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[jahmusicandlive]

SubWoofers: The Final Chapter

So, in the final chapter of this three-part series, I will be reflecting on the final parts of this journey. Luckily on Monday we had a day off to recover (partly from the event, partly from Festiball).

TUESDAY 8TH

On Tuesday we went back to the site to load everything into the van to go back to the uni. Another task that was meant to be completed was the fencing pickup (HA!). The driver ended up arriving on site at 8:15 when neither us, nor the telehandler operator were there. We ended up having to reschedule this pick up for Thursday, luckily the telehandler company was more than accommodating and happily rescheduled to this day.

We managed to get everything back to the uni in three van loads and I even managed to take home about 40 spare rolls of toilet paper which in my (student) house is like coming home with a winning lottery ticket. We then headed to uni to carry out our debrief, which ended up much longer than we expected. I feel as though I’ve already commented on the main points and so I will leave you with these pictures to show just how many things we can up with that we would have changed. I think we did really well, since the event turned out so well, to come up with this many items. We really had to analyse ourselves, and I think everyone was so pleased with the event that it was easier to pick at the negative things because we were all so invested in how it could be made even better.

We then went for some cocktails because what else could we have done after a debrief?

THURSDAY 10TH

We were finally there… the last day on site. Alan picked me up nice at early at 7:30 and we headed to site. We made sure we were there early because of Tuesday’s pickup situation. We also had to learn how to use a bander and band up all the heras blocks and ped barrier. This process was an interesting one, considering we broke the bander before we even managed to band one thing. Eventually, we got the hang of it (thanks to Craig) and had successfully added another skill to our long list of new things learned during the event.

The fencing pick up driver arrived around 11ish and we then had to watch as the fencing was put back onto the trailer. Once again, ANXIETY and car crash feelings resurfaced. We managed it though and the feeling was incredible. We then had lunch and headed back to Wycombe to get ready for Alan’s leaving drinks. (Will not go into detail, mostly because my memory of the night is lacking substantial chunks, so from that, I’d say it was a fab night).

One final thing I gained out of this whole experience was becoming so much tighter with my coursemates. In my first year, I felt that they had an opinion of me that was not representative of who I was, but I never questioned if my opinion of them was right or wrong. Through working together and actually getting to know each other I can’t wait for third year to get to know this bunch of muppets even better.

“Jessie off comms”

[jahmusicandlive]

SubWoofers: It’s Showtime

The day was here. The day we had been building up to for seven months. The day that had caused endless stress, documents, and spreadsheets. The day that pretty much represented my input and effort of second year (I would say roughly 85% of any of the work I have done this year has been towards this event).

One thing I had already agreed with myself about a week prior to the event was that I was going to stay happy and positive. Generally I find this fairly easy, I tend to have a positive outlook in day to day life, however, I also know that once I allow my stress to work me up into a mess I struggle to get out of that spiral. I like to think that I did a pretty good job of staying happy, which doesn’t really sound like a job at all, but I think as a leader, if you’re smiling your team are more likely to, like a sort of reassurance that things are on track.

As requested I arrived later than the first group. My mum was generously offering her photography services to us and so she picked me up and drove me in for 8:30. Though I had offered, we both knew that her staying at my house wasn’t the best idea as my only downtime (sleep) needed to be comfortable and having another person to focus on wasn’t going to help that. I cannot explain how incredible it was to have my mum at the event, getting to see me in action. I am very close with her and always keep her updated on uni work, so she has been a part of this journey too. I also know from the past 20 years of my life that if I make my way into that stress spiral, there is one person who can ALWAYS get me out of it. Shout out to you mum, you are a living legend.

Anyway, I arrived at 8:30 (though that hadn’t stopped me being up since 5:30 checking documents and communicating with the early team to make sure everything was going according to plan) and went straight out to the field. The site actually looked like a festival site and I was BUZZING. This was also the first day that the whole team would be on site and I would be coordinating approx. 40 people. One of the tasks that I had an active influence on was the build and break roles, and basically deciding who needed to come to the site on which days. This is definitely something I would have changed in hindsight. We knew we would need people that were actually going to turn up and put the work in, but a few more bodies would have definitely made the process quicker and easier.

When security arrived on site I became two radios Jessie (see flattering picture below). At this point, I really had to get my head in the game, as not only did I need to focus on communicating with people in person, I also had two radios to listen to. Oh and not to forget my phone ringing every five minutes with calls from members of the team without radios. The staggered arrival times of team members meant the radio protocol had been mostly swept aside. Thought this didn’t cause any major issues there were definitely hiccups involving people cutting into other conversations or just speaking rather than using a call and response system (“Jessie to X”, “Go ahead”). One item mentioned in the debrief was that everyone should have arrived at the same time, with one briefing for all including health and safety, radio protocol, and any other information necessary.

