Terms and conditions for a DJ or wedding band

A DJ or band booking is sold a long way in advance, for one evening that cannot be repeated, to a customer who has usually paid a deposit and made no other arrangements. Your terms need to deal with postponement, illness, the venue's sound limiter and the balance that has not landed by the Friday. I draft those terms for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Mobile DJs, wedding and function bands, duos, tribute acts and solo performers in England and Wales, trading as sole traders, partnerships or limited companies. Most of your bookings are with couples and private hosts, who are consumers, while corporate parties, agencies and venues are business customers. The protections differ sharply between the two, so one set of terms has to be written knowing both are coming.

What matters in a DJ or band's booking terms

Deposits, postponement and cancellation

You hold a date for months and turn other work away, so a deposit that is not returnable on cancellation is reasonable, provided the terms explain what it buys and set a sliding scale of further charges as the date approaches. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats keeping a consumer's prepayment without a matching obligation on you as potentially unfair, so the wording has to be proportionate and transparent rather than punitive. Postponement needs its own clause: whether you will transfer the deposit to a new date, for how long, and what happens if you are already booked.

Illness, deps and non-appearance

Bands lose singers to laryngitis and DJs lose vans to the hard shoulder. Your terms should give you the right to send a substitute performer of equivalent standard rather than treating any change of personnel as a breach, and should say plainly that you do not guarantee named individuals unless the booking says so. Where you genuinely cannot perform, the sensible position is a refund of sums paid and no more. Against a consumer the Consumer Rights Act 2015 does not allow you to limit liability for a service to less than the price, so the clause has to be built around that rather than against it.

Sound limiters, curfews and venue rules

A limiter that cuts power every time the kick drum lands will ruin the night, and the couple will blame you. The terms should make the customer responsible for telling you about limiters, decibel restrictions, curfews, noise abatement conditions and any restriction on lighting, haze or fireworks, and should say that you are not liable where the performance is shortened or interrupted by the venue's rules or by a request from the venue, the council or the police. It is worth requiring venue details early enough for you to speak to them yourself.

Access, power, set times and overrunning

Most gig disputes are logistical. Your terms should state what the customer must provide: a defined load-in and sound check window, level access, parking close to the door, a secure performance area with adequate power outlets, and somewhere to change. Set them out with the consequence that if access is late you are not obliged to extend the finish time. Overrunning should be chargeable at a stated rate, agreed on the night with whoever is paying, not assumed. Meals and breaks for a live band belong here too, as does the customer's responsibility for guests who interfere with equipment.

Consumer bookings and the fourteen-day cancellation right

Almost every wedding booking is agreed by email, phone or at the couple's home, which brings it within the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 and gives them fourteen days to cancel from the contract date. That right applies however far off the wedding is, and if you never gave the cancellation information the period can extend by up to 12 months, long after you have turned other dates away. Off-premises bookings of £42 or less sit outside the rules, which will rarely help you. The terms and the booking form have to deal with this together.

Getting paid, promotion and insurance

The balance should fall due before the performance, not on the night when nobody is holding a chequebook, and the terms should say what happens if it does not arrive. For corporate clients and agencies the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives you interest and fixed compensation, which a well drafted clause preserves. Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 a price advertised to consumers must include mandatory charges, so travel and any compulsory extra belong in the headline figure. Cover permission to use photographs and footage of the performance for promotion, and whether the customer may record you.

What it costs

Customer or supplier terms and conditions, £995. One set of terms, customer-facing or supplier-facing, drafted around your business. Five working days.

Review of your existing terms, £495. You already have terms and want to know how much of a problem they are. Returned marked up with my amendments and an explanation of the changes. Three working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the terms and conditions drafting page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A full set of terms drafted around your business, not a template with your name inserted
• A covering note in plain English explaining every commercial choice I made and why, so you can defend the terms in a negotiation without ringing me
• Liability, payment, termination and IP provisions set at a level that will survive a procurement review
• Consumer-facing wording drafted to be enforceable where you sell to consumers
• Guidance on how to incorporate the terms properly, which is where most businesses actually fail
• One round of amendments after you have read them

What is not included

• Negotiating your terms with individual customers
• Sector-specific regulatory compliance beyond the contract terms themselves
• Website privacy notice and cookie compliance, which I quote separately
• Terms governed by the law of another country

Questions I am often asked

Do I need different terms for corporate parties and weddings?

One set of terms can carry both, with a section that applies only where the customer is a consumer. Corporate bookings justify firmer payment and cancellation provisions and a liability cap; a private host cannot be held to those in the same way. Handing a couple a business-only document leaves you with the parts a court is least likely to enforce.

The venue wants my PAT certificates and public liability cover. Should the terms mention them?

It helps to say what you hold and to require the customer to tell you of any venue requirement in good time. Venues refuse entry to performers who cannot produce paperwork, and the argument about whose fault that was is better settled in writing before the day than in a car park at four o'clock.

An agency sends me its own contract for a booking. Which terms apply?

Whichever set was properly incorporated, which usually means the agency's, because it went first and you signed. I can review an agency booking form and tell you what it does to your fee, your cancellation position and your right to send a dep. Your own terms then govern the work you win directly.

Related guidance and services

• Terms and conditions drafting, £995, the service this page describes
• Contract review, £495
• Ask Caesar, £495 a month

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: September 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.