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DEBRIEF

After the SubWoofers day was over and everything was cleaned up, we still had one last lecture to go to. We separated into our group one last time and talked about the event. We talked about what we thought went well and what we thought could've gone better. There was a lot of examples on each side. But all in all, we still knew we could be proud of ourselves for what we accomplished.

I learned a lot of things from the past couple months and I’m so grateful for the opportunity that has presented itself. I learned that even if things don’t go as planned, you have to make do with what you’ve got. As an example of that, we got told last minute that one of the acts wouldn’t show up. The team sorted that out brilliantly! When we didn’t have enough people at the box office, we still managed to get all of those people in. I wish we had more pieces of fence or event better pedestrian ingress plan, but we managed to handle everything even if things weren’t perfect. I also learned that when you get a job role that you have never done before and it scares you, you just have to delve in and do it as nobody is going to do it for you. It was hard for me to take charge at the beginning of the event because I thought there were more qualified people for the job but, in the end, I did it. I didn’t have a choice so I did it. I realized that I wouldn’t have gotten this role if I wasn’t capable of being good at it. I also learned that even over 30 people that don’t really have much in common other than loving music can come together and do something amazing. I am so grateful for that. The event has brought our course closer than it’s ever been and I am incredibly sad that the year is ending (I never thought I’d say that after a whole year of uni). I have also learned that moving fencing is the most annoying thing ever, that carrying tables with chairs on them can be really dangerous and that having walkie-talkies for a day is a lot of fun. 

So I would like to thank everyone who had any part in SubWoofers, whether that’s from Bucks new uni or from the Hearing Dogs. Here’s to SubWoofers 2019. 

[kurkovab]

SubWoofers 2018

On the day of the event, we got on site at three different times. I got on around 10 am, with the official start being at 1 pm. The first thing we did was a quick briefing and sign up. I also signed up for my radio and then headed up to the box office. 

I sorted out the queuing with the fencing and tried to collect everything I had on my checklist for the day. Just as we finished fencing off the queues I was told the some of the fencing was needed by the first stage, therefore meaning that the whole queuing system would be different. There were more last minute changes but before I knew it it was half 12 and people started queuing up. The stewards I needed were nowhere to be seen as well as the security that needed to be there at all times. I also didn’t have the ticket scanners and apparently, they wouldn’t be needed. This was decided as not many tickets were sold, but on the day we had over a thousand of pre-bought tickets. We got a list of people who purchased them, thinking we’d have enough time to tick them off – we didn’t.

When we finally opened at 1 pm, the craziness began. I honestly don’t know where the time’s gone but when I next looked at my phone it was 4 pm and there were around 3 000 people on site – crazy! After the initial 2-3 hour rush it was quite calm at the box office and so I switched with one of my course mates who was there with me and went for a quick break. When I left the box office and saw all of the people having fun and enjoying their day, I was beyond happy. It was an amazing, sunny day (thankfully).  There were of course loads of hiccups during the day but I think we managed it very well. Everyone I met on my way through the site could believe it – the lecturers most of all.

After the site shut at 7 pm and the last of people were leaving, we all met in the production office and got instructions as to who would clean up what. I, along with 4 more people did the box office and the search lanes and marquee. Afterwards, we helped with whatever was needed. At around 9 it was all cleaned up and no one could believe what just happened that day. It was time to celebrate. 

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LEADING UP TO THE EVENT

After Christmas break, we met with our new supervisor for the event, James. I think I can talk for everyone in the logistics and production teams when I say he’s been amazing in helping us with the event. But as we were getting closer  May (the month of the event), things started to change. It suddenly became day event only, meaning my fireworks weren’t no longer needed. After that, I tried helping where I could. I did some research into food traders and mainly signage and paint. I spent some time in the workshop working on it.  I was also asked to help with a bit of marketing, looking for sponsors and possible raffle prices. But Easter holidays came and when we came back it was suddenly on 3 weeks to the event. Those were, I think, the most stressful three weeks of our lives for everyone involved (or it felt like it at the time, looking back now I think we handled it very well).

We realized the event management plan needed to be done and so logistics and production all took part in that. I was told I’d be the box office manager on the day of the event. I wrote up a box office plan, the queuing system and also how many stewards we’d need, who will do what and so on. I also wrote up the cash handling part as I knew I’d be the one dealing with money. Afterward, I helped with the major incident plan. This is what I’ve been doing for the 2 weeks leading up to the event as well as doing some more work in the workshop. 