The rest of the team arrived after 10 and were given the health and safety briefing. Then came the moment that made everything real… Alan (our course leader) turned to the group and said “Jessie is the event manager, Jessie is in charge, any questions go to Jessie and she will either answer them or send you to a person that can answer them”. In that moment I realised how much responsibility I had been given and how much was relying on me, but funnily enough it didn’t send me into a panic, instead, it got me pumped. It also reassured me that people would listen to me, as the day before I felt I struggled a little with enforcing instructions, so for everyone to have been told clearly (by someone of authority) that my instructions needed to be followed was a relief.

Though the arena was not due to open to the public until 1pm, myself, Jess (H&S coordinator) and Michele (THD CEO) were scheduled to carry out a final walk around at 12pm to ensure that all structures were safe and everything was in place ready to open. At around 11:50 I started running around, knowing fully well that there were still bits to do, however, it turned out that most of these tasks were reasonably small and could be achieved in a short time with the help of many hands. One aspect that was an issue, however, was the security. In the build-up to the event I had been responsible for arranging and liaising with security. When I met with the boss of the company I felt assured that they were event specialists and since the event target audience didn’t pose any major threats we chose to use their services. The reality was that, although the boss fully knew what he was talking about and the industry, most of his team didn’t. One or two of the on-site team were great, fully communicative and on top of it… the other were simply bodies. They didn’t have any clue about what was going on and within that there is definitely room for improvement on our part as their briefing clearly needed to be more in-depth, potentially even held a day or two before the event so that it didn’t clash with the madness of the on-site tasks. There was also an inability to follow simple instruction and in the end, it took the CEO going down and shouting at them for them to actually follow instructions. I understand that with it only being a one-day event, by the time you have your head around it, it’s almost over, however they felt very separated like they were their own little group and only their team leader would communicate with me, it didn’t feel like a coherent collaboration.

It was showtime! Generally, most things within the arena were running smoothly, the two areas that were a bit hectic were the box office and arranging the stewards. Though I was event manager I had fairly little to do with the box office as there were box office assistants, who were managed by the box office manager, who was managed by the logistics coordinator, and so there were already people capable of making the decisions and adjustments necessary to improve the situation. When it came to arranging the stewards Remely (staffing coordinator) was on boss mode. Having made the stewarding rota I knew what the plan was, however as we found out, rotas completely change on the day when volunteers drop out and problem areas need more help and attention. There were a handful of times that Remely called me asking for assistance or advice on who to move where, but other than that I felt comfortable in the knowledge that she was on top of it and props to her because it’s an insanely difficult job.

Once most people were through the gates the day was in full swing and everyone seemed to be really enjoying themselves. I’ll set the gif (below) speak for itself. I ended up making multiple radio calls along the lines of “does anything need doing, are there any issues anyone needs help with” because my team were doing their jobs so efficiently.

As the final act performed everyone managed to find 10 minutes or so to experience the show. Some of the team went on the rides, others just sat down in the sun for a bit. I was walking near to the main stage as saw my mum dancing to Ska Souls - This may seem like nothing to some people, but I usually have to drag my mum onto the dance floor and build up her confidence to let go and have a proper boogie, so to see her doing this by herself made me unbelievably happy - and so I had no option but to go and join her for a dance. Little did I know that Dan captured a few seconds of it (and probably doesn’t realise how much this footage means to me).

Once that moment was over I had to round everyone up in the production office to go over breakdown roles. Before I could start, Remely got everyone’s attention and ended up giving me a little thank you speech. My production team got me two bottles of spiced rum (my drink of choice) and a card. I cannot put into words how thankful I am to have been blessed my team members. Though some struggled to find motivation at times, we all came together and smashed it! Thank you to all my production gals (that includes you, Michael) for making my life so much easier, I couldn’t have coped without you guys. And while I’m here thanking people, let’s chuck a thank you over to the other team leaders. Without our weekly meetings and communal stress rants, I don’t think we’d have pulled off this event. You guys were my stability through this rollercoaster and I can’t wait for us to work together in the future, cause I know that whatever we do together, we’ll smash it!

