I know, I’ve done it again. I’ve not written a word for ages.
Mainly because I’ve been so bloody rushed off my feet with helping to organise a festival. I’m supposed to be the ‘PR and Communications Manager’ which basically means writing the odd press release and updating Facebook and Twitter. For the last fortnight (pretty much), I’ve lived and breathed the festival. I’ve replied to a hundred band applications, built a website, updates Twitter and Facebook and pretty much got muddled up with who I am, when I am. All on basically no budget and no help from someone who was supposed to be helping. Fair enough, the kid’s doing his uni work – which I do understand – it’s just that in the meeting he promised to help and then backed out. Which has left me looking more and more like Hermione from Harry Potter when her hair gets bushier the more stressed she gets.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved every minute and managed to manage my time well enough to be a mummy for the monsters too (even if it meant I didn’t get to bed until nearer 1am some nights answering emails) – but answering pretty much the same email upwards of a 100 times can be a bit annoying.
Let me explain a bit more why…
I stressed on several posts as the Festival for bands to clarify their genre so that their details could be forwarded onto the relevant stage manager. Alt-Rock is not enough of a genre when Alt-Rock covers pretty much anything that isn’t in the charts. There are several sub-genres of Alt-Rock – indie, heavy, punk, ska (to an extent), metal, post-hard core… You get my drift. Several emails later and I finally get to the bottom of what stage they should be heading for. Or then there’s the ones who don’t bother putting any genre down at all and just links. All well and good, but when you’ve been asked to specify your genre and keep it short and sweet, it’s for a reason. Namely the poor sod reading and answering the emails hasn’t got the time to sift through and click on every link and listen to every song to work out where you should be. It isn’t that bloody hard to just say ‘Indie/Punk’ or ‘Metal/Thrash’ and by doing that, you’re more likely to make the person answering the emails actually like you.
That bit is as important as actually getting sent to the right stage. The first person answering your email has the power. The power of the delete finger. Think of the person answering the emails as Alan Sugar on a bad day. If you don’t put the relevant information in, you’re immediately fired. Luckily, I’m quite nice and persevered with each band to the point of actually coaxing the information out them, like you would coax a wary dog into the bath. Even the band who made up a whole new genre, making themselves sound like total and utter arses who would be absolute nightmares. Although, I’ll admit I was tempted to just hit delete.
Then there’s the bands who pester. No, not pester, harass would be a better word for it. The one’s who expect an immediate reply and will badger you more and more until you get the point where you’re practically using caps locks to say, don’t email me anymore. Badgering me won’t get you a slot at the festival and I certainly won’t pester the stage manager for you – especially not when you’re emailing me at midnight on a Friday night about it, via my personal email! Or the bands who won’t take no for an answer and continuously apply even though the applications process has closed after it was open for two weeks…
And, breath.
It’s not really that bad to be honest… This is just an insight into how hectic the world of working behind the scenes of a festival can be… Wouldn’t change it for the world though
Diary Of A Faker 