[kurkovab]

A few photos from the Royal Blood concert I went to last week ❤️

[kurkovab]

THE BEGINNINGS OF OUR 2nd YEAR EVENT

At the end of my first year at uni, I knew we would be organizing another event in year two. But when all of us came back after the summer holidays and were told by our lecturers what we would be doing in the next 6-7 months, I don’t think anyone expected it. We would be working alongside the Hearing Dogs charity to do the first-ever event off campus. This started with a few trips up to the Hearing Dogs. The first weeks were just about getting to know them and about them getting to know us and telling us what type of events they had previously put on.

We then got separated into 4 groups. Those being production, logistics, talent, and marketing. I was put into the logistics team which, when I look back at it, I’m really happy for. Immediately we started working on things that we’ll need or that we might need. Originally thinking it would be a day/night time event, I suggested fireworks. I did all the research and presentations to the class, basically choosing which ones we’d get. Afterwards, it was all about inflatables, rides and traders. We knew there was a lot to get through, but Christmas came in earlier than expected and with it came the news of one of our lecturers was leaving. This was really scary to us, as he was working on the event with us and we couldn’t imagine anyone else helping us with it. So we were assured that someone would come in and help us for the second semester, and all went home for a Christmas break. 

[kurkovab]

Final Part

22. A song that you remember from your childhood:

CALIFORNICATION by Red Hot Chili Peppers

23. A song that you think everybody should listen to:

Every song on my playlist!!

24. A song by a band you wish was still together:

FAMOUS LAST WORDS by My Chemical Romance

25. A song by an artist no longer living:

ONE MORE LIGHT by Linkin Park (Chester Bennington)

26. A song that makes you want to fall in love:

ALL I WANT by Kodaline

27. A song that breaks your heart:

CANCER by My Chemical Romance

28. A song by an artist with a voice that you love:

COME AS YOU ARE by Nirvana

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Part 3

15. A song that is a cover by nother artist:

THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD by Nirvana (originally by David Bowie)

16. One of your favourite classical songs:

JOURNEY TO THE CROSS ROADS composed by Howard shore

17. A go to karaoke duet song:

BREAKING FREE by the High School Musical cast

18. A song from the year that you were born:

KARMA POLICE by Radiohead

19. A song that makes you think about life:

21 GUNS by Green Day

20. A song that has many meanings to you:

BETWEEN THE BARS by Elliot Smith

21. A favourite song with a person’s name in the title:

THE ADVENTURES OF RAIN DANCE MAGGIE by Red Hot Chili Peppers

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Part 2

8. A song about drugs or alcohol:

COMFORTABLY NUMB by Pink Floyd

9. A song that makes you happy:

THE ZEPHYR SONG by Red Hot Chili Peppers

10. A song that makes you sad:

LETTERS TO THE LOST by Counterfeit

11. A song that you never get tired of:

MISS YOU by Blink 182

12- A song from your preteen years:

COMPLICATED by Avril Lavigne

13. One of your favourite 80′s songs:

PARADISE CITY by Guns N’ Roses

14. A song that you would love to have played at your wedding:

ONE by Kodaline

[kurkovab]

The Music Challenge

I recently found a thing called “The Music Challange” online and thought it would be a great idea for my blog (well.. I didn’t really think of the blog but I loved the idea of the challenge. It was my friend who suggested posting it, so here I am). 

As for what the music challenge actually is.. it is a list of song descriptions, one for each day in a month. And to every song’ s description you put a song that you like. I feel like I didn’t explain it very well but you’ll get it as you read on. 

I decided to post it in weeks, as daily there wouldn’t really be much to post. So here we go with week n.1:

1. A song with a colour in the title:

BLACK HOLE SUN by Soundgarden

2. A song with a number in the title:

- I know this might count as cheating.. but it is the official name. It’s not my fault Pink Floyd’s songs are so xxx long.

ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL, PART 2 by Pink Floyd 

3. A song that reminds you of summertime:

- I was thinking for quite a while about how to approach this. Whether I should pick a song that reminds me of a certain summer (as in of a certain time in my life) or just a song that literally reminds me of summer as a season (not any particular one). I chose the latter. 

