The warm-up is where reputations are quietly made, and it's the slot most DJs get wrong. Handed an early set, too many openers treat it as their moment to prove range — peak-time bangers at 10pm to a near-empty floor, leaving the headliner with nowhere to go. A good warm-up does the opposite. The job isn't to be the best DJ of the night; it's to build the room so that whoever's on after you walks into something alive.

That means playing for where the night is, not where you wish it was. Slower, deeper, more patient — let the energy climb gradually instead of forcing it. Read who's actually in the room: people arriving, getting drinks, easing in. Your job is to make that feel good, hold a groove, and leave headroom for the energy to rise after you. Resist the urge to drop your biggest tracks; save them. The discipline to hold back is exactly what marks out a DJ promoters trust with the slot.

The etiquette around it matters just as much as the music. Turn up early, be sound and respectful to the headliner and the booth, and end where you're meant to end — don't run over your slot or hand over a floor that's already peaked. Do this well and you become the opener promoters request by name, because a good warm-up makes their whole night easier. Quiet competence in this slot opens more doors than showing off ever will.