Behind the Scenes - Final Chapter - Fun 4th Hangover

The main ingredient of the Fun 4th week for staff, crew and volunteers is adrenaline. So much happens so quickly and so intensely that we're all just running on incredible bursts of adrenaline. In fact, the adrenaline rush is so intense that you tend to not be able to sleep even when you have the opportunity. So when it's all over, and our bodies stop producing all that adrenaline, we end up with what we call the Fun 4th Hangover. Basically, we crash and we crash hard. Which would be fine -- if we had a week off to recover.

Unfortunately, all that gak and gear we use for Fun 4th gets slammed back into our crazy suite of offices in the Old Greensborough Gateway Building with very little rhyme or reason, and we have to spend the next week sorting it all out, just so we can operate. As much a we'd like to think it's all about Fun 4th, we have other events we have to move on to now. Center City Park, Festival of Lights and Run 4 the Greenway didn't go away while we were shooting off some fireworks and eating funnel cakes.

So here's a peak at what we woke up to on the morning after. We have a few more days of work on it -- and then we're off to the beach! And then -- it is T minus 146 days until Festival of Lights. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, ya'll.....

Betty Cone

I started to write this blog about our fearless leader here at Grassroots Productions, but if you already know Betty Cone, then you'll know that no words I can come up with will be sufficient to describe her. If you don't already know the Queen of Greensboro, find an opportunity to -- you'll never regret it. Betty Cone is one of the most generously committed people you will ever meet -- and one hour of her time is filled with more passion than most people experience in a lifetime. Like I said -- words fall way way short of the amazing complexity that is Betty Cone, but in a universe where a picture is worth a thousand words, this one pretty much sums it up. Congratulations on another fantastic Fun 4th -- thanks for continuing to be our muse!

Behind the Scenes - Part 3 - Expect the Unexpected

We're down to counting hours rather than days now -- hard to believe we're almost ready for you to arrive. As I write, I'm watching our crew load up all the stuff we store in our on-site headquarters at the Cultural Arts Center. After I post this, it'll be time for me to pack up the laptop and head on over myself.

In my last installment, I talked about the details of the Fun 4th that are critical to the success of the event. While "Where Are the Portajohns?" has become our mantra, our Rule #1 has become "Expect the Unexpected." Just a little reminder that we always have to be flexible and and be prepared to think on the fly. You never know what the Fun 4th will bring -- missing folks with Alzheimer's, folks who think that bringing their pet snakes to a festival with 60,000 people is a good idea, lost parents, heat stroke, rogue vendors -- and of course, there's always the possibility of an intense thunderstorm when you least desire it. Like during Festival take-down. When there's no way not to get soaking wet. When you don't have any clothes to change into. Those are the moments when you discover the depth of your creative think abilities -- and the versatility of a Fun 4th t-shirt when you get soaked to the skin.

Yep -- a 3XL Fun 4th t-shirt and a little imagination and you'll be good to go. Expect the Unexpected -- Rule #1 for the Fun 4th, and really, Rule #1 for life, too -- right?

Behind the Scenes

When you come to any of the Fun 4th Festival events, we hope that each event appears effortless, almost as though it has happened by magic. That's the way all good parties should seem. If you've ever hosted a big party, though, you know that's all an illusion.

We're hosting four parties that we call the Fun 4th Festival, for a total of about 100,000 of our closest friends. There's nothing we like better than to see all your smiling faces each year, enjoying all that these parties have to offer. And we hope it seems to you like we've thrown it all together with ease and grace.

This is our 36th Fun 4th so we've been doing this for awhile. Throughout the years, a few things have changed about the Festival, but one thing that hasn't is our dependence on volunteers and staff that we never see except at Fun 4th time. Basically, we have a skeleton staff that operates our little non-profit throughout the year, but come Fun 4th time, our small suite of offices fills with scores of people that we generally only see once a year. Fun 4th Fun Factoid: it takes about 1,000 volunteers to put on the Fun 4th each year. Behind the Scenes note: there are hundreds of them I never even see -- crazy, right?

I'm always excited to see our returning volunteers and crew, to find out what has happened in their lives over the past year, to hear about new jobs, marriages, babies -- the joys and sorrows that are natural to share with folks you spend an intense week with each year. Our little staff spends so much insulated time together, focused on the minutiae of the Festival, that we sometimes forget the FUN part of Fun 4th. Every year, with the influx of all these great people, there comes a new energy that buoys us into the home stretch. I can't say that all the last minute frustrations go away or that you won't hear the sounds of rampant aggravation in our office, but I will say, this time of year, you will also hear the hum of catching-up conversation and getting-to-know-you stories of new found friends. And laughter, you can hear lots and lots of laughter. Hey, it is FUN 4th, after all -- right?!

