Groovin' the Moo 2013: featuring a lot of laminating

I have come to the realisation that event planning is not all fun and games. For me, I think I envisioned a more play in the park, party planning deejay-vu from when I was 5 years old planning my teddy bears picnic birthday party. This is most definitely not the case, as I have come to understand. Rather I have witnessed a few days of event pandaemonium leading up to the Groovin' The Moo (GTM) event that Sunsets was holding on the 11th of May in Bunbury, that was nothing close to fun and games!

The tasks that I was deliberated during these couple of days included a mass load of laminating. I can now say that going from not knowing how to laminate to professional laminator in about 2 hours is quite impressive. I was laminating event passes for musicians, media, staff and volunteers, staff contact and emergency lists, signs for cloak rooms, stage information, play time information. You name it I laminated it!

I was also in charge of label making, 'stickering' and 'lanyarding' all of the passes which gives access to the artists, media, volunteers and staff during the event. So if you worked at GTM and you had one of those amazing lanyards around your neck, I made it! I was also in charge of putting together an 'info point' document. This was a document with all the information needed for patrons. It included transport, taxi numbers, bus routes, Sunsets recycling initiatives, set times of artists, stage set up, venue map and FAQ information about tickets, what can be brought into the festival, what to wear and everything else that needed to be known.

I also worked with the staffing co ordinator to get together staff packs for everyone working at GTM. This was a task that involved printing out excel sheets of the people working at GTM, sticking them to A4 envelopes and placing their access passes and wristbands that they needed to work at GTM. This was a tedious task as you can imagine there are a lot of people working at a large scale event like GTM It was also one of the most important tasks in staffing as everything needed to be correct or else the staff would not have the right access passes and in turn cause issues on an already hectic day.

As a sat in the office on the Wednesday before the event, I noticed a lot of tension in the air, a lot of grunting, sighing and the occasional wail from someone. It seemed to me the stresses of event planning never ended. With such a large scale event, with countless people involved in different areas of business there was a lot of frustrations. The main issues seemed to stem from staffing problems and especially volunteers. The fact that the event was in Bunbury made it more difficult and the small storm like weather was not helping either. The weather however, was not going to stop this event, the weather was only going to deter people who were working and volunteering at event from coming. There was a lot of engaging phone calls happening with desperate plights for more volunteer and staff just days before the event as well as follow ups with vendors who seemed to be unreliable, clueless or un-contactable. Just writing about it makes me feel anxious let alone first hand dealing with the issues.

One of the things I love about Sunsets is their green initiative and shows their corporate social responsibility is that they bring to every festival they produce.  It is what really sets them apart from other events and music businesses the fact that they put a lot of effort into ensuring a green event that is helping our environment which is such a major issue in todays world. The Green initiative that was implemented at GTM was the 'Aluminium Can Recycling'. For GTM nationally they introduce a recycling program where $1.00 is added to the cost of every alcoholic beverage. Once you have finished your can, you crush it and take it back to the bar ticket tills for either, $1.00 cash back; or $1.00 off your next drink. This was to help increase the amount of waste recycled at GTM festivals nationally.

It was obvious that the event had taken a toll on everyone as I walked into the office on Wednesday morning after the event I noticed a lot of sniffly noses and absentees in the office. However, apart from the chaotic lead up, the event was extremely successful despite the weather, issues with staffing and other problems arising throughout the duration of the event. It just goes to show that even though a large scale event such as GTM has many issues and challenges throughout the set up stage, it is probable to say that with a collaborative team it is achievable to create a great event. I have learnt a lot through out the process of helping out and watching what has been happening and now fully understand the work needed to undertake major events.

With only a 5 or so more days left of my placement at Sunsets I have already started thinking about other places I would like to work in the future. I have been thinking of some place, that is the complete opposite to a business such as Sunsets just for the reason of furthering my experience and understanding different work environments.

Until my next and final post

Ella