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Forty school bookings since 2022 — thirty-seven school events and three graduations. Eleven of them are the same school. That one number is more useful to you than anything else on this page.
Forty school bookings since 2022. Thirty-seven school events and three graduations. But the forty isn't the number that should matter to you. The eleven is.
Eleven of those bookings are Our Lady Queen of Peace. Eight are PS23. Two are PS 5. That's twenty-one of forty events across three schools. Nobody rebooks the same DJ eleven times out of politeness. We'd rather let the number speak than tell you what those committees thought of us.
The timeline is worth being straight about too. Three events in 2022, three in 2024, seventeen in 2025, sixteen in 2026, and one already on the books for 2027. There was nothing in 2023. We're not going to dress that up — the school side of this company got busy in 2025 and has stayed busy since.
If you're a PTA chair or a student-activities coordinator, ask us for a committee that's booked us before and we'll ask whether they'll take the call. That's a better reference than a testimonial we typed ourselves.
Block walls. A hard floor. A ceiling thirty feet up with steel in it. Nothing in a gym absorbs sound, so everything you put into the room comes back at you a fraction of a second later, out of phase, and smeared. Cafeterias can be worse — lower ceiling, hard tables, and a serving line that acts like a reflector.
A lot of what sounds like a bad DJ in a gym is the room doing it. Vocals turn to mush. Bass piles up in the corners and the far end hears nothing but low end. Someone compensates by turning it up, and now the whole gym is loud and still unclear.
What actually helps is unglamorous. Speakers up off the floor and aimed at people rather than at walls. Two smaller positions covering the floor instead of one stack firing the length of the gym. Low end pulled back, because the room is already producing more of it than you want. A set and a re-set, because a gym full of people absorbs sound that an empty gym did not — the room you levelled at five o'clock is not the room you have at seven.
Three of our forty were run at a school's own site with no separate venue. That's the gym-or-cafeteria job, and it's the one we'd rather you hire us for than find out about on the night.
Explicit-lyrics screening isn't a preference here, it's the job. And it isn't solved by filtering a streaming service to "clean" and trusting the label.
Those edits are inconsistent. Plenty of them bleep one word in the hook and leave the second verse completely intact. Others swap a word for silence and leave the meaning obvious to every twelve-year-old in the room and every parent standing against the wall. The only reliable method is listening to the track all the way through before it goes in the folder. That's what we do, and it's why the set is built in advance rather than improvised.
Practically, that means the committee gets the playlist before the date, with a do-not-play list we actually honour — artists, songs, whole subjects if you want them out. Requests on the night go through the same filter as everything else. If a song doesn't pass, we take the hit of telling a student no rather than putting a teacher in the position of stopping the music in front of the room.
Nobody notices this part when it's done properly. That's the point of it.
The gym is in use until the last bell. Sometimes there's a practice in it after that. A clean load-in means working around that, not asking the building to work around us.
In practice: in through the door the custodian names, gear on carts, every cable taped or matted, nothing crossing a fire lane or an exit, and power pulled from a circuit the building can actually give us instead of whichever outlet is nearest. Pack-out finishes when the custodian needs to lock up, not an hour after.
A certificate of insurance naming the school — and the diocese or the district where that applies — as additional insured, sent well before the date. Schools generally won't confirm a date until it's on file, so we'd rather send it early than be chased for it.
One contact and one timeline sheet. Doors, grand entrance if there is one, any awards or announcements, last song, lights up. A PTA committee is running an event alongside their actual jobs. They shouldn't have to hold the run of show in their heads.
A volume that staff can supervise over. Chaperones need to talk across the floor and hear a kid who needs something. We'd rather set it where the room is still clear and controllable than where it's technically impressive.
Not all of this happens in a gym. Many of these bookings were catered rooms, with house systems, a banquet manager and a hard end time.
Venues we've worked these events at include LiGreci's Staaten (five times), The Historic Old Bermuda Inn (three), Grand Oaks Country Club, Nansen Lodge, Angelina's Restaurant, Campania in Dongan Hills, the Hilton Garden Inn, Prive, and The Barn on South Holland in Holmdel, New Jersey. Three of the forty were graduations.
A hall is an easier room acoustically and a harder room on timing. The kitchen has a schedule, the staff have a contracted finish, and a graduation has speeches that will overrun. That gets planned, not improvised.
One limit, so you can rule us out quickly. If what you want is someone who'll run a school dance like a late-night club set, push the volume and treat it as their own showcase, that isn't us, and there are good ones who are. We're set up for a room where adults are responsible for everyone in it. Staten Island based, eighteen years in, travelling across New York and New Jersey.
Yes, and we screen them ourselves rather than trusting a streaming service's "clean" tag — those edits are inconsistent and often leave a later verse untouched. Every track is listened to before it goes in the set, and requests on the night pass the same check.
That's the normal way we work. You get the set in advance plus a do-not-play list — songs, artists or whole subjects you want out. Changes are easier the earlier they come, but we'd rather take them late than play something you didn't want.
Yes. We can issue a COI naming the school, and the diocese or district where that applies, as additional insured. Ask for it as soon as you've got a date — schools and districts usually want it on file before they'll confirm.
A gym has no soft surfaces, so loud and clear are not the same thing there. We cover the floor from two smaller positions aimed at people rather than walls, pull the low end back, and set the level where chaperones can talk across the room and hear a student who needs something.
Most of this work is on Staten Island, and we've travelled for it — The Barn on South Holland in Holmdel, New Jersey is one of these events. We serve New York and New Jersey. On timing: we had seventeen school dates in 2025, sixteen in 2026 and one already held for 2027, so the popular Friday and Saturday slots in the spring go early.
“Quality, professionalism and most importantly fun.”
Nick & Allison McAleerSend the date, the school, and where it's being held — gym, cafeteria or a hall. You'll get a straight answer on availability and price, and the insurance certificate without being chased for it. If we're not the right call for what you're running, we'll tell you that instead of selling you something. Enquiries go straight to Joey.
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