Now I am aware this post is getting fairly long now, so it’s lucky that the breakdown on the day was a fairly swift process. Once everyone’s roles were allocated it was GO! GO! GO! (This was definitely helped by the fact that once we were finished we knew we could rush home and go out to the final night of Festiball). During this time I was pretty much just overseeing everything. The main issues involved the vehicle egress. Because so much planning had gone into the placement of stewards during the event, the post-event placement had been given less attention. In reality, more stewards were needed throughout the exit route, as well as more signage (In a larger font size). Within this egress route, more attention should have also been given to traders, as it was a one-way system it became difficult for them to get back onto the field from the parking area. All problems were solved but we were all so focused on the show itself and the breakdown that the egress definitely should have been looked at in more detail.

Though there were many other highlights and hiccups, this post is already longer than anyone wants it to be, so I will finish up here. One last thing I must write is to Alan. Alan dropped the bombshell on us a few days before the event that he would be leaving the university at the end of this term. Now, if you had told me this a year ago, I would have been concerned for the future of my course, but I wouldn’t have been particularly personally affected. Over the past year (the past 5 months in particular) I have grown to have the biggest respect for you and I am truly gutted that you are leaving. You have done so much for this course and this event and I know that in the future I will look back knowing that you will have had a major impact on my work ethic and my career, so again, thank you so much.

[jahmusicandlive]

SubWoofers: The Build

It has been a week since SubWoofers 2018 and I am still on such a high from it. So much has happened, so I'm going to be writing three posts focusing on the build, show, and break.

FRIDAY 4TH

Two days before show our build started. This is when I changed from production coordinator to event manager. The main difference was that I was no longer just managing my team, instead, I had to coordinate everyone which was a bit weird but soon felt normal. As I've mentioned previously, I am naturally quite confident and assertive, however, this is a side that I more commonly show to people that know me, since I wouldn't ever want to sound rude bossing someone around. Once there were things to get on with and tasks to delegate I fell into a comfortable position.

We started by marking out the structures and spaces with grass paint. The portaloos had arrived and been placed before we arrived, and so once the second stage marque was up we all took a moment and realised it was actually happening. A few of us ended staying up until after 7pm waiting for the fencing to arrive. I didn't mind staying as I was just so excited to be building our little festival. The fencing delivery summed up in one word was ANXIETY. It was like a car crash, horrible to watch, but you can’t bring yourself to look away. The fencing was probably the most difficult planning aspect for two reasons. The first reason being that unless we wanted to fork out £1,200 for a delivery trailer with a hiab (machinery used to take the fencing off of the trailer) we needed to find a telehandler and a licensed operator. This task became even more difficult when reason two was that the fencing company would not give us a time of delivery, so we had to hire them for the whole day on both Friday and Tuesday. We managed to secure a telehandler and operator on the Tuesday before the show, so incredibly last minute. Craig (telehandler operator) was incredibly patient, stayed on late until the fencing arrived and was generally really helpful, so thank you, Craig. I then went home and carried on with spreadsheets (The spreadsheets never end) … (and I secretly never want them to end). The fencing driver ended up forgetting all of the heras clips and so Alan had to go back to site at 6am the next morning to meet him and collect them.

This day ended up being very important to me. It was not only my first on-site day of the festival season but also the first day of my life experiencing life as an event manager (which I reckon is pretty cool to be able to say).

SATURDAY 5TH

- ONE DAY TO GO -

With just over 24 hours until the event opened I took the opportunity to go to the library at 8am to print off some last minute documents. Once I left the library that was it, it was all on-site work from then on. I met the rest of the Saturday team and we headed to site. It should be noted that our event ran on the same week as Festiball, the biggest event of the Student Union’s calendar. Festiball runs over three days, with the final day being the day of our event. Most of my coursemates went out on the Friday night, and I know a lot of the Saturday team regretted that. Some even went out on Saturday night which was simply not an option for me, but there’s always going to be various levels of investment and that’s fine. (Also, I’m sure other people can go for a relaxed evening and get home in time for a bit of sleep, but I am not other people).

I thought it was going to feel natural leading again but it was seriously hot and keeping motivation up was tricky. Lauren and I organised the production office, most of the team took on the fencing and the stage came in!

An issue that I wasn’t expecting to face was the ingress of the rides (dodgems and Miami trip). I ended up walking around the entire site working out with the rides contractor how we were going to get the dodgems in. It worked in the end (evidenced below). The contractors had to go back to get the Miami trip from the previous site, and since I had to lock up the site I had to wait till they were back. Similarly to the day before, I didn’t mind staying, and it felt right, but it was then requested by my lecturer that I was to arrive later than planned on the show day to make up for it. I could only bring myself to arrive an hour after scheduled because I didn’t want to miss anything.

