On the Road with Sara: May 2010

Well this is a little after the fact but thought some of you may be interested. I was officially checked out for Derby! =) Normally, I'm at home sleeping because we've work for a week and half straight at the Derby Festival. This year I had an event in Chillicothe, OH with the Simon Kenton Council of Central Ohio Boy Scouts. They were celebrating their 100th Anniversary! And it was a great time! There were over 7,000 folks in attendance. They camped out all weekend and long, and yes, stuck it out through the crappy, rainy weather. Fortunately, there was never any severe weather! My responsibilities included coordinating basically anything that took place on the central stage. We brought in a 40x40 stage and planted it right in the demo derby track of the Ross County Fairgrounds. Setup was Thursday and Friday and we were ready to roll for opening ceremonies Saturday morning at 9:00AM. The ceremony went off wonderfully including the local high school marching band playing the national anthem as a paratrooper falls from the sky with the flag and lands just as the band finishes. Crazy timing! Then for the fun part....the rain. It came and it went, fortuntately while we had a break and were at IHOP. But then we got back to the stage to find it was now sitting in a mud pit. Slimy, Sticky, Gooky mud. Definitely made for a fun time! We had to either go barefoot on the stage or switch shoes from muddy to clean to be able to come aboard. LOL With this we had to reorganize how the band would be loading in and where to park the bus. Thankfully we working with a great band: The Eli Young Band. Option 1: Didn't work; bus got stuck twice...lucky we got them back out both times. Option 2: Pull the trailer up with a pickup and park the bus all the way on the other side of the track. Everyone really pulled together and worked to get the job done. The clouds parted right before show time and we even had a little sun! Closing ceremonies went off without a hitch and the band got started. Probably the funniest story of the weekend: I had gone around front to the grandstand to check on the merch guy. I get a text from the client asking "Can they make an announcement if this gets out of hand?". I had no clue what he was talking about. It all look fine when I left. Then I peek back outside....Over a third of the crowd was crowded up at the front of the stage...reaching for the band and their picks and there's 4-5 Boy Scouts staff in the pit and mud trying to keep them calm and from coming over the guardrail. I couldn't help but chuckle! Other than the fact that there were some little ones getting squished they were having fun and that's what mattered. The bass player said it best when he came off the stage. He told me that he was worried when everyone was sitting still and in their seats...but when they got up and came to the stage that's when the fun began. They were being kids...the way they should be, he said. I got to speak with several of them while they were waiting in the hour and half line for autographs about their weekend. That's what was best about my time there.
Unfortunately, the next day was teardown day and in the rain. The production crew was busting it to try and get things packed up and out of there as quickly as possible, knowing they would have to come back a few days later to get their trucks and stage that were stuck in the mud!
I finally got home (the first time I'd been home, besides sleeping in about two weeks) and slept the rest of the day! What a great experience, a few learning curves along the way, and I think I still got to experience the muddy infield even in Ohio! =)

On the Road with Sara

Friday, May 7, 2010

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Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Derby Weekend!!

Blog time!