Subwoofers Music Festival â The End
Wow. Just Wow. For weeks before the event, I remember saying with a mate, that we just wanted to get this damn event over and done with! Everything was so hectic⌠artists dropping out, artists not replying, awaiting legal documents from individuals â who expect me to trust them that I will have the papers less a week before the event.
I must admit that throughout this process â I feel as if I havenât contributed half as much as I possibly could have. After getting in touch with the talent whom I liaised with, albeit it took a long time to book them due to special talent requirements and factors; for a week before, and after the day itself - I couldnât help but think how little I actually did in the grand scheme of things. Maybe itâs because last year I was in the production team â where almost every significant step of the event happens.
And so to the day itself!
I gotta say⌠Iâm a lucky son of a ⌠yeah. I seem to recall back to our courseâs first event, Winterland in 2016; when looking after the ice rink till late in the evening in the rose garden at the university, for a test run with uni students â I got to arrive at 10am on the event itself, as opposed to 4am like everyone else! *cheesy smug grin* Well, much like Winterland â I was assigned to come to the bus station at 12 to make sure all the talent, (the performers from uni societies) using the coach â were there. However, I was up and rolling at 8am just in case anyone wanted me to swap buses for whatever reason, and catch the 10am bus to the site. Of course, with all this spare time on my hands â I was able to accept requests to bring items from Sainsburys⌠i.e. canned espressos/ food etc.
By the time I had arrived at the bus shelter, I remember feeling that I had already done a dayâs work â dragging my guitar, my loop pedal, (which I donât have a bag that it fits in) a friendâs laptop, supplies for the day, and sun cream - for the mile trek to the Swan Theatre from home, under the blistering sun. Although I complain about the weather being too hot â in reality, it was perfect and I couldnât have asked for it to have been any better. For a few weeks, many of us had worries it was going to rain on the day â which with the grass at the hearing dogs trust, would have led to a catastrophe! I arrived at the shelter at 11:45, and waited until I believed everyone was there â which was around 12:10. My favourite thing about doing this, was being able to make a quick announcement/ thank you for coming speech, on the bus. This process couldnât have gone any better, as we set off at 12:15 â another 15 minutes before the coach was due to depart the station. (And no, we didnât leave any stragglers running behind the bus!) It took the usual time to arrive on site at the hearing dogs site â and I counted everyone that came off the bus. Good news, the same amount got off, as got on â great success!
Despite being on the site multiple times over the course of organising Subwoofers â I still got easily lost on site. On top of this, I had absolutely no clue where I was going or what I was doing after arriving on site with the societies â so was relieved when I met Remely at the front gates to escort us all to the production office! After being taken to the production office, the volunteers and myself were to be given the roles for the day. Although Rem was very much on the ball⌠she was perhaps a little, too on the ball â for I couldnât even drop my stuff in the corner before the safety induction started haha! Eventually, I was able to hop over and listen to her talk about what, and what not to do in the event of emergency or incident. However, when it came to giving out roles â the whole room raised an eyebrow! Understandably stressed â she was panicking and dancing around the room shouting jobs and co-ordinates. As a result, many of us were still in the production office when Michelle had come in the room and announced the event was âofficially openâ. However, good olâ Rem kept her cool â and soon enough, everyone knew what they were doing, and where! Of course⌠I got lost en-route to my position, so had to get help from the production team leader to help guide me! (Shout out to Jessie, who did an absolutely sensational job for the whole event â whilst keeping calm and collected right from 7am when she arrived on site, to 9:30pm when we all left the site!) I believe the whole handing out of roles job, could have been made slightly easier, had everyone in the course known their position before arriving on site â and had a personal copy of the roles sheet, and site map. I understand though, that the site map was only finalised the day before â as a result of the dodgems arriving on site THE DAY BEFORE!?!?! These guys completely changed the layout of the site, and I wouldnât be surprised if this added to the confusion of giving out roles!
About 10 minutes after being briefed, I was now at my âspotâ so to speak, and ready for whatever! What I did not expect however, was a call from the main stage assistant; asking if I would be willing to perform as âDan the Guitaristâ, on the main stage in 30 minutes, as James Kennedy â another act, had dropped out! OHH HECK YES! Although I was dying to perform - I did feel a little guilty, as I had only just been given my position, and someone would have to be found to cover my position! However, I didnât feel so bad when I learnt that a volunteer from the 1st year on our course â Sophie, was still looking for a role! With that, I sprinted off to the production office to pick up my music stuff, before going to the stage and beginning to set up my equipment. It was an amazing experience to perform on that stage, and I have some amazing photos taken by friends and relatives!
After I had finished performing, I quickly said hi to my family and friends who had come to watch me play, and dashed off back to the production office to drop off my stuff again. I then retreated back to my position â awaiting my turn for my solo slot on the second stage - only 1 hour or so after I had returned!
