How to Set Up A Photo Booth at Your Music Recital!

Two of my high school senior piano students put on a Senior Showcase this year. It was so much fun!  They each performed several pieces, their families made lots of yummy food, we listened to speeches from family members, and we had fun taking pictures in our photo booth! 

The girls came up with the photo booth idea during our fall planning sessions.  I thought it was a fantastic idea! We did some research about what I would need to do a photo booth. I’ll be honest… some of the setups looked scary (and expensive!) For a hot second, I thought there was no way we could do this. 

But then… 

I started thinking about Instagram. 

It doesn’t take much to make a photo look cool if you can crop, rotate, and add filters to it! That’s when I realized that my photo booth setup could be super simple if I encouraged my students, parents, and audience members to take the pictures themselves. 

By eliminating the need for a camera or tripod, I could make a self-serve photo booth. AND… even better, I could use that self-serve photo booth to get some social media traction on Instagram by asking parents and students to tag my studio account when they uploaded their pictures. 

The Set-Up

A photo booth doesn’t have to take up a lot of space or even have the best lighting. (Although halfway decent lighting DOES really help!) We made our photo booth by draping some black fabric over a set of doors. We spruced it up with some hanging swirl decorations that I found in the party section of Pat Catans. 

Our doorway photo booth.

Props were spread out on a table and my students made a little sign to tell people about our photo booth. (In my next photo booth I’ll have another sign telling people about tagging us on Instagram!)

Some of our props!

While our setup looks kind of simple, once you crop and edit the photos… they end up looking really spectacular! Check out the before and after of this shot of Sophia and Julia at their Senior Showcase. 

I hope you try this out!

Spring recitals are right around the corner, but this fun addition is so easy to include. Announce this new addition to your recital in your upcoming emails, and make sure to include it in your recital programs. 

“Dear friends and family — We hope you’ll take a moment to pose with your performer in our photo booth! Be sure to share on Instagram and tag _________! Thank you for attending our recital!”

All you need is some sort of a fabric background, a sign to tell people what is going on, and some cool props! Speaking of cool props…  Since I had a hard time finding music recital themed props, I decided to make some of my own, and they’re now for sale here in my store. 

There are 26 designs in total, plus a sign that you can use to tell audience members to tag you on Instagram! These props are great for recitals, group lessons, and summer camps. I’m sure you’ll find other ways to use them too! 

[product id=”168049″]

Good luck with your recitals and workshops! If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out the one I did about our Spring Recital Playlist. It’s the perfect way to groove it up at your next recital 🙂 

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