One Movement

Hey guys,

Back again to update you all on my experiences of participating in my first event for Sunsets. A couple of weekend ago the Sunset crew played host to the One Movement Music Festival. This massive music industry event spanned the length of the weekend and was jam- packed full of acts performing inside the festival grounds at the Esplanade as well as throughout various locations within Perth city. This event was designed to bring together new acts from around the country and Asia and showcase their talent to industry heavyweights from around the globe.

I was lucky enough to be allocated the role of backstage artist registration and band equipment. Before entering the festival grounds I had no idea what to expect but immediately experienced the massive thrill of being behind the scenes and witnessing the degree of detail and work that goes in to ensuring the event runs smoothly. On arrival I was given my AAA pass and directed to Bruna (Artist Liason) to be briefed on what I would be doing. The key tasks I was allocated were to register artists on arrival, store artists’ band equipment in the artist registration tent, answer artists’ queries and ensure the area was clean. To say the whole experience was enjoyable would be an understatement. I was introduced to a range of new people and the happy, fun and friendly vibe created by the staff made it a great environment to work in.
I think the most important lessons I can take away from my experience relate to stakeholder relations and employee communications having witnessed these practices first hand.

The artists who performed at One Movement are key stakeholders highly influential to the achievement of Sunsets objectives. Without these artists there would be no festival and therefore a strong focus was placed on managing this relationship. It was made a point that each artist received a friendly greeting on arrival and that all their questions were answered and request fulfilled. They also enjoyed other perks such as changing rooms and free meals and drinks. These little gestures, although they may seem small, creates a favourable impression of the organisation and work towards building a stronger relationship between the artists and the organisation.

In regards to employee communication, in an event of that scale, I could really see where it all comes into play. Everyone worked so well together as a team and there were very little hitches along the way. I feel this could be directly related to the way the staff communicated with one another. They had access to various communication tools such as laptops to email, mobile phones to make calls and headsets to keep in constant contact. But it was the comradeship style in which they communicated with one another that made communication so effective.

Now that one movement has passed for another year, my work at Sunset events will focus on up and coming festivals such Stereosonic on the 28th of November and Southbound in January next year. The Sunsets website is www.sunsetevents.com.au if you would like to find out more details about these great music festivals.

Zoe Thwaites