#hearingdogs

It began 8 months ago…

Each year the second year live music and events students are given the task of hosting their own event on the university grounds. Over the years all of the events have been so well received, so much so that this year we were approached by our first ever client !

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People were our client. They are a charity that train amazing hearing dogs to improve the lives of deaf people across the UK. They had asked us to help them put on their first ever live music event ! Not only was this a fantastic charity to be a support but also a fantastic opportunity for all of us students to prove our passion and capability for the live events industry.

The date had been set for the 6th of May 2018 and plans had gone underway. We decided to call our event , Subwoofers !

We begun our process by dividing into subgroups. The 4 subgroups were: Talent, Logistics, Production and Marketing. I was in Talent. This was my first choice of group to be in as I have been involved in programming music events before as well as performing in them and it is something I have a lot of excitement for. We elected a team leader and cracked on with getting stuck in !

Over the following few months we went back and forth on ideas of the artists we should book. The talent team consisted of quite a lot of people so it was very hard to maintain constant communication with everyone and reach decisions quickly in the early stages. Upon reflection I think quicker and more ruthless decisions should have been made from the beginning and we possibly should have divided up into even smaller subteams within the talent team as this could have meant decisions were reached sooner.

We reached an agreement to have two stages on the day. We had a main stage and a second stage. The Main Stage consisted of 7 acts and the second stage consisted of 6 acts.  The reason for having one less act on the second stage was so we could close it and direct everybody to the mainstage to encourage them to watch the headliner perform the last set of the day. In between sets we had Ben and Rose who were our fantastic DJs.

Other talent we had on site storytellers for children , Magician , face painter and Bucks Blades which is a sword fighting society at Bucks New University. We then had lots of other entertainment such as fairground rides and inflatables and a screening that took place every half hour of, The Silent Child. This is a story of deaf girl who learns sign language. It was important to the hearing dogs that we included this in our event to reiterate to our customers the reason we were all there on the day.

Another really important part of the day was having people from BSL signing the lyrics of the songs that were being performed live from both stages. Om and Reece were the signers around the main stage and they were the highlight of my day ! They did such a fantastic job ! For me I knew all of the hard work over the past 8 months was worth it when I saw a young deaf girl signing along and singing to the music on the main stage. What a beautiful thing to witness, I felt honoured knowing that I had a part to play in bringing that joy and happiness to her.

I made sure I kept the communication strong between the artists , signers and MC. It was important to do this to ensure the performances ran smoothly. The MC was Dominic O'Donovan. If he had not have been introduced to each artist then he would not have been able to make sure each artist was happy with how they were being introduced on stage. If the artist and MC had not been introduced to the signers then they would not have been able to check they were performing at a pace the signers could keep up with.

We had an artist drop out an hour before their set and with no time to book a replacement act we decided to ask one of the acts from the second stage to do an additional slot on the main stage. This is a fantastic example of when good communication was important. After speaking for 10 minutes to brief the MC, Signers and replacement act we managed to all work together and come up with a short set of well known songs that both the artist could play and signers knew well enough to be able to sign at such short notice without the aid of any lyrics.

This event has reiterated the importance of being able to think fast. More often than not when it comes to running an event, problems will be encountered along the way that could not have been foreseen.

I seemed to be running around with a clipboard and radio all day. When I do something I give it 100% and this was not going be any exception. One of my other responsibilities was to look after the MC. Good timekeeping and communication was crucial for this role. I needed to constantly be aware of what was going on all around the site so that all announcements made from the stage were accurate. I had put together a script for the MC a couple of weeks prior the event but additions and amendments were made throughout the day.

One amendment made that kept seeming to change was the raffle. I had not received any information on the raffle prior to or on the day. No signage had been made to advertise the raffle and a couple of times I had been told we were not going to do it anymore. After back and forth discussions I made the decision to take charge of it. I asked the MC to announce it and direct people towards the appropriate tent. Fortunately, people responded to this announcement and tickets were purchased. With time now running out before the end of the event I made the decision that we should announce the raffle in the 10 minute space we had before the headliner was due to go on. I managed to attain a list of all the prizes with only minutes to spare. The MC asked me to go on stage with him to pull the tickets our the hat and announce the winners. Me and him made a good team that day and it was a lot of fun.