Though the build was relatively short for a music festival, I managed to learn so much, not only about practical applications of knowledge but also about being an event manager and making the decisions in an environment in which the decision you make count.

Then it was just a few hours until show day...

[jahmusicandlive]

SubWoofers: It’s next week!

So since the last blog post a lot has happened and I want to acknowledge it all before the week-of-event stress gets to me on Monday (currently 10 days away from the event).

So last Monday I received a promising email about possible work this summer, it motivated me massively, as at this point I was trying to get my Intellectual Property assignment finished and out of the way.

Tuesday started well, I spoke on the phone to the person that emailed me, and ended up being invited to visit their office in Soho on Friday to sit down and talk about my experience and what they could potentially offer. I went to uni with stacks of motivation and sat down to work on the Event Management Plan (EMP). As I was working on this suddenly the reality of how much I had to do in a short amount of time really set in. By the time our Event Planning workshop started I was completely in my head about it and the last thing I wanted was 3 hours of talking about all of the things still to do. I like to think that I usually have a positive outlook and that if there’s a problem the best thing to do is work on a solution, but in that moment the fake enthusiasm just wasn’t possible and I just felt like crying for 3 hours. I had to leave the room to call my mum because it was one of those moment where nothing was going to work like  a motivational mum speech. As well as motivation, my mum is one of the few people I feel completely comfortable showing vulnerability and weakness to. She made a very good point that there was likely to be one moment for every event I ever do that feels like that, and soon after that I felt it blow over me as I accepted the feeling and moved on. At the end of the session Adrienne caught my eye and just mouthed the word “drink?” to me from across the room. Shout out to her because it sorted me right out.

On Thursday morning I visited the offices of the Security company we are using for the event. I’m pretty sure it was the first time I’ve actually gone to a meeting with a potential contractor before, so I felt quite professional. I was nervous as I know there would probably be some questions I wouldn’t be sure of the answer to, but of course he understood we are students and are learning. It felt like a proper industry ‘experience’, which is exactly why I chose to study this course at Bucks, because we receive proper industry experience that is fully transferable to future jobs. On Thursday I also finished and turned in my Intellectual Property assignment.

Friday rolled around and was the third day of major heat (I was living for it). I made my way to Soho for my meeting and was back in Wycombe in the library by 12. I did some work towards the event and then had a team leaders meeting. I definitely didn’t realise how much extra time I’d be putting in as a team leader, and to be honest, I don’t think any of us did. I’ve definitely work that I work much better to internal deadlines, like meetings, for example. We have our workshop on a Tuesday, and team meetings and team leader meetings on Fridays. I then have two solid days a week to work towards. On Friday afternoon I was having a BBQ with my housemates and received a call regarding the earlier meeting in Soho. I have received an offer of some amazing work, but I don’t want to write much on that as I don’t want to jinx it.

The point of this blog post was that between waking up on Monday and going to sleep on Friday, I experienced one of my lowest lows this year, but also one of my highest highs. Things have a way of working themselves out (with hard work).

My new favourite quote is: “Though times don’t last, tough people do.”

[jahmusicandlive]

SubWoofers Update

I am now past the point of being able to count on my hands how many times I have sat down to write a blog post, and without fail each time have found something more ‘urgent’ to be done regarding the event. We are now less than a month (25 days to be exact) away from show day *Insert sound clip of frantic screaming*. We have made a lot of progress but there is still a ton to do, except now we all have other coursework deadlines and hand ins and there is definitely not enough hours in a day or days in a week anymore.

It has been so long now since i have written a blog post that I couldn’t possibly fit everything that has happened in, so lets start with some bullet points…

We have now booked medics, welfare, waste disposal, road signs, marquees, wristbands and an accessible viewing platform.

We are incredibly close to booking security, fencing, radios, toilets, stages (and everything that would be involved in the stages) amongst other smaller details.

Each team leader presented to the The Hearing Dogs (THD) team, giving them an overview of each area. I ended up having to do my presentation twice which was quite nerve racking but they seemed to be fairly content with what we presented.

My main struggle at the moment is balancing my work load. This has been evident throughout the academic year, however now we’re this close to the event I’d love to be able to give all my time to it, but we have 3 other ‘hefty’ assignments to hand in for other modules in the same time frame and I am behind on all of them. The difficulty now is that I know everyone else is busy with these assignments, and so I understand when they can't get things completed straight away.

