This weekend I worked the FunFunFun Fest, presented by Transmission Entertainment. This event took place at Waterloo Park on 15th street and Trinity in down town Austin. The festival went on for two days, Saturday the 7th through Sunday the 8th. I’d say there were easily six to eight thousand Austinites who attended, and that is not including all of the artists, production crew, and band aids. I wanted to help with the festival any way I could, so I decided to volunteer.
As soon as I arrived on Saturday afternoon, I received my bright yellow t-shirt. It had really fancy graphics on the front in the shape of a three headed mutant wolf that read “FunFunFun Fest 2009”, and “Will Work for Fun” on the back, followed by the word “VOLUNTEER”. The person who handed me the shirt also happened to be the person I signed up with. She was an eighteen year old girl who went by the name of Zo. I had previously discovered that this young lady had been in charge of handling and organizing huge festivals such as this one since she was only sixteen. I was very impressed when I heard that bit of information, and I know I will continue to hear about her again as long as I live in Austin and stay in tune with its thriving music festival industry.
So I’ve got my t-shirt at this point and I am ready to work. There were four stages on site. The orange, blue, black, and yellow stage. The orange was the biggest and also the main stage where all of the headliners play. I knew that working one of the four was where I needed to be, considering my experience of being at festivals, and knowing how things go behind the scenes. I also knew that if I didn’t assert to Zo that I was too overqualified to handle petty things such as checking bags at the gate and/or standing around taking orders from gate security, (of which was an entirely separate company from Transmission Ent) I would have ended up doing just that. So I let her know right off the bat that I would prefer going back into the depths of the festival, where I could get a professional, action packed workload. She acknowledged the gravity in my voice and vouched for me. “Sure!” she said, “You can head over to the orange stage. Talk to Darrel and ask him what he needs you to do.” Yes, that is what I wanted to hear.
I thanked Zo and started toward the main stage. Suddenly I was swimming through hundreds and hundreds of young people. They all seemed to be between college-aged and late thirties. Most of them had an edgy, rocker style. I saw tattoos, piercings, mohawks, dreadlocks, purple hair, buzz cuts, tight ripped jeans, graphic t-shirts with band emblems, and a lot of people carrying poles with a colorful, unique object hanging from the top, such as a bunch of peacock feathers or a worn out teddy bear. I call them “spotters”, and their purpose is to keep large groups of friends from losing each other. As I continued trekking, I was amused at the thought that if I had spent sixty dollars at the door for a wrist band like they did, I too, would be wearing my ripped up festival jeans, have Converse All Stars on my feet, sporting my favorite band shirt and wearing war paint. But I was there for a different reason than they were.
Soon I found my way to the side entrance of the orange stage. I made eye contact with a security guard. She saw my t-shirt, smiled, and let me in without any confrontation. I must say that it felt pretty great to just waltz on through the gate like that. My first impression was that there seemed to be about the same amount of people wearing the same kind of clothes as the fest attendants. I then felt that the only difference between this side of the fence and the other was that there were tents, bean bags to sit on, and free red bull. Then I became aware of how close I was to the rock stars. I could almost smell the fame. Next thing I knew I was face to face with Darrel. He was a young, energetic man who looked to be around 25. I told him my name, he firmly shook my hand and with a big smile he said, “Great, Meggan! Come with me and I’ll explain everything you are going to be doing today.”I followed him up some stairs that led to a ten by fifteen foot platform standing a few feet below the actual stage. There was a band playing at the time. I couldn’t see who it was because there were many people standing in my view taking photos and dancing. “Some of these people,” Darrel explained, “have no business standing here. They are with media or they are just friends of the band, and I don’t even see wrist bands on them.” He grinned at me profusely. “So this is where you come in. You will stay near the foot of this staircase. Only people wearing yellow or green wristbands, or VIP’s wearing plastic passes around their neck are permitted on this platform. You are going to turn away anyone who does not have these credentials.” He paused. I was listening intently. “Think of it this way, the more people you turn down, the better you are at doing your job. These kids will come to you with every made up excuse in the book, so use your better judgment as to who you think is lying, and who is telling the truth. And nine times out of ten, if they don’t have credentials, they are lying to you.”
I took every word he said and locked it in. He then proceeded to tell me if I had any questions I could call him, and he would not be far. I took my position and my job had begun. I had to turn down about 40-50 people. Some didn’t take it lightly, especially the female population. But most were good sports. I was close to the music and near all the action. Later in the evening we got some rain, so they sent me to another location where I helped a team dry a smaller stage with towels. Then I was sent back to my previous post.
Transmission Entertainment was a great team, and a joy to work with. At the end of the event I received a text from one of the stage managers. It read ‘Thank you for all of your help, Meggan. You were one of our best volunteers, and we look forward to you helping out in the future.’ It was very humbling to receive such a message. I will for sure be a part of their next big event, and in due course, I will be interning with them. All in all, my FunFunFun Fes
t experience showed me that while working a festival, I can handle just about anything that comes in my direction, even if that means I have to tell some rock star’s girlfriend that she can’t get on stage because she doesn’t have a wrist band. Sorry girl..Oh well. I had fun...fun.. .and more fun.
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