SWEATER WEATHER by The Neighbourhood

4. A song that reminds you of someone you would rather forget about:

GOOD RIDDANCE (TIME OF YOUR LIFE) by Green Day

5. A song that needs to be played loud:

- Honestly, I feel like every song by this band should be played loud… they just sound so much better (better than they already do).

BREAKING THE HABIT by Linkin Park

6. A song that makes you want to dance:

SEX ON FIRE by Kings of Leon

7. A song to drive to:

LA DEE DA by Foo Fighters

[kurkovab]

MY SUMMER 2017

I had big musical ambitions for this summer. I wanted to go to festivals and work at one or two as well. I had plans to go to back home and go to a festival that I went to in 2016 – Aerodrome in Prague. The headliners last year were Billy Talent, Bring Me The Horizon and Korn. This year I was even more excited to go as the main headliner was one of my favourite bands since I was a child – Linkin Park. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get the tickets and looking back now I regret it immensely. I just thought I’d go and see them at a concert some other time as they have only just started their tour for the One More Light album. I can’t put into words how I felt when I heard the sad news of Chester’s suicide. When I read about it online I couldn’t believe it. I know that in past years some amazing and hugely successful musicians have left us (David Bowie, Prince) and even though I liked and admired them, their deaths never hit me nearly as much as Chester Bennington’s did. Chester was a huge talent. His voice was amazing and he was an amazing person who gave everything to his music, fans, friends and family. He (like many other musicians) suffered from depression and earlier this year he lost one of his best friends – Chris Cornell. So before I get even more emotional and start talking about how it was on Chris’s birthday that Chester committed suicide… I’ll put a stop to this topic. But I just want to say one more thing - Chester, you are hugely missed and you will never be forgotten.

(Linkin Park Instagram, 2017)

As I already said, I didn’t get to go to the festival I wanted to, so I thought I’d at least have a work placement at one of the British festivals. Studying a music course at uni, our lecturers gave us a lot of opportunities to work at many different festivals from Reading to a folk festival in Cambridge, which I am very thankful for. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to participate in any of these as I had rent to pay. I would have loved to work at Reading or Creamfields. So as this blog post was supposed to be about our summer spent at music festivals and I didn’t go to any, I thought I’d write about something else.

I went to a few concerts at the beginning of this summer but the two bands I would most like to focus on are The 1975 and Guns n Roses. The 1975 is a  relatively new band with a mainly young audience. My experience at their concert was nothing like the experience at the Guns n Roses one. Now don’t get me wrong - I loved both of them. But everything from the energy at the concerts, the types of people that went, their behaviour and the behaviour of the artists.. to the audience and venue size were really, really different. And that is what I will write about in this post. I will try and explain how a concert of a worldwide known heritage band is different from a concert of a new and relatively small band.

So first, The 1975. The concert was at a really nice Prague venue called Forum Karlín. It is a small venue with the capacity somewhere under 5000 people. The 1975’s first music came out in 2012. The band performed in Prague twice before already (2013 – Lucerna Music Bar, 2014 - MeetFactory) so it is safe to say they have a good audience there. I went to see them with my best friend and I have to say their performance was amazing. Full of energy, great light and fog effects.. they looked incredible on stage. There was surprisingly a lot of guys in the audience which quite surprised me because of the type of music they play (pop-rock.. although I feel like it is mainly pop). The age demographic must have been somewhere between 15 and 25. The interaction with us (fans) was great and I had the best time at the concert.

On the other hand, the Guns n Roses concert was a monumental thing. It was at Letná airport and there were more than 55 thousand people there. I don’t think this is really necessary to talk about their backstory but I will just for the purpose of this blog post. Guns n Roses is a rock band formed in 1985, consisting of iconic musicians such as Slash, who is considered one of the best guitar players alive. In 2012 (the year the 1975 started out) they were inducted into the Rock n Roll hall of fame. They have had their fair share of drama and problems, mainly between Axl Rose and Slash so this year’s Not In This Lifetime tour was the first time they have toured together after 23 years. The concert was a whole day experience for me.. I got to the venue at 4 pm when the gates opened and went to wait by the stage. The first supporting band started at half 5 and played a few songs. After them, Biffy Clyro came on. That was the first time I realized this was probably not going to be a typical rock concert (lots of jumping around, moshing,..). Guns n Roses’ fanbase demographic ranges from people my age (20) to people my grandfathers age (who was by the way very sad he could go with me and tried making me jealous by telling me about his experiences at concerts of for example Pink Floyd and Bruce Springsteen.. needless to say it worked). As a huge part of the audience was of older age, they didn’t know Biffy Clyro at all (I didn’t know them much either before but I loved their set). They just came in to see the main act and weren’t really interested in the supporting bands, not knowing one of them is a hugely successful rock band as well. Guns n Roses came on at 7 pm sharp and played for amazing 3 hours and 30 minutes. By the end of the set, they have played their biggest hits such as Yesterday and Knocking on Heaven’s Door and much more along with a few covers of bands like Pink Floyd, AC/DC and Soundgarden. As it was in July, most of their set was in the daylight.. but when the sun went down the atmosphere changed drastically for the better. I can’t even explain how I felt. I was standing in one of the front rows with over 50 thousand people behind me and in front of me on the stage were 50-year-old men running around and playing my favourite songs. It was surreal.

