All good things come to an end, and it has come the time to bid farewell to Mellen Events. After the craziness of Future Music and Good Life Festivals and spending 6 days straight on site, I was given a few days off to rest. I spent the next few days curating all my budgets and all my receipts with purchases and orders to be sent off to the Future Music office over in Melbourne. Obviously everything had to match, down to the last cent and this proved way more difficult than I imagined, as everything is split up into precise codes and categories to be paid properly. Paperwork was clearly not as glamorous as the other parts of the job.
In the week after Future my mentor had also finished her last day at Mellen Events and had immediately flown to Melbourne to help out with Victoria's Future Music Festival. Meaning I was somewhat left in the dark as to how to tackle sending out these budgets and how this would be effectively translated to accounts at the Mushroom Group. I also had to chase up all the staff that worked for me on the day of Future Music and Good Life, with tax forms and staff forms as they had to be paid for their work as soon as possible.
Ironically enough, a few days ago it was announced by the Mushroom Group that Future Music Festival will cease to exist within Australia as it is not profitable. Am I surprised? No. The sad thing is they believe the large scale music festival as an event is becoming extinct world wide, with Australia at the forefront of this. Why? With Australia being as remote as it is, transport fees are outrageously high, labour cost is high and international competition is fierce. Artist fees and hire costs continue to grow each year and entertainment companies are reaching a point where putting ticket prices up every year is simply not an option, as people slowly but surely stop attending these events due to financial pressure. Not an ideal article of news to hear after you have experienced something so life changing and something you could see yourself wanting to get into career wise. I do believe there will be a shift in popular music events within the live entertainment industry, with more focus and money being put into solo live music shows (take a look at the Perth Arena's success). So all hope is not lost.
So what happens now? I was lucky enough to build a great relationship with the Mellen Event staff, and have been given some paid casual work with them when it comes to some of their events. A few examples being an Evening on the Green concerts, Paul Simon and Sting concert, Rodriguez and Angus and Julia Stone etc. However their season ends after the warmer months, as they do not hold music events in Winter (can't argue with Mother Nature).
As I have mentioned throughout my blogging this was not entirely a public relations internship, which I realised after having begun. However I have definitely been able to effectively put into practice all of my skills learnt within my public relations units including my writing skills, communication and negotiation skills, organisational skills and time management skills. At the end of this experience I have come out with great references, a lot of great stories and a polished resume, which I am ecstatic about. I would still like to polish off my public relations writing skills though.
I look forward to reading how others finished their internships, and what they think "comes next" for them?!
All the best everyone!
Billie
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