To attempt to combat this I have tried to step back a little from certain roles and focus on the management and pulling all the info together. I love being a leader and helping my team but I have started to wonder if I have been too helpful (bear with me, I'm not just boosting my ego). I've noticed that people will come to me with problems they are facing with whatever task (which is great, don't suffer in silence) but there's a lack of problem solving happening. It feels as though I have to find a solution for most problems without suggestions or thoughts from those facing the problems, but as happy as I am to help, there needs to be some sort of input of ideas from others.  

A previous blog post which I started and never posted spoke about our changes in lecturers and I feel as though that's something worth writing about and reflecting on. At the end of last term the lecturer who was very experienced in events and was focused on guiding the production and logistics teams left the university to go back into the industry full time. When I found out he was leaving I was honestly gutted. He was my favourite lecturer and I feel I had a lot more to learn from him. I went through phases of feeling worried and doubtful, since he had left us midway through, but he assured us he had absolute faith in his replacement, and this assurance was just. His replacement is still fully within the industry and is spinning more plates than I can count which is both positive and negative. It's great because he has current knowledge of guidelines, legislation, contractors and methods and is able to bring so much expertise to the table. The downside is that because he's so busy there have been points where we have felt a bit lost (because he is unable to be at the workshop every week). We do however live in a world of instant communication through email and phone calls, however I know the rest of my team have rarely contacted him, where as if he was here a lot they would have no trouble asking things.

As I realise that it has been days since I wrote this and convinced myself I’d come back and write more, I thought I’d do the smart thing and post this now so that I can continue to write shorter posts more often in the final build up to the event. (I said at the beginning we are 25 days away, we’re now 20 days away)

[jahmusicandlive]

Group Survey

One of my personal aims within this module was to develop my leadership skills. A way in which I thought I may be able to improve was by creating a short survey for my team members to complete with the aim of receiving anonymous feedback, as well as information on possible methods of motivating them. I asked the following questions:

What environment do you work best in? Is this the same environment you brainstorm best in? If not write that environment as well. (E.g. study rooms, the pub, on the sofa in a lounge, etc)

What do I do as a team leader that works for you?

What do I do as a team leader that doesn't work for you? (Please include how I can improve or what would make it better for you)

What are your favourite snacks?

Are there any areas/terminology that you'd like me to go over? (Don't worry if you don't know if I know it or not we can work it out together)

In this context an extra challenge is the fact that these people are also my friends, some of which close (I even live with one of them), so even though it was anonymous I still feel as though some of them may be holding back in the attempt to avoid upsetting or offending me.

From this it seems as though most team members like using the study rooms where we hold our weekly meetings, however a number of people mentioned other ‘comfy’ places. As a trial I will plan a meeting to be held at a coffee shop or somewhere casual for a ‘brainstorming’ type session. This is with the hope that people will be more motivated to attend the meetings as they are less formal.

So after seeing these responses I feel this question may come across as being a little egotistical, but this could also be due to how lovely my team are. The reason I asked this question was to be made aware of what I shouldn’t change and what works for my team members. It seems as though my team like the way I run meetings and keeping stuff organised. I personally feel that I do organise the team well, however I also feel that I like to come across as having everything under control and this brings forward another personal goal. I have noticed through this module that I don’t ever like to come across as struggling or out of my depth, I want people to know I’m capable, however I need to start acknowledging when I need help and asking for it.

This question really was the main part of the survey and unfortunately I didn’t get too much constructive criticism, but there are some changes I will make. Firstly, I will be sharing all minutes and notes with all team members as I had assumed they took their own but it makes sense for us all to be working off the same notes. Secondly at the end of each meeting I will ask the team if there is any terminology or areas they are unsure of (though of course questions will be welcome throughout).

As for the two final questions, the answers were straightforward. For the terminology most did not require any explanations but for those that did, it will be gone over in the next meeting. As for the snack this is just helpful to me when extra motivation is needed for meetings.

[jahmusicandlive]

BUCKS LIVE 2018: Part 1

We started second year with the knowledge that by the spring term we would have planned and executed a daytime family event as part of our event management module. What we weren’t aware of at the time was that The Hearing Dogs Trust had contacted our course leader after our Winterland event last December and proposed a partnership between Bucks Live and the charity to create a live music event raising awareness for hearing loss and how to enjoy live music whilst protecting your hearing. This instantly changed the feeling of the event as we were now representing an established brand and had their reputation as well as our own to uphold. One of the main benefits of this to us is our freedom of choice and our ability to take advantage of their 27 acre site.

