Never letting my mate "volunteer" to handle the audio setup for a major event ever again

I am still processing the absolute disaster from Friday night. Organized a massive farewell bash for our manager, about 80 people turned up. My mate convinced me he could handle the audio setup because he has some "semi-pro gear" in his garage.

Long story short, one of his ancient amplifiers blew a fuse twenty minutes into the night. Total silence. We spent the next hour trying to run a massive room off a tiny portable bluetooth speaker while people were literally drifting away out of pure boredom.

Lesson learned the hard way: if you are hosting a blowout with more than 30 people, just pay the money to hire proper commercial sound equipment. Saving a couple of bucks is never worth the stress of watching your event completely die in real-time.