Feeling the opposite of the blues at West Coast Blues N' Roots...

Well, another fantastic festival run by Sunset Events has been and gone! And once again, I feel so lucky to have been a part of it!

Over 10 000 people enjoyed the laid back music at West Coast Blues n’ Roots last Sunday at Fremantle Park, with some of the crowd even getting up for a boogie as the sun went down! It was a great atmosphere with a more mature crowd than the other festivals, which is understandable as I didn’t know any of the artists but my Dad knew them all!

(A picture I grabbed on my phone of the crowd sitting down at the main stage as the sun was going down!)

This was my first time as a paid worker for Sunset Events, as Janelle’s communication assistant. I felt really lucky to be on the Sunset pay role after being a volunteer at the other festivals.

I didn’t really have a lot to do on the festival day, as was the case with Laneway, but it was still a great experience and there are always interesting things to observe and think about. It’s funny because it’s quite a different experience being at a festival on your own when it’s usually something everyone shares with their friends. I’ve seen an outside perspective of festivals which makes me really appreciate the effort put into them a lot more than I used to when I attended them.

I arrived at around 10.30am and after filling out the paperwork I went to find Janelle at the site office. I then did a coffee run for Janelle in Freo. Janelle gave me a tour of the site a bit later and I got my bearings and had a little wander around. I put up some posters promoting the YES concert Janelle gave me at the merchandise tent. At around 1pm Janelle sent me to the Fremantle Football Oval to take down one of the big Blues n’ Roots posters.

I then drove the poster back to the site and took it to the Artist area to give to Marie, the artist liaison officer for the artists to sign. I think it’s a great idea because the signed poster is being donated by Sunset Events for charity, to Telethon! It’s a really nice idea, good for the company’s image but also a kind gesture.

I think it is really important for companies to give back to the community through charities and sponsorship, and show support for worthy causes. I think it’s a very beneficial relationship because it enhances the reputation of the business and also helps not-for-profits do their job of helping people and ultimately the good deed helps the community! In terms of sponsorship, I think often companies do it just to improve their image, especially McDonalds! McDonalds does do great things with Ronald McDonald and sponsoring not-for-profits, but does this mask the not-so-healthy truths of the company?

I watched an interesting documentary recently called ‘The Greatest Movie Ever Sold’ which made a comment about product placement in movies and it made me really think about how companies have to be very careful about their corporate image in their mission to be an organisation that cares for the community. The movie made me think about the fine line between doing good for the community for a company’s own interests, and having a genuine desire to do good because they are in a position to. It’s a hard concept I would love to read more about and understand! Do the organisations you are working for put a lot back into the community?

There wasn’t a lot for me to do in the afternoon at Blues n' Roots so I wandered around and sat and watched a few bands. I went and saw the only band I knew at the festival - Husky, perform and they were absolutely amazing. Then I went and grabbed an organic donut and watched Steve Earle and Crosby, Stills and Nash. It was a really great vibe and the weather held off which was good, and everyone was well-behaved!

Later on in the evening Janelle asked me to remind the security guards at the pits of both stages that promo winners could only stay for the first 3 songs so I reminded them at both, then around 6:30pm I grabbed some event jumpers for two promo winners and waited at the VIP entrance for them to arrive. After that, it was around 7pm and Janelle said I was done for the day!

So all in all, it was a great day in the perfect location and, though I didn’t do any huge tasks, I was glad to be there!I’m still in awe of the work the company does to put such amazing events together and I have been so honoured to attend the past few festivals with Sunset Events! Sunset Events has mixed my love of music and interest in public relations and communications activities and I’m enjoying every minute of it.

I think this is crossing over from blog territory to an essay so I better sign off! Hope everyone is enjoying their internships and having some terrific experiences! Can’t wait to read more. Happy Easter!

Lisa

Southbound surveys, SLAM and secret stuff- Sunset Events

Hi everyone,

It's the first day back at uni for most people today and soon it will be the first day of some students internships which is exciting!