We were asked to give preferences as to which team we wanted to be in: talent and entertainment, site logistics and decor, production or marketing. I chose production which I was excited about after experiencing a number of fully functional production office this summer. One of the first tasks once in our groups was deciding on a team leader. If you have read my blog post on Winterland you will know that I was the team leader of the talent team last year and came across a number of hurdles that I had to get over and so this time I was going to take a step back assuming that someone else would be willing to take the team leader role. (Right now it needs to be noted to those that don’t know me very well or at all, I am someone that finds it fairly easy to naturally lead in many situations, so often times I lead situations without realising). We sat down and no one in the group put themselves forward. I told the group that I would be willing to take the role if no one else would do it as others missed out on the chance last year. No-one volunteered, so I ended up becoming the team leader anyway, and I am quite happy about that (and so far I think I've done a lot better than last year).

Now that we were settled into our groups we started thinking about the many different jobs and roles that would need completing in the preparation of the event and started designating responsibilities. One thing I instantly found difficult was delegating. I have full confidence in every member of the team, but I still found it quite difficult just letting something go and not doing it myself. I start to worry about whether they’ve found the best quotes etc. But over the weeks my confidence about trusting their judgement has definitely grown. 

The other main issue I have experienced so far in the process is the way in which I react when people in the team don’t put 100% in. For example if a large number of members of the team miss a group meeting I struggle to know how far to push them as many of them are my friends, so keeping the level of friendship outside of the event as well as keeping a level of leadership within the event has been challenging. I am trying to find ways to positively encourage my team members as I believe this is a vital part of being a leader, but I am struggling to think of imaginative ways of doing this. I know that if I wasn’t team leader I would probably miss the odd meeting, I’m also aware that everyone has jobs, coursework and general lives to live. But it becomes frustrating when I try to cater for everyone’s time availabilities and meetings are still missed. This is something that I’m still working on and one of my goals by the end of the event is to be stable in my distinction between leader and friend.

In terms of our progress so far as a team we now have a lot of different roles and responsibilities identified and allocated including: wristbanding, marquees and structures, stages, waste management, portaloos, barriers, welfare, medics, security, portacabins, and accessibility - and as you can imagine the list goes on. My main responsibilities so far, besides leading the team have been security, medics and working on the site map.

I never intended to do the site map, but I stumbled into the role naturally as I just wanted to get a very basic one together for my use. Along the way, as it became more and more detailed I started sharing it with other people and almost automatically became in charge of the site map task. Though I didn’t expect this I have really enjoyed this job so far as it definitely brings the ideas and hard work to life visually. It has taken quite a few drawings, and a long time experimenting with online software programmes, but  I’m learning a lot (including how to use CAD) and here are some of the results so far:

In my opinion the event is really coming together now and I’m so excited about carrying on this journey, and looking forward to seeing the finished result. I’m going to aim to post once a month (dependant upon progress) to show the continuation of this adventure and I hope you enjoy following along with me!

[jahmusicandlive]

Reading 2017

Now that I’m finally back to ‘normal’ life after an incredible summer it’s time to reflect on what I’d say was the most exciting step towards my future career so far, and that was Reading Festival 2017.

Having already spent my summer on festival sites at Download and Latitude I was ready to finally complete the internship I was originally put forward for at the beginning of the year as health and safety intern. Since I’d already experienced interning for Festival Republic I felt more confident in my knowledge of the way shows were run, and more comfortable with the idea of working and living on site with people I’d never met. My only concern was that there was only one intern on site (me) but that turned out to be false…

So I arrived on site on the 3rd of August (show wasn’t until the 25th) and was met by Noel and Lauren who I had already met at both other shows. We went on a quick site tour to get an idea of what we were working with and any obvious issues we’d face straight away. After the site tour they told me about a decision that had been made and this was the most exciting news of my summer… I was going to be H&S assistant rather than intern which meant I was officially employed by Festival Republic. I was and still am over the moon about this, especially since I had dedicated my summer to interning with them and just to feel recognition for the hard work I’d put in felt so satisfying and motivated me to work even harder.

My role involved a number of tasks, the most important being to give all of the H&S inductions to every person coming onto the site to work. I was placed in my own cabin to carry out the inductions as well as any other tasks I needed to complete. At first I made myself a ‘cheat sheet’ with all of the key points I had to say to remind myself but after a while the information was ingrained into my brain. My favourite thing about this role was getting to meet every person that came onto site, and if it was quiet in the cabin I was able to ask people about their roles which gave me an even larger insight into how many different things need to be done to put on a festival of that size. Some of my other tasks included preparing all of the first aid kits to HSE standard, more signage (you can never escape signage), logging all of the induction and vehicle pass information and receiving all deliveries to site that were not on lorries or pallets (my cabin ended up looking like a depo).