But even though the Guns n Roses concert was this big and amazing thing but I have to say I liked the atmosphere better at the 1975 concert. It was all about the interactions. I know this is a trivial thing, but communication between the 1975 and fans was incredible. I think it’s mainly because of the younger audience. Nowadays everyone learns English at school so they can understand when the band is talking to them. But when Axl Rose started talking to us in Prague, just half of the crowd had some kind of respond. It just felt so strange. One of the biggest bands ever performed in front of us and we couldn’t even respond properly because a huge part of the audience didn’t understand them. I wouldn’t say I was let down by Guns n Roses.. I’d say I was let down by the crowd. I was expecting this amazing atmosphere and I didn’t get that.. That said, I would gladly buy £100 tickets to see a heritage band again. Because at the end of the day we are all expecting a bit more from their performance and therefore are a lot more judgmental.

Linkin Park Instagram (2017). Chester Bennington. [image] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/BWySXXTlAyN/?taken-by=linkinpark [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].

Rolling Stone. (2017). Guns N’ Roses Biography. [online] Available at: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/guns-n-roses/biography [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].

Wilkening, M. (2012). 25 Most Destructive Guns N’ Roses Moments. [online] Ultimate Classic Rock. Available at: http://ultimateclassicrock.com/25-most-destructive-guns-n-roses-moments/ [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].

Kerr, S. (n.d.). The 1975 | Biography & History | AllMusic. [online] AllMusic. Available at: http://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-1975-mn0002986022/biography [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].

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As the second semester of my first year at uni is coming to an end.. the exams are getting closer and closer. One of my assignments is to pick two music industry issues and answer questions we were given about them in advance (one of my choices is selling out). I started my research a few days ago and would now like to share an interesting thing I found. 

After reading the definition of a sell-out everyone automatically thinks it is a bad thing. Artist changing their sound to please a wider audience and make more money. Artist doing commercials to attract new customers and.. you guessed it.. make more money. But when I actually looked more into the topic I started thinking.. is it really such a bad thing? Why can’t a very talented artist with amazing music do an ad to earn some money that they clearly deserve? They will use the money to record new music anyway... 

This article shows that selling out isn’t necessarily always a bad thing. Because without a little bit of selling out, we wouldn’t get to hear one of the best rock albums ever made. 

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MY MEDIA INTERVIEW

One of my first-semester assessments was a media interview. We were given four scenarios and two questions to each one. Our instructions were simple: research each scenario and prepare for a five-minute interview. Needless to say, everyone was very nervous about this.

Scenario I. – TIMING AT AN EVENT

"The headlining act at your show on Friday night went on stage at 10.45 pm, more than 90 minutes later than advertised. This caused problems for the audience, many of whom had to leave before the end of the show in order to catch public transport."

For this, I started with finding similar cases that happened in real life. I was surprised with how many there were. So many artists from Madonna to Justin Bieber or Guns and Roses came late on stage for various reasons. One of the funniest things I read while preparing for this media interview was the reason why Axl Rose (Guns and Roses) once came late on stage. He was watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That was his reason. "Axl's attention was 100% on the movie and couldn't be bothered." (Young, 2015)

The first question asked about financially compensating fans who missed their transport and had to pay for a taxi to get home. For that, I researched whether music venues/event organizers had any responsibility to compensate the fans. I found out that there is no obligation from them as long as they don't state it online or anywhere else before the concert. (Of course, if a show is canceled they have to compensate the fans somehow.) I also found out that O2 was compensating fans on case by case basis, meaning that if anyone complained straight to them, they compensated them how they thought appropriate. That is what I mainly used as my answer.  