Anyway, I will talk a little bit about my role. It was quite an easy role, and no doubt one of the easiest roles that could be given to anyone on the day. However, it was vital role â as it involved making sure the emergency vehicle turning point was kept clear in case of an emergency. The other side of my role entailed directing cars entering car park 2 to the rightâŚwhich with only one car arriving every 30 minutes or so â was relatively easy⌠even for me. The most eventful thing that happened whilst I was in this position, was an ambulance (car), that parked semi-on the emrg. turning circle. The hard part came asking the driver if he was parking his car there to attend to an emergency, or there just in case an emergency happened! It turns out, he was only there to drop off welfare supplies to the medical tent on site â and returned in about 15 minutes to collect his car. Although the traffic coming through my area was minimal, I did come across two or three members from acts such as Horn Division, whom I did not know where to send (according to the plan). In one of these instances, I was able to find a quick cover â and escort the artist to the main stage, the same way I arrived at the main stage earlier. As touched on briefly above, if each steward were given a small booklet describing roles, w/ site map - simple (and expected) procedures like this one â could have been carried out by the book; leading to no confusion.
My next âbig thingâ, was playing on the second stage at 3:30. So from my position, I went to the production office, picked up my guitar once more â and travelled across to the furthest side of the field to the second stage. Yet again, another successful slot â I began to realise I had played for another 5 minutes longer than allotted. I remember looking for the next artist due on to show up â whom I knew was Sansha, and thinking, perhaps the sound tech will give me a last song warning⌠but neither happened. After I had exhausted my setlist, and even played some songs that were off my planned set  â I decided to play one more song, in the hope that Sansha turns up, making the changeover quick and easy. However, it was only about another 10 minutes after I had packed up, that Sansha arrived and began setting up! How could this have been prevented? Well, I guess itâs out of our control really â as I believe she said âtraffic held me back.â However, I do believe that the artists should have been informed to arrive on site, one hour before being due to go on. Sansha was an artist whom I had liaised with from the beginning â seeing her perform before at our uni student unionâs âvibes nightâ. Although as a group â the talent team were not keen to take her on for the event (Sanshaâs music did not blend in with the theme of the day), and I was asked to drop her; I stuck to my guns â taking in to consideration that some acts may drop out. Of course, when some acts as expected - did drop out⌠I knew I could contact Sansha and confirm her place at the event. After her performance â and as the talent team concluded when first listening to her music before the event; she wasnât quite the right sort of artist we were looking for on the day. On the other hand, because talent had ârid ofâ other potential acts too earlier on in the process â this act was our only choice, and hope of keeping the event running smoothly. Hey ho, she did her job, and we kept the stage running smoothly đ
I took a little break after performing on the second stage, and went to socialise with my family and friends, before making my way back to the production office. There was some issues stirring where some believed that, me performing on the stages â counted as my breaks⌠which I disagreed with, but took lightly as I know some of the guys who had been on site from 7ish, hadnât even had a break yet! I know we had a few less stewards on the day than what we wanted⌠but of course, that happens at most events. So, when stewards were being moved around to cover positions; the log book explaining everyoneâs roles and times went out the window a little. The only real way of solving this is by finding more volunteers/ security to cover positions â but I think communication could have been improved upon by those with radios (there were not many radios either), walking the whole site, and informing staff how long they have left in a position. My apologies if there were those people â as I did not see any myself.
One thing that cropped up in a lot of the feedback from visitors, was how great of an idea it was to have stewards walking around the site supplying sun cream! Although I donât believe it was an âofficial roleâ so to speak â It was a great idea, and some smart thinking!
My final role on the day, began when I had finished on the second stage, and after my break â around 4:30. I was directed to the front entrance to the site with the long driveway, where I was to welcome new visitors, and escort them to the ticket office at the other end of the site if they didnât have wristbands. However, at this time â it was late in the day, and only 3 hours before closing time â so pretty much everyone had already bought tickets, and we just had to show them the right direction on to the main site! In the end, the role turned into waving goodbye to visitors and artists as they left â with the intention of delivering top customer service from start to finish đ
There was one challenge in this particular role regarding guests of acts. On the day, artists like myself â were given the opportunity to put a number of relatives/ friends on a guest list; allowing those guests to enter the event for free. However, it appeared that many of the acts had not told their family who was part of the guest list/ who was not. Or perhaps it was not made clear enough that only (2 guests?) per each artist, were allowed on the guestlist? Either way, because I was not told about the procedure regarding guests; there were a number of times when I escorted a heard of guests on to the site to find the person in charge of maintaining/ operating the list. The lack of understanding with what was happening, also caused us to panic â meaning some cars parked in the wrong area. However, this car park had many available spaces, and the guests who parked in these spaces, exited the site safely at the end of the event. I spoke with James, who was overseeing the event with Alan on the day, and told him of the situation regarding guest lists. And I was told to just let all the guests/ relatives of the acts in, and receive wristbands - what I had been thinking was perhaps the best idea.
There was a slight tension in the class when everyone learnt I might be going back home early with the talent *eek*⌠but the tension deescalated when someone from one of the university societies said they were able to make their own way home, and had been debriefed!
Overall, it was a truly amazing day â and I am still âbuzzingâ with excitement from the event. My personal Facebook âDan the Guitaristâ page, went through the roof with activity â and I received some messages saying how much people liked my performance!
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