Many of the days at the beginning were quiet and slow, but as other shows finished and we got closer to show it picked up dramatically. Creating a system in which I could induct people and sign them out whilst others were coming in for inductions was tricky at first, but as with everything a pattern soon emerged which made it easier, as well as Lauren coming to lighten the load and induct others at the same time. One person I was not expecting to induct was my dad. He came to site as he was doing the load in and load out for the main stage and it was incredibly surreal telling him which rules he must follow and just generally being in a working environment with him.

One of the best moments of the month was walking around the arena before opening on the Friday. Everything was so perfect and untouched, there was no rubbish on the ground and everyone within the arena was just getting on with finishing touches. It was the calm before the storm.

Much to my surprise the next morning was the same, though there were a few H&S issues we had to fix, such as hazardous holes in the ground which had to be filled with woodchip and large tent pegs that needed to be covered with foam padding again.

During show days I was actually quite lucky and managed to see a fair amount of the festival within the arena. Because no inductions were required over show days I was dotting about helping with small tasks in different areas. I also ended up helping out a charity called Music Support and found out a lot about the charity which is a support system for anyone working within the music industry struggling with an addiction or emotional and mental health issues, giving them a safe place to go, whether it be an artist or roadie or anyone else in the industry. I was really interested in this as the welfare for customers is so focused on, yet the welfare of workers can be forgotten. I also managed to catch some of the performances over the weekend, but I will be writing a separate post about that shortly.

Overall this was definitely the most amazing opportunity I’ve ever had. I genuinely felt as though I was part of the team and that I played an important role in the build up of the festival. It felt incredible knowing that what I was doing was helping to build such a large and renowned event that so many people got so much joy and so many memories out of, which is the reason I wanted to do this, because I had so many amazing memories from events similar to this. Also a massive thank you to Lauren for being the best boss ever and really supporting me to complete the role whilst I was still learning. I’ve had the most incredible summer at these 3 shows and I can’t wait to see what next summer will bring.

[jahmusicandlive]

Latitude 2017

On the 24th April I moved back home from uni halls with the intention of finally spending over a month at home with my friends and family before going off to Reading in August. By the 25th I had been asked if I wanted to intern at Latitude starting as soon as possible, so four days later I was on the Latitude site ready to start another internship with Festival Republic, this time doing licensing.

Half of me felt more comfortable this time as I had already interned with FR and knew how the operation worked a little better, however half of me felt more nervous as there were a number of people on site who I had already met at Download, but I didn’t know the other interns as they were from another uni (unlike at Download where they were both doing the same course as me at the same uni). I had also just completed my licensing module at uni and so I had a little prior knowledge to build on but still wasn’t too sure what to expect.

The licensing cabin was on the other side of the site to production and the other offices, so until security control came in it was very quiet and quite excluded from the mania of production, which should be a good thing but personally I love the madness and when I’m in a quiet environment I tend to find it more difficult to focus. Everyone in the office was absolutely lovely once again and I settled in fairly quickly. This time I also had my own desk, phone, FR email, etc. and started to feel more like an employee than an intern (though of course I was still an intern).

My responsibilities included signage, catering tickets and keeping on top of documents like the contact sheet. As well as this I was also helping others in the team complete their responsibilities. The catering tickets were familiar and I was comfortable completing that task, however when it came to signage that was a different story.

At Latitude all of the signage to do with directions and locations was all hand painted and completed by people specifically there to do that job, however any signage to do with rules or guidelines e.g challenge 25, no smoking, banned items etc. had to be printed, laminated and put up by licensing (aka me). At first the job seemed fairly straightforward, there was already a spreadsheet from the previous year that I simply needed to go off alter slightly. After about 3 or 4 days of non stop printing and laminating it was starting to become a bit tedious and the laminators obviously thought so too as they started smoking and had to be fixed. At this point I couldn’t wait to get out of the office and put the signage up in the gorgeous sunshine.

I finally finished the signage and was ready to start putting it up. The first day was great, Robbie and I went out and did all of the signage for the wristband exchange gates.

The next day was stormy with thunder, lightning and a lot of rain and I was off out to put up signage on my own. The only flaw in this plan was that in spite of having a map I didn’t actually know where the locations were, and once finally at a location I didn’t know exactly where the signs were meant to go. This slowed down the process a lot but I carried on and thought it was still on track.