The second question was if I was aware of the curfew at the venue. For this, I started by researching curfews in general. I found out that if an artist goes over the curfew, he has to pay a fine. There has also been cases of artist's music and electricity being cut off due to going over curfew. After that I had to decide which approach I was going to have – do I claim that I didn't know about the curfew or do I say that I knew. After doing a bit more research on this topic I found out that curfews are usually stated in the Health and Safety regulations of each venue. So I decided to say that I did know about it.

With this being the scenario I ended up talking about I was given 2 more questions in the interview. The third question was about venue legislation and if venues are obligated to compensate fans. To answer this I partly used what I researched for the first question. I also said some ways fans could be compensated in other than financial ways (free merch, another concert).

The fourth (and last) question was if I wanted to add something to the topic. Unfortunately, I felt like I said everything that I researched for and didn't add anything. But now I'm realizing that there are many things I could have added. I could have said anything from the reason the artist didn't go on stage to the reason the venue has to have a curfew or I could have also mentioned the entertainment licenses every venue needs.

SCENARIO II. – SPONSORSHIP

"You are running a new festival in Lincolnshire this Summer and have agreed on a sponsorship deal with BP. This is a new venture for them and they are underwriting all of the costs for your event. However, local environmental groups are unhappy with BP's involvement."

I started my research to this question with finding out as much as I could about sponsorships. I tried to find out how it works, what are the benefits to each side and some famous cases where sponsorships worked well. After that, I researched BP as a company. In my initial research, I found the answers to the first question we were given. We were asked what the value of having a sponsor involved with our event is to us.

The second question was about BP being linked to environmental damage cases and if they are appropriate partners for our event. For this, I looked a lot more into BP's history and relationship with the environment. I found out that BP really is linked to so many high profile cases of environmental damage and so I started looking into what BP does to prevent causing, even more, environmental harm. I found out about their water cleanup projects. About their venture into reducing greenhouse gasses and their huge financial support of solar and wind technologies.

I also looked into reasons why festivals are not always environmentally friendly and how event organizers are trying to change that. I also found a lot of information about how we (festival goers) could prevent harming the nature while at festivals.

SCENARIO III. - DRUGS

"The residents whose homes overlook your venue have complained to the police that groups of youths are gathering behind your venue and they believe that drug deals and drug use are taking place. Syringes have been found in the car park during the daytime."

I thought this would be my favorite scenario because I thought there must be so many things online about it that it will be very easy. But as I started my research I found out that it is actually my least favorite scenario. It was hard for me to find a lot of things so that I wouldn't repeat my answers multiple times.

My first instinct was to research how people are trying to stop drug use and dealing at festivals and in music venues. I found a lot of articles and blog posts about the issue of drug use at festivals, overdoses, and deaths from drugs. I also found a lot of info about a "harm reduction" approach (companies giving out drug testing kits, water, and leaflets to try and make sure if people are taking drugs they are as safe as possible) which I thought was very interesting.  I also tried to find any legislations regarding drug use in music venues.

The first question was if I have taken any advice from anyone regarding this issue. I answered this by taking advice from the police regarding CCTV cameras and enforcing security around the venue. The second question was if I was aware of the problem with drug dealing at my venue. To which I answered by saying that I am aware and that we are enforcing the security and searching everyone upon the arrival to the venue. I also researched how music venues deal with drug use and what approaches they have towards it.

SCENARIO IV. – BIG MOUTH

"The artist you manage made a statement from the stage at last night's show where he stated that the new Pope was ‘probably' aware of child abuse by priests in his own country. That has been picked up by the media who now want to question your artist about that statement."

The fourth (and last) scenario was the one that I prepared most for. I started by watching the whole documentary about a similar thing that happened to the Dixie Chicks (one of the girls said that they are ashamed that the American president is from their state). The documentary was helpful because it showed how they dealt with the statement immediately after it happened. I have also researched celebrities such as Noel Gallagher who has the reputation of saying what he wanted and didn't care about the consequences. I watched an interview of Sinéad O'Connor who said a very similar thing on SNL stage once. That didn't really help me as much as I thought it would, even if it was on the topic of the Pope. I then tried to find information about the alleged child abuse by catholic priests in the USA and about how the Church reacted to the accusation. I then looked into the censorship of artists and found out that many managers/managements censor their artists' social media. With all of that information, I managed to answer both questions we were given beforehand.