Tensions were high on the morning of the event. After months of flyering, preparing signage in the workshop, social media campaigns and endless amounts of emails and phone calls the day was finally here. It was a 7am start in order to allow enough time to finish the last of the site preparation before doors opening and it all kicking off at 1pm.

We had only sold 1000 tickets by the morning of the event which is less than we had hoped for so we were all very apprehensive about what the final turn out would be. Subwoofers had never been run before so no customers really knew what to expect. On reflection we could have possibly had early-bird tickets available at the start to encourage people to purchase their tickets sooner. Fortunately in the end though the weather was perfect and we were in for the best surprise… we ended up with approximately 3,500 attendees! We could not have asked for a better success. The smiles and laughter all day buzzing around the field was infectious. At one point there was even discussions about having to open the overflow car park !

One problem we did encounter was some people getting impatient whilst queuing to get on site, the cue for people who had already bought tickets was getting longer than the ones who had not. In the future to avoid this happening again  I think it would be good to make sure we have some scanners in place, this would have significantly sped things up.

Another possible worthwhile investment for the next Subwoofers would be radios. We only had a limited amount which meant at times me and others members of the team struggled getting quick answers from the relevant people. This would not have happened if everyone had been reachable through a radio.

Once all of the customers had left the site we had a quick briefing and began to dismantle the site. This briefing was very useful because designated jobs for each individual to do was outlined. A briefing like this would have been a useful thing to have done in the morning as well as I noticed then that a lot of people where at a lost end on what job they should be doing and I don't think time was used as efficiently as it could have been used.

Overall, I had a fantastic time planning Subwoofers the past 8 months and I am unbelievably happy with its success. I have really enjoyed getting to know and becoming really good friends with the rest of my team.

I cannot wait to see what Subwoofers no.2 brings !

A new partnership between Bucks New University and Hearing Dogs for Deaf People will see live music performed at the charity’s home in Saunderton this summer. A fun day out has been planned for all the family with live music, entertainment and attractions that’ll leave everyone smiling.

The event, presented in collaboration with Bucks New University’s Bucks Live, will be called SubWoofers and will take place during the bank holiday weekend on Sunday 6 May 2018 at Hearing Dogs, The Grange, Saunderton, Bucks HP27 9NS, from 1pm until 7pm.

 Michele Jennings, Chief Executive of Hearing Dogs says: “We are delighted to be working with Bucks New University on this brand new event. With the growth in music festivals over recent years, we want everyone to enjoy live music, but remember to look after their hearing! The one-day event will raise funds to train more clever, loveable hearing dogs, and we hope lots of families will enjoy a great day out with us.”

Following the success of other Bucks Live events at the University's High Wycombe Campus over recent years, students from second year Music & Live Events Management and Music Business courses have been working with Hearing Dogs over several months to create what promises to be a great fun day out.

 In the UK 11.5 million people suffer from hearing loss* and this number continues to rise. Deafness can be caused by many factors, of which frequent exposure to loud music is one, and increasingly festival goers, well-known musicians and many employed in the entertainment industry are developing hearing loss. We want this event to raise awareness of the causes of deafness, while ensuring live music can still be thoroughly enjoyed.

So as I previously told you, I have been blessed with the honour of being in the Production team. It’s mixed up with 8 females, mainly music and live students and one music business student, all who are striving to make this event a success. We elected our team leader, Jessie Hall who since has had the most experience in the industry so far, fit the title very well. I honestly can’t express enough how much Jessie is a great team leader; she organises the meetings, makes notes, sets out tasks well and feedbacks thoroughly. All hail Queen Jessie!!!

Speaking of tasks, our team is responsible for many things within this event. And even though at the moment a lot of the quotes and ideas are just ‘what if’s and ‘waiting for replies’, we have come very far in the process. A site map has been drawn up in consideration with the stage and all things logistics, a traffic plan is well on it’s way, safety is key, wristbands, barriers, waste disposal, marquees, lights and toilets has been in all of our minds in the past few weeks!