The COVID pandemic abruptly pulled me out of my usual routine and forced me to come to a complete stop, at least in my case as a full-time DJ, musician, and artist. This enforced break naturally led me to question many things and examine whether all the stress would even be worthwhile when things start up again. For years, as a freelancer, I pushed myself to the limit, putting myself under a lot of pressure, driven by the motto "faster, higher, further."

But COVID forced me to learn and realize that things can and should be a bit more leisurely, because you only have one life and you want to get something out of it. You don't live to work, you work to live, and even though I was familiar with this saying before COVID, it took this sudden stop for me to truly understand and put it into practice.

So I personally tweak the small details of my professional life, and voilà, it's working out quite well and getting better all the time. Because I have the freedom to shape my work and everything around it myself, I can also afford the luxury of taking a day off during the week, or even on any given day, depending on how many gigs I've had beforehand, and just calling it a day...

Interestingly, I've observed this trend in other areas as well, such as the closing times at events. Due to the acute staff shortage in the hospitality industry, many venues and restaurants are now setting clear closing times for events. This has several positive effects: firstly, everything becomes more predictable, the already hard-to-find staff aren't overworked with double shifts, and secondly, the clear end time leads to greater customer satisfaction. This also reduces alcohol-related incidents where guests forget their manners and don't have to apologize to their boss or spouse the next day.

For me as a DJ, this is definitely a positive thing. Sure, it compresses the party time, but then you just have to pack the bangers into a four-hour set and deliver them, instead of stretching it out to seven or eight hours and trying to keep the party going with completely drunk people like a COVID patient on a ventilator. Anyone who still wants to go "Atemlos" these days should do a 24-hour shift in a COVID intensive care unit, so that even the most die-hard HF fanboy or fangirl gets a different definition of "Atemlos," what it's like, what it sounds like when you're breathless and can't breathe anymore. Then there's no more "we're roaming the streets" and all that...

But I digress, because I think the days of partying at private and corporate events until all the guests were mindlessly drunk without a defined end time are slowly coming to an end, since it's easier to find new guests than good staff. I welcome this development, because when I look back at my DJ past (excluding club gigs here), events where I was on my feet for 20 hours or more are neither modern nor socially responsible.

Sure, it's a once-in-a-lifetime event for the client, but not for us, the ones who make such a party, celebration, wedding, or event possible in the first place. This is our business, and we don't just do it once a month; no, at peak times, it's four to six times a week. And even if the money is good (at least as a freelance DJ; as a waiter or cook in the restaurant industry, probably not), a clean, harmonious ending is much better than if things escalate in a drunken stupor and the great atmosphere is ruined by unnecessary arguments and thoughtless words...

For those who prefer an open-ended party, there are clubs and discos (because that's where the DJs work in shifts), and anyone who can still stand can get in and continue partying until the very end. And just a little food for thought for all the self-proclaimed "open end" party animals: there's no open end at Oktoberfest either; the party ends at 11 pm in the tents, and (almost) everyone loves the Oktoberfest and remembers it fondly, probably because there's a defined end, making it much easier to look forward to the next festival.

This gives an event, a celebration, a festival more value and restores the specialness that should actually be the basic motivation to celebrate, and not just because you can, because that's what you do, and because there's alcohol.

You could also call celebrating in a sustainable way...