The first question was if the artist apologized for what he said. I answered that by saying that not yet. I, as his manager, did apologize to public saying that he will issue a statement soon enough and that he is ready to face the consequences of his actions.

The second question was if the artist believes that the Pope knew of the abuse. I decided to say that I don't know. But that the matter is very close to the artist's heart. In my answer, I also included that there is a lot of coverage on the issue online and not all of it is true. And that the artist could have read something before the show that he just felt the need to share.

Overall I was quite surprised with how the interview went. I was so scared of it and I thought I didn't research enough. The thing that slightly helped me was doing research and practicing the interview with my friends. I don't know if I am 100% happy with my performance of the day but I can't say that I did a bad job. I feel like I answered the questions coherently and I also tried to come across as confident as possible. As I already said there were things I wish I said and I am sure there is plenty of space for me to improve.

[kurkovab]

OUR WONDERFUL WINTERLAND

As I am studying Music and Live Events Management it is surely no surprise that my course had to organise an event. The only thing that could slightly surprise some people is the fact, that I am a first year. I haven’t even been at uni for two weeks when our lecturers told us what the plan for the next 2 months was. 

We were told we’d be organising Winterland. The premisse was simple – a nice, family and kids friendly event with live (music) performances and different attractions. I was very excited, thinking that I’d be told what to do to achive what was needed. That wasn’t exactly the case though.

In our second week, we were told to choose a group we would most want to be in. The choices were Talent and Entertainment, Marketing, Production and Site Logistics. The next week we were sorted into groups according to what we wanted to do (in my case – marketing). And the next thing we knew, we were being told to start.

I feel like I definitely wasn’t the only one (at least I hope) being confused and surprised. Start? Start with what? The only thing I knew was that I was supposed to do marketing. But what is marketing? Is it just social media? Is ticketing also part of what we’re supposed to do? Do we have to sort out flyers? Do we have to design them? Who is going to design them? … Those are just some of the question I was asking.

Slowly but surely, things that needed to be done started piling up and we all started understanding (not always) what we were doing. Our team had to do the design of the flyers and posters, have them printed (where? for how much?). We had to sort out the tickets along with wristbands. Start posting on social media.

We started with designing the posters and flyers (which I sadly can’t take much credit for, not being very artistic). I instead tried to do the ticketing for out skating rink (not ice skating! that’s very important) which went quite wrong at first. The Students Union was using the skating rink one day before our event so there was a bit of a mix up. But everything got sorted out in the end. Once the tickets were on sale, we printed the flyers and posters. We then had to think of opportunities to promote our event. We ended up hand billing in the town and asking shops to put our posters up. We handed out flyers at High Wycombe christmas light switch on, Marlow light switch on, Marlow shopping night, by the train station and bus station, at the town market. We had interviews in three different radio stations – Marlow fm, Awaaz fm and Wycombe Sound. Being part of the Wycombe Sound interview I can now say that being on radio is not as scary as it might seem (although before the interview I was very very very nervous).

I was also in charge of Facebook. For the last 2 weeks before the event I was posting at least twice a day, which sometimes proved to be very hard. But with all of us going to workshop to work on decorations, I could always post pictures of that. Talking about the workshop.. I’d say that was the most time consuming part of the whole process. I was in the work shop almost every day we had free. The final week before our event I think I was more in the workshop than in lectures (and I didn’t even skip any).

The final week of preparations was very hectic. Not only with doing the decorations, radio interviews and hand billing but also with the early arrival of our skating rink.  The skating rink.. well let’s just say it surprised us all. When it arrived everyone was really excited! But then when it was built we noticed how small it is and how bad it looked in the huge space we prepared for it. But I would say it worked out well in the end – we moved the seating and changing area and added a mulled wine stand (also my responsibility).

 On the day before, Friday 2nd, the skating rink was open for students only. I was helping out with that along with a few other people from my course. The good thing about doing extra work on Friday was the fact, that we got to have a lie in on Saturday. When everyone had to be ready at 5 am, I came in around 7.

 So when I came, the preparations were in full swing. The ferris wheel was up, the food vendors arrived and everyone was working on fencing, signage and other things. To my surprise I think we managed to get everything (or mostly everything) ready for 11 am when the actual event started. I was looking after the skating rink and selling mulled wine for most of the day. I helped out in the inflatable zone for quite a while but mostly I was trying to post on our Facebook page.