I have been doing a variety of tasks at Sunset Events lately, as well as continuing media monitoring and organising publicity documents for each event. Janelle, the communications manager, printed out the survey results from Southbound 2011 and this year, as well as the results from Moshtix. There was a quite a bit of information to sort through! My task was to work out the main changes from Southbound 2011 and 2012. The paperwork given to me showed where people bought tickets from, how people heard about the festival, how much people would spend at the festival, how many people camped, what age groups attended, the backgrounds of people and the postcodes where punters came from.

It was really interesting pouring over all this information because it showed the target demographic of the festival and gave a great overall picture of the festival. I compiled a document and calculated the percentages and numbers that changed between the two years of the festival. There were some notable differences. Surveys are actually so useful because I think that would be a way to improve them and cater to the needs of the target audience. It also gives a good indicator of who attends so that key messages and strategies can be tailored to that specific audience when promoting Southbound!

I realised there can be one downfall to surveys and that is inconsistency. The 2011 surveys were conducted on a certain number of people, and the 2012 survey was conducted with half the number of the 2011 survey, so it is hard to say as larger audience and variety of festival goers were approached. The other problem was that the surveys were conducted differently in each year so it made it impossible to compare some data when it was done completely different. Surveys need to be uniform each year so that you can get a broad picture of the changes and make accurate assumptions.

I have also been looking up flights for a potential competition for West Coast Blues n Roots, a festival coming up on the 1st of April. Singapore also has a roots festival (as they also had a Laneway too!) so my communication manager is brainstorming potential competitions and so I've been doing research to see if it is feasible. I know there may be a few students from/in Singapore so if you're a blues and roots fan you can get more info at www.rockandroots.com.sg/!

I've been doing a fair bit of research for a confidential matter which I'm sure will become public sometime in the near future, but that has been interesting and I've really enjoyed doing it. I find research so enriching because you learn so much! Other than that, I've also been trying to help with SLAM- Save Live Australian Music. It is a cause pretty close to the hearts of all live music lovers to help save live music because it is quite a dying thing. Janelle was looking for bands to get on board and support the national cause but found it quite difficult. I've just been making a document of the WA publicity of SLAM for Janelle to report to the national counterpart.

As usual, there is so much more to say but I will have to save that for next time! Can't wait to hear more about everyone's internships, hope they are all going great!

Until next time,
Lisa

My Southbound experience!

Hello again,

Hoping that all your internships are cruising along and you're all learning lots and having fun! I love reading everyone's blogs and seeing all the different types of public relations everyone is doing.

My internship at Sunset Events is going well- I went to my first working festival at Southbound in Busselton over the weekend and it was absolutely amazing. It was a terrific insight into the industry- showing me the hard work involved on the day as well as experiencing the festival backstage and feeling so lucky!! Arctic Monkeys, Regurgitator, The Grates, Aloe Blacc, Naked and Famous, Beirut, Kimbra, Josh Pyke, Crystal Castles, Grouplove, Arj Barker, Gossling, John Butler, The Kooks, The Jezabels, CSS, Pnau and a million more incredible artists made Southbound another festival success!

I must admit I am SO tired after the weekend because it's been hard balancing work and my internship and life in between!It was so rewarding to see everyone's hard work be rewarded with a great sense of achievement.

Here's a rundown of my weekend:

Friday

6.30pm- Finish work and drive down to Busselton.

9.00pm- Arrive in Busselton, get settled and find the house where I'm staying with a few of the Sunset team.

11.00pm- Janelle arrives back to the house from the festival and debriefs me on what will be happening over the weekend. Then help Janelle organise the onground schedule for the two days, detailing all the artist interviews that will occur, when to meet the media and all kinds of things she will be involved in.

1.00am- Bed time!

Saturday

6.00am- Wake up!

7.30am- Head to festival site.

8.00am- Drive around the site for a site tour, drop off media packs at camping box office and weekend box office. Get set up with lanyard, AAA wristband and little space in the office where we are based.

9.00am- I drive to the Mercure Hotel to drop off media packs for Xpress, the Sunday Times and the West. I then drive to the Bay View Hotel to drop off media packs for the Drum and Street Press.

9.30am- Go into town in Busselton to get coffees for staff. Find out where Mitre 10 is and head there to get Janelle a padlock she needed.

10.00am- Head back to site.

