The summer season is in full swing with in the borough. We grabbed a few minutes with super-busy Senior Events Officer and mum Holly Glover, 31, to find out what her typical day is like as some of the biggest festivals and events in the entire region - including the award-winning Between the Tides family festival – draw near.
Early morning
No day is ever the same. In fact, they vary wildly. But I’d say the really big difference is between a normal day, where I’ll get to work at about 8.30 and an event day where we might be in at five in the morning after helping set up at 9pm to 10pm the night before. Not that we mind. When there is a really big festival it is such an exciting time…we absolutely thrive on it. We’re a tight team - there are only three permanent members and an apprentice, so we’re all together, working as one and engaging with our brilliant partners and artists.
I love all our events and the whole process of putting them together and the magic when they come to reality. My degree was in Theatre Studies and I became more and more excited about behind-the-scenes work. I’ve worked in the creative industries for ten years but when this job came up two-and-a-half years ago I was so excited and overjoyed when my application was successful. It is perfect me. My absolute favourite festival is the family fun weekend Between the Tides we hold at Kirkleatham Museum and Grounds, which, we are always proud to say, has won the North East Cultural Event of the Year Award. This year it will be held on Saturday 22 August and Sunday 23 August and, honestly, it’s going to the biggest one yet.
On the morning of any big event we’re organising and you just name it and we’ll be doing it: loading, safety checks, briefing staff managers, medical and security, checking sound systems, working with our ‘clean and green’ cleaning teams, checking the toilets, checking in with car park contractors, helping artists with set dressings, the all-important safety walk and checks. All that and much more.
It’s all the culmination of months and months of work. For example, on a more normal day, we might have a team meeting in the morning just focused on one event. We have to be very focused on each event and organised with our time. We’re constantly talking to each other and planning.
Mid to late morning
If it’s an event day, it will usually open at 9am or 10am. We’ll monitor, patrol, check in with artists and stall holders, make necessary changes to running schedules, deal with any problems around parking, check toilets and radio systems and much more. In the weeks running up to festival, we’ll have been monitoring the weather forecasts daily. Plans are always in place and major changes do have to be made. That happened in the Kite Festival in June although it’s unlikely the public will have noticed as the main festival did go ahead. It can be heart-breaking when activities are cancelled after months and months of hard work, especially for the artists. But safety always comes first. It’s something everyone really understands.
In a more typical period, we will often be finding and contacting traders, pulling together event programmes, dealing with documentation. We must make sure we’re really up-to-date on health and safety procedures – it’s my least favourite part of the job but there can be no half measures there. It’s not only for our own events. We support many other organisations who put on very important festivals in the borough and have really good relations with them.
Early afternoon
On any average day, we drink lots of tea and coffee as we talk things through. A constant focus is marketing and media. The physical, non-digital side or marketing, remains absolutely crucial. We work with contractors on posters, flyers, imagery and so on and send marketing packs right across the north. For example, for Redcar Kite Festival we had marketing packs at libraries, Tourist Information Centres and other outlets from southern Scotland to Manchester and everywhere in between. Of course, the digital side is also central to spreading the word. As well as our own social media - which keeps on growing - and website, we engage directly with online communities and bloggers. We are always looking for media opportunities and have great relations with journalists and our Communications Team. We’ll quite often be chatting on local radio about what’s coming up.
A lot of work goes into engaging with the community. We work hard on making sure we get real, valuable feedback. We’re not looking for the nice stuff. The focus is always on ways to improve. We’ll have panels with traders, artists, businesses and festival-goers of all ages. We engaged with 900 people for the kite festival. We enjoy going into schools. We’ll get the children to create their own ideal festival and have them create posters. It’s fun but we’re also plugging into to what they want. One thing that came up strongly from our children was that they always want there to be a pizza van! In a parent consultation, we had mothers asking for space to breastfeed which also fits with one of our council’s campaigns.
Late afternoon/early evening
On the day of one of our festivals, this a very busy time which goes into the night. It’s helping pack up and also making sure everything is right for ‘normal’ life the next morning. We’ll be very tired and it is far, far from glamorous. If a toilet needs cleaning, you’ll often find yourself doing it.
On a normal day, I’ll finish at about 4.30pm to 5pm and, the best moment of the day, go and collect my daughter and make dinner. My daughter has been dragged along to all kinds of work consolations and events to get her reaction as a child. She’s become quite the expert!
Later on, when my daughter is in bed, I’ll quite often read and research about the job. It’s not a chore - I really enjoy it. There’s so much to learn and I love it this work. I’m a Teessider through and through and I love bringing positive, fun vibes to our area.