Laneway Love- Another festival success for Sunset Events

Laneway

Last Saturday was the final leg of St. Jerome's Laneway Festival and I would have to say the sold out Perth show was a great ending to the national event. There was a great atmosphere and a lot of positive media coverage followed this week so I've been getting stuck into the media monitoring and preparing the Laneway publicity document.

The national event organisers for Laneway played a much bigger role in the festival than other festivals run by Sunset Events and there weren't many jobs for me to do on the festival day so I just hung around until needed, and enjoyed the music and the whole experience. I delivered a few wristbands and took a few posters to the bar for the after party. The only PR type activity I did during the day was escort and meet Tourism WA photographers and models to help them shoot some images for their upcoming advertisements about Perth. I had to do this to ensure they were allowed in restricted areas of the festival, which proved to be conflicting with security as the photographers and models were ordered to leave an area and I had to discuss with them what they were doing and that they had permission to do so, which they weren't too happy about!

Laneway made me think about the event industry in more depth because I thought about the effects events have on places and the broader community. Events like Southbound in Busselton and Groovin' the Moo in Bunbury (held in May), really boost tourism and help support businesses in ways that nothing else can. I think it's what helps make Sunset Events a unique organisation because it runs events accessible to a wider WA community.

This then led me to thinking about Laneway and Tourism WA. Laneway was held in the Perth Cultural Centre, all around PICA, the Art Gallery, the Library and the Museum. It was the most beautiful setting for a festival, with the leafy trees, auditorium, cultural gardens and the beautiful buildings. Live music, a relaxed vibe and such a nice location made it quite a special event and with around 5000 people there it was the opposite of other crowded moshpit festivals.
This kind of event is a perfect showcase of Perth's culture and I think will be a great addition to Tourism WA's campaign to promote Perth and drop Perth's "dullsville" tag.

All of these things made me appreciate festivals and realise that they are about more than just incredible music, but also about the experience and a celebration and appreciation of the state we live in! It makes me sad to think of the diminishing attendances at festivals all over the world and the challenges the event industry is facing because I think events such as Laneway are so culturally enriching and you can't quite put a value on the arts.

I'm working on getting the Laneway publicity document ready now, cutting out and scanning articles from all the media and grabbing print screens from all online coverage. I will then print out copies and bind them as I did with the Southbound publicity document. It's great because when one festival is finished there is always another on the way- West Coast Blues and Roots is coming up in April and then Groovin' the Moo in May!

There is always so much to write about but I will have to save my thoughts for my next blog, hope you are all enjoying your internships- I've noticed a few people have got jobs through their internships and I think that's amazing! Well done to everyone who has!

Lisa