10.30am- I drive to the Busselton airport to pick up promo winners that have just got off their helicopter ride.

11.00am- Sort out how to fastrack the two winners in the huge camping lines, a few dramas and a lot of calls on the radio but I finally got them through. Set them up in their pampered camper areas and dropped their bags, made sure were all settled.

12.30pm- Odd jobs

1.25pm- Meet GWN at media tent and escort backstage.

1.35pm- Meet Colosoul at media tent and escort backstage.

1.40pm- Artist interviews conducted by media in artist lounge.

2.25pm- Meet journalists from the West and promo winner and escort backstage.

2.30pm- Promo winner meets Josh Pyke and conducts her own interview with him backstage.

4.25pm- Escorted media to side of stage and watched them film (there are filming restrictions so I had to ensure they did not film or photograph for too long)

6.30pm- I watched some of Aloe Blacc’s set.

9.00pm- Watched a bit of the Arctic Monkeys interview backstage.

10.15pm- I went to the Crystal Castles set to ensure NO media filmed or photographed the set because they had strict instructions from the tour manager not to. Crystal Castles were half an hour late to the stage and came on to a booing crowd! Only one lady who wasn’t aware of the media restrictions arrived and I let her know about the rule.

For the rest of the evening I watched a few performances, waited around in the office in case there was anything to do and hung around. I spent a bit of time following a lady from GWN around to ensure she filmed things legally.

1am- Headed home- very tired!!Day one complete!

Sunday

7.00am- Wake up. Janelle lets me know there isn’t much on for the day and that I don’t have to arrive on site until later. So lucky! Back to bed for a quick sleep!

10.00am- Go and pick up my sister and go out for a coffee on the main Busselton strip and have a wander around.

12.00pm- Arrive on site and see there is not much on the schedule for the day as the media don’t need as much direction now they know what the go is.

12.50pm- Went and sat down and watched CANT perform their set.

1.50pm- Went backstage and watched Unknown Mortal Orchestra perform their set!! It was incredible being so close to the stage and seeing the whole thing in action.

2.40pm- Watched Josh Thomas and guests perform some comedian laughs from the side of the stage!

3.00pm- Watched Missy Higgins backstage- amazing!

4.15pm- Watched the Jezabels set from side of stage, so close the smoke covered my face from the stage!

6.00pm- Met promo winners at the media tent, gave them a quick tour of backstage and then took them backstage for CSS, Fleet Foxes then CSS again.

7.00pm- Met up with a friend and danced away to the Kooks, my favourite act of the entire weekend!!

8.40pm- Watched John Butler from side of stage.

After this great day of viewing acts I waited around in case Janelle needed a hand but she had everything under control (she is amazing).

10.30pm- I left the site for the drive home to Perth as I had work the following day- it was a terrible drive I could hardly keep my eyes open!

1am- Hop into bed for a much needed sleep!

That is my amazing weekend in a nutshell! I am so grateful for the weekend I’ve had and the experience I have been a part of.

There is a lot more I could say and more I could write about my day but I think this gives a good picture of the amazing work Sunset Events does and a little behind-the-scenes of what goes on at the events!

Thank you for reading- I wonder if any of my fellow interns went to Southbound!

Here are a couple of photos I took on my iphone from side of stage! Not good quality but you can imagine how up close and special it was!

Above: The hilarious Josh Thomas got ALOT of laughter from the massive crowd at the Share Stage!

Above: Missy Higgins performs some songs from her new album and older tunes on the Sunny Stage!

Above: Lead singer of the Jezabels Hayley Mary grabs a drink of water during the set!

Enjoying reading all the blogs! Keep them coming!

Lisa

Southbound festival preparations in full swing!

Hi all,

Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and will be starting off the new year nicely!

Well, it's full steam ahead at Sunset Events because the next festival, Southbound is only 10 days away! It's a hard time of year to be organising festivals because Christmas and New Years are family times and holiday times for many, but for the team at Sunset it seems there is no rest for the wicked! I've been thinking about how many people take holidays this time of year, but everyone at Sunset is so busy it would be virtually impossible. The communications manager (and my supervisor) Janelle is on holidays in Singapore but she is working away on her laptop to organise everything before Southbound kicks off on the 7th of January.

