of services has been agreed, you MUST inform us so that any additional requirement shave been met. If you double the stage size witout telling us, we probably can’t light it correct.

Firstly, if something has gone wrong, we sincerely apologise.

We are all experienced professionals who have chosen to work together after already having successful careers independently, and are proven and popular in the industry with good reason.

However we all have bad days, things do slip through the net, and sometimes the unexpected does happen. We are all human after all.

If you feel we are not at our best during the planning phase, let us know as soon as possible and we’ll ensure the situation improves.

But if something has gone wrong and is not recoverable, perhaps on the nights, please send us an email – including supporting correspondence and photos or video – to complaints@heathfieldevent.com.

Complaints with external suppliers

This above process applies to in-house services and external services we are managing.

If a complaint is with an external supplier we are not managing, please direct the complaint to them.

If a complaint is with an external supplier we are managing, they may wish to take on the complaint directly with them, if appropriate.

We offer a complete and bespoke event service to our customers, combining our areas of expertise with trusted and experience external suppliers. We’ll be a single point of contact, and will coordinate, source and chase everyone else so you don’t have to.

Private events may range from a low-key birthday for an elderly relative,  rousing wedding for your friends or family, right up to the main sound and lighting supplier for a local festival. For corporate requirements we regularly deliver an end-to-end service for awards ceremonies, product launches and large scale summer or Christmas parties.

In-house we provide a wide variety of entertainment-focused services:

• Musicians of the highest international calibre
  From classical soloists and high energy party bands, to more genre-specific acts including Country, Latin, Ska, 70’s/Disco, 80, Indie, Metal and more. Rather than a large directory of acts, our acts are hand picked and invited to join the Heathfield Events team.
• The highest-quality sound
  Suitable from everything from low-key reception soloists, through wedding speeches to large corporate awards ceremonies and the largest summer public festival, sound quality is a key differentiator to other providers.
• Event lighting with the wow-factor
  From a refined and intimate jazz club style illumination, to an all-out, over-the-top Club Ibiza light show with lasers and smoke machines.
• Stage Marquee
  For outdoor events we can provide an 8m x 8m marquee for the performers, and with 3m high sides able to accommodate a high stage, all the audience can see what’s happening. Typically used with a 8m x 4m stage, use the rear for band change-overs or event storage, or have the stage at the back to provide audience cover during adverse weather. Or just have the marquee with no sound or lighting for your local craft fair!
• Event Wifi Internet Access
  For events where sales are important – either from the bar or for trader selling their arts and crafts, taking electronic payments is critical. We can provide a string and solid connection to multiple mobile networks and broadcast that strong connection over a private Wifi network you your sellers, VIPs, Staff and the press

External suppliers include florists, caterers, and more specialist entertainers such as magicians, as well as waiting and hostess staff.

Additionally, we have a wealth of general technical and creative expertise so if you are having multiple suppliers for your event, we can advise on event-wide issues such as logistics, power requirements and health and safety.

It is very common for artists to perform with backing tracks, and thus need a way to play them during their performance. We can work with you in the following ways:

• Professional playback device with jack or XLR outputs
  You control your songs, the order, you use the correct versions, skip songs, and talk between songs as needed. The audio is provided as jack or XLR connections, with laptops with interfaces, samplers, or ‘SPD’s’ being common in these scenarios. This is by far the preferred option.
• Your own consumer device with a 3.5mm headphone socket
  You control your phone or tablet to play your songs in the order you want, you use the correct versions, talk between songs, and can skip songs as needed, all played from your device which has a traditional 3.5mm headphone jack . This means good quality, good reliability and good compatibility with sound systems without the expense of professional equipment.
• USB drive to play songs directly from the mixing desk
  A more technical and less flexible solution, but often more suitable for a variety of reasons.
  To play songs from a USB drive plugged into the mixing desk, the USB drive and songs must use the following specification:
  1. Ensure the USB drive is empty and formatted in FAT32.
     • If the USB drive is larger than 32GB you may need to use a custom tool to format it correctly.
  2. Ensure the songs are in WAV format, in 16bit or 24 bit, using 44.1KHz or 48KHz sample rate, and in stereo.
  3. Number the songs in order you would like them played. e.g:
     • 1 – The Blues.wav
     • 2 – 10s silence.wav
     • 3 – Another Song.wav
  4. They will play automatically in the defined order, so if you want a gap between two songs, make sure you add a wav file of silence of the appropriate duration and number so the silence appears at the correct point in the playlist (see example above).
  5. Make sure you take the length of the silence into account when calculating the length of your set.
• Bluetooth
  As a backup option, a high-quality Bluetooth receiver is available to connect your device to so you can play the songs from your device.

Other methods using connection adapters, Apple Lighting and USB-C are not available unless you provide an adapter, however these will remain potentially unreliable and of lower quality.