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The Journey to Becoming a DJ and MC
DJ’s can be unique individuals, to say the least. Celestial Event’s owner, Event Host, MC and resident DJ, Lou Drakulich, is no exception. Lou was born and raised on Chicago’s South Side and has enjoyed and collected music since childhood.
The first major event Lou can recall producing was a high school graduation party when he was 17. He had a live band, in concert, on the rooftop of the beach house pavilion at a local Chicago beach. This took some doing as the event was not authorized by the school, the city or the park authority. Fortunately it went off with out a problem and was a huge hit.
 Like many DJs, Lou first took on the tasks of organizing events and mixing music as a hobby. For well over 20 years, during his career with the police department, he became the go to guy for organizing cop parties as well. This often included arranging the food, beverages and the location along with mixing the music and supplying the audio equipment. Talk about a tough crowd to please! Lou had to learn how to mix the music to satisfy a variety of musical tastes without offending any of them. At one point he actually saved his mixes on digital stereo videotape and plugged just a VCR into the PA to avoid the problems that occurred when someone commandeered the CD player and started blasting his favorite music all night.
Lou was assigned as the District’s Community Policing Press Officer. He edited, created and produced the local community policing newspaper and took part in numerous meetings. Most of the audiences were friendly but some not. In any case it was an excellent public speaking and confidence building experience.
Soon after, Lou went global as his police career took him to places like Bosnia and Kosovo where he worked in United Nations Police Democracy Building Missions. Here he patrolled some very mean streets, eventually became the regional press/media officer and, of course, he threw parties and hosted events.
These were multinational events where the attendees could be from any of some 40+ nations. Again Lou learned how to mix the music so not to create an international incident while keeping the party alive and everyone happy. Some were only social events while others were to honor departing groups of officers or to present awards. In spite of the occasional political differences between the participating nations, good times were had by all!
As “Press Officer”, Lou also co hosted a radio show, appeared on the local television weekly and occasionally addressed members of the international press. The experience allowed him to further develop his confidence and public speaking skills and it gave him the tools to keep things on track even when someone wanted to derail it.
In 2006, Lou Drakulich started "Real West Audio" with the intention of providing audio support for events and musicians passing through the Arkansas River Valley of Colorado. Lou invested in Bose audio equipment and decided to offer high quality DJ services as well. He thought a "Baby Boomer" DJ might be older than most clients would prefer so he considered hiring, training and equipping a younger DJ to do the weddings and parties.
Katja, Lou's wife (A savvy wedding and event planner herself), told Lou he should be the DJ and the Emcee for all the events, especially weddings. She felt, Lou had done it all and much more before so why hire a younger and less experienced person? Katja understood, many brides appreciated an experienced DJ for their special day and those hosting banquets or other events definitely looked for experience.
 Katja was right! Lou took on a few jobs to test the waters. They went extremely well and immediately, through word of mouth, the gigs started rolling in. DJ'ing & Hosting Weddings and Events quickly became the focus of Real West Audio and the following year the business name was changed to the more appropriate "Celestial Event". The rest is history.
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