The next day the weather was terrible once again and I went out on my own once again. I got to one of the first locations and one of the bosses came and told me I couldn’t drive on the grass because of the rain (understandably) but about 2 minutes after he left it set in that I was going to have to walk around the entire site in the storm with all these signs, cable ties, a hole puncher, a staple gun and scissors on my own. I got myself into a little bit of a state as I suddenly worried that it wouldn't get done in time and since it was my responsibility it would be on me and because I was trying to make the best impression possible it really got me stressed. In no time at all Laura and Robbie both came to my rescue and we all walked round together and did the same the next day.

I think it’s safe to say we all underestimated the signage but we completed it and I definitely appreciated the team around me more than anything else at that point. The fact that they instantly helped and treated it as their own problem as well not just mine made everything so much less stressful and I fully felt a part of a team.

By the time all of the signage was up show days had managed to creep up on us and all of my responsibilities had been completed so for me it was a question of helping the rest of the team and responding to anything as it happened. 

Having been given two guest tickets my mum and sister were able to come up and enjoy the festival so in my off time I was able to wander round the festival with them which was lovely after a few stressful days. I also got to see Jack Garratt live which was INSANE and would fully recommend seeing him live to any one that gets the chance.

All in all Latitude was a completely different experience to Download, both within work and the social aspect outside of work (there was a fire with sofas around it at crew camp) and the knowledge I gained was invaluable. Shout out my “Lat Lic”  team, genuinely amazing people.

Next stop: Reading Festival.

[jahmusicandlive]

Download 2017

Well... It’s been what now feels like an eternity since I was the production intern at Download Festival over May and June 2017 and so much has happened since that it’s taken me months to post this but here we go.

12 days before Download 2017 I was asked if I wanted to attend as the production intern. Obviously I said yes straight away as I already had the possibility of interning at Reading, I thought two festivals would be even better. So I arrived on the Monday before show week, it was horrible weather and I had driven for hours. As soon as I got there I was so welcomed. Trish (production coordinator) gave me a huge hug and I was instantly so happy with the choice I'd made.

Everyone in the offices were really friendly and I settled into the role. I had a few personal responsibilities of my own such as catering tickets and also generally helped other people achieve their requirements. The first few days were fairly slow and there wasn't a whole lot for me to do, but it picked up once we got busier. I loved the mania in the production office, everything was go go go all the time and I'm definitely used to that environment at home.

After a while the passes office which was attached onto the production office cabin needed some help with packing up passes for different employees and contractors, so I moved over to the passes office temporarily. Or so I thought. I ended up helping passes from then on and ended up being the passes runner which basically meant I sat in a pop up outside the office and waited for people to collect their passes. It sounded really slow and dull at first but I ended up loving it. It was all about talking directly to people and I got to meet and chat to every different kind of person working on site, from site crew through to people filming the performances.

As far as accommodation went we stayed in things called 'bunkabins' which is basically a portable cabin with two beds, shelves, a lockable door and an en suite with a shower. For me this was an upgrade from student halls. My roommate called Jill was also in the production office and she was an absolute angel. She made me feel so comfortable and always helped me with whatever issue I had. We didn't have much down time but when we did, chilling out at the bunkabins was pretty much the way to go. Most nights people would sit out side so you just had to sit on your doorstep and you'd be socialising.

On show days the production office was fairly quiet (in comparison to the build) as it was no longer about planning but rather about reacting. As well as this, most people had picked up their passes, so there wasn’t a whole lot to do which meant I spent the weekend generally directing and chatting to people and got to spend a bit of time in the arena. I managed to catch Sum 41 and Aerosmith which was amazing and got to see a festival I hadn't been to before which was also a great experience.

There was a day or two that I had a moment when I questioned why I was having to do so many hours unpaid (it was more than 12 daily) but then I'd suddenly realise how stupid I was being and that I CHOSE to take this AMAZING opportunity. It was definitely the most work or effort or energy I've used in a 2 week period in my life but it was so worth it. I learnt so much about putting theory into practice and seeing the actual long, stressful side of the festival but the people working there were so amazing and helpful, they made me know I was on the right track. Anyone who's considering going into this industry needs to do this sort of internship or volunteering. It is priceless you literally could not pay to get this sort of hands on training. I had an amazing time and thank you to all my amazing production gals and the passes office for providing me with the best 2 weeks ever.

Next stop: Latitude.

[jahmusicandlive]

But the Grammy Awards are not racist, right? 💅🏽

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The Specials

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This is what music festivals would look like if we removed the men 

Festival season is upon us. That means, like previous years, we’re about to see a whole lot of unsavory style choices, hilariously misguided corporate sponsorships and most importantly, a glaring look at sexism in the music industry. The audience doesn’t look like this.

[jahmusicandlive]

30 Year Evolution of Music Industry Change By Medium.