My main role in the lead up to Southbound has been helping to sort out media accreditation for the media organisations wanting to write reviews, film or photograph at the event. They each get packs with welcome letters, information and passes. I've also been organising flights and car hire for big media attending from the Eastern states. I'm continuing media monitoring and have been doing all sorts of little jobs like ordering disposable cameras, editing the Southbound program and promotional material, updating spreadsheets for ticket allocations and emailing those that did not receive media accreditation this festival.

1 word that I would say there is ALWAYS alot of, is: emailing. The communications intern inbox is constantly filling up, but no where near as much as Janelle's. She sends and receives hundreds of emails constantly- all day every day. Her role isn't communications manager for nothing! The capabilites and wonders of emailing, messaging, Facebooking, Tweeting, blogging and all forms of new-ish communication methods are incredible, but I've also been starting to think about the downside to this ease of access and fast communication.

Emailing is so useful in sending and receiving info and contacting people from all over the world, as is other online communnications, but I've noticed that it is so demanding and puts a great deal of pressure on the person to respond in a timely fashion and act upon the email content. I think of Janelle and how she has to meet everyone's needs and read every single email. It's a good thing she is very efficient, focused and hard-working! A good email filing system is essential I think..along with the ability to not get overwhelmed by the number of emails flooding in constantly! Now I realise how necessary good time management, typing and communication skills are because in a job like this there is so much happening and so many things to do that you won't survive if you don't have these skills! And emailing is only one of the online mediums Janelle has to interact with on a daily basis...!

My internship so far has given me such a great insight into the industry, I know there is so much more to learn about not just the event industry but about communications in any workplace. As a keen festival girl I'm now so much more aware about the effort and preparation that goes into events and how important every single person's role in that process is. The operations and logistics managers, the artist liasion managers, the site manager and every single staff member, plays a huge part in organising each festival. I'm looking forward to working at Southbound and seeing how it all fits together and I can't wait to help out at the event! Will keep you updated!

Hope you are all enjoying your internships a great deal and have a happy new year!!

Lisa

The festival season kicks off and so does my internship!

Yoga...Ordering foosball tables...Finding interstate flights...Facebooking...And now blogging!

In one day at Sunset Events all that has happened and more. I had such an exciting day and looking back on it, what made it exciting was the variety of jobs I did and how accomplished I felt.

It was my fifth day at Sunset and a significant one because I feel like my internship kicked off on this day! I am gradually starting to find my way around the busy hub where some of the best festivals in WA are born, and am thoroughly enjoying it.

I'm now used to the quirky, friendly Sunset staff walking around the little Freo shed barefoot with coffee and funny stories and enjoy listening to music and Janelle (the communications manager and my supervisor) having lengthy conversations with herself each day! I am often bewildered how the Sunset team manages to keep their good humour under so much pressure, definitely an admirable trait I would like to have in my future career!

Day five kicked off with media monitoring, online and in the latest editions of the Drum and Xpress magazine then it was time for Wednesday's yoga session. This was my first yoga experience and I'm hooked already. I almost fell asleep if I hadn't been woken by the yoga instructor's soothing voice.

The afternoon's activities consisted of:

• Finding flight options for Channel V crew to come over to Southbound for their segment on following artists around
• Organising a foosball table for Southbound
• Updating website copy for Southbound via website company
• Checking festival websites for errors or incorrect links
• Drafting a media release for the Laneway festival
• Downloading and saving photos from Stereosonic to the Sunset server
• Adding paid advertising to Janelle's marketing megasheet in Excel
• More media monitoring
• Creating a new album on the West Coast Blues 'n' Roots Facebook page and adding in all the professional photos of each artist in the lineup

So, without going into too much detail- it was a pretty productive day! Stereosonic kicked off the festival season on Sunday and so I can tell it is going to be so busy from now on! I'm really glad I'm doing my internship in this time period though because I think I'll get a really good insight into the events industry and all the public relations activities involved in the peak season for Sunset Events.

Will see what's in store over the coming weeks! Am interested to hear about what everyone else is doing in the world of PR internships!
Lisa