 Because I wasn’t involved much in the management on the day it self I don’t know how many things didn’t go according to the plan or how many things we forgot to take care of. But even so I would say the event was successful. While in the inflatable zone, many parents came up to me and said how glad they were something like this was happening. That it was such a good idea to do it. And when they found out that we (as in students) were the ones organising it, they were so impressed. They were so surprised and asked so many questions not only about the event but about the course as well. We also received many massages after the event from people saying how much they enjoyed going to Winterland.

 So all in all (especially with all of us being so stressed out). I would say we did a good job. We pulled it off. Nearly 2000 people came to an event that WE organised. And I am really proud of that.

[kurkovab]

HOW MY FIRST 2 MONTHS AT UNI WENT

Week 1 - “You will be putting on an event - it’s going to be so much fun ..you’ll see.”

Week 2 - “Just write what you would like to work on for this event... also: we’ve got the name - Winterland; we may have reindeers; we’ll make it snow.”

Week 3 - “These are your groups - now talk about what you’ll do.” (My group - marketing.)

Week 4 - “Great ideas, continue with the great work.“

Week 5 - “You should also think about this, this, this and this.. please make sure it’s covered by next week.” (In my case - ticketing, facebook page, wristbands.)

Week 6 - “Great progress.. there are still things you need to take care of though.” (There was a mixup with the ticketing.. we needed the link to put up on the flyers though!  I also had to get in touch with the performers in order to post something on Facebook. ) 

Week 7 - “Guys we are three weeks away.. hope you’re all feeling good about it.” (We had to start thinking about decorations. Fortunately the I had the Facebook page up and only had to post to it. Ticketing was taken care of. Wristbands were taken care of - kinda.)

Week 8  - “More decorations,  hand billing, more social media activity, more this and more that.” (First session in workshop. First hand billing in High Wycombe!)

Week 9 - “One week away guys.. how are we feeling? anything we might have forgotten about? no?” (Tuesday - workshop. Wednesday - workshop. Thursday - hand billing in Marlow. Friday - workshop, hand billing in High Wycombe at the town’s market, meeting about skating rink. Saturday - Marlow fm.)

So here I am.. week 10. 4 days until Winterland. Trying to post as much on Facebook as possible. Trying not to panic that no one is going to show up. Trying not to panic that I somehow managed to mess up. I’m basically just trying not to panic. I can’t wait until Saturday evening, when everything will be done and over with. Don’t get me wrong. I can’t wait to see what comes out of it... but the anticipation is killing me! 

[kurkovab]

I am a Spotify user. But I also am an iPhone user, and a loyal one at that. My first iPhone was the 3G one and I haven’t had another phone since. But when Apple Music came out, I was already so used to using Spotify that I didn’t really find out if Apple’s music streaming service was any good. But lately I’ve been reading a lot into the topic and I wanted to find out which one is better. 

Spotify was launched in 2008 and as of now has over 30 million song catalogue. With streamers being able to listen to music on Spotify without actually paying, it is really popular amongst the younger generation. It now has around 100 million users (half of it being paid subscription). But that’s with 8 years behind Spotify’s back. 

On the other hand. Apple Music launched just last year and it already has over 17 million PAID subscribers. That is one of the main differences. You can’t use Apple Music without paying for it (not counting first 3 trial months - which are for free). How is it possible that it has this many subscribers in such a short time? 

One of the factors is for sure the fact, that the song catalogue of Apple Music is “slightly” bigger. When I say slightly, I mean it is bigger by 10 million songs. But I think that the main reason for it’s success is Apple. It is one of the biggest companies in the world. And an iPhone is one of the most popular and used phones in the world. It is very easy for iPhone users to subscribe to Apple Music for multiple reasons. One - the app is already in the phone which means they don’t have to download a new app. Two - their credit cards are already in Apple’s database. Therefore subscribing to Apple Music is as easy as tapping “subscribe” on the screen or just pressing a thumb on the fingerprint reader. Apple also made a clever move of enabling their streaming service to android users. 

I started reading about this topic with one simple question. Should I switch to Apple Music? And sure. It would probably be A LOT easier for me to have Apple Music. The price is almost the same as well. So why not? Maybe I’ll give it a try. The only problem now is that I would have to get used to a new streaming service. And most importantly... how long would it take me to make a whole new collection of music?