For all of you who like a good spoiler to your story or a behind-the-scenes look, though, this one's for you. I'll be posting some pictures of our offices over the next few days of prep time. It kind of looks like someone has puked red, white and blue chaos all over the place right now, but like all good hosts, we'll be ready for you when you get to the Festival. First up -- we're T minus 2 days to the Freedom Run & Walk so here's a look at what we're up to. Holy Moley -- I'd better get back to work!!

Bah! Humbug!!

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to say, I really, really hate winter -- and pretty much everything that comes with it. The cold, the darkness, the heavy clothes, the grayness and especially the holidays. Not really the holidays themselves, but what people have turned them into. Needless to say, my desire to create a commercial-free, stress-free holiday season, focused on rebirth and renewal, translates to those around me as a Scrooge-like demeanor.

So one day, into my holiday-free zone, completely unsuspecting, walks my buddy, Ted. Ted is a great guy -- he's a buddy from my bagpipe band days who enjoys playing his bagpipes, coffee -- lots of it, his wife and son and their menagerie, camping, gadgets. Ted is not a guy who is typically burdened by the world-weary musings that plague me. One of Ted's biggest passions is turning his house and yard into an extravaganza of synchronized lights and music for the holidays.

Poor Ted; there came the day when he, in all innocence, began to tell me all about his newest additions to his Trans-Burlington hoopla, ending with, "Don't you just love the holidays?" I, of course, proceeded to tell him everything I thought was wrong with them. At the end of my monologue, with an understandably dumbfounded expression on his face, Ted quietly said, "Oh, I hadn't really thought of all that. I guess you're right. But all I want to do is make people smile."

I realized in that moment that I had been missing something important. Perhaps if I peeled away all the commercials, the long lines for gifts that will soon be forgotten, frayed tempers and everything that drives me crazy about the holidays, I would see, that at the core of everything, everyone is trying to give birth to a smile.

I can't say that this new perspective has completely changed my feelings about the holidays, but it has made me grateful for Ted and what he taught me. Ted will send me a link to his holiday creation this year, as he does every year, and it will make me smile. And it will remind me that every year, at Festival of Lights, I am graced with the opportunity to participate in making someone forget whatever their particular troubles are, even if for just a quick moment -- and smile. Maybe this year, it will be you. Pass it on.......

What did you do at work today?

So, here we are... 3 1/2 weeks before Festival of Lights. What did we do in the office today? Or this week?

1. Decorations .... fixing, updating and making sure that all of the decorations for downtown are in working order. Including: Snowflakes, Bows & Sprays, Light Balls. Plus that 38' Tree that goes in Center City Park.

2. Entertainment ....confirming bands, carolers, magicians, etc....still have an opening or two for some strolling entertainment....do you have a talent?

3. Fire...ah yes, roasting marshmallows and hand warming all need fire pits. They need to be safe, secure and do the job they are required to do!!

4. Arts & Crafts -- meeting with Zeke about the First Friday Indie Market, developing a holiday craft for kids to do on the evening of Fesitval of Lights. Oh, yeah...and Peggy went Old School with some scissors and glue and gave Dolley her Santa look!!

Its a good day!
.

Ode on the Fun Fourth Interns

Summer is slowly winding down. We've, hopefully, had our only bout of dog days, Fun Fourth is all put away and we're actually working on Festival of Lights -- trying to imagine the desire to ho ho ho while it's still August. The clearest sign that summer is ending, however, is that we are saying goodbye to another batch of interns and sending them back into the world.

We started hiring summer interns five years ago. The first batch was Dan, Joe and that pretty girl whose name I can't remember. It's not that she wasn't proficient. In fact, she left her summer internship with us and went off to run a summer festival somewhere in the eastern part of the state. I think me not remembering her name is more a reflection on me than her. The reason I remember Dan and Joe is that they lingered on after their internships were over -- working events periodically. In fact, Joe worked events for the next several years. I don't know where Dan is now; I hope he's doing something great because he really had a lot to bring to the table. Joe, who we figured would never grow up and get a real job, although we probably didn't despair as much as as his parents, is now a manager at Target, married and with a bigger house then I'll ever even dream of owning.

Then there were Fern & Joyel. To be honest, I just spent 15 minutes hunting through the archives to find their names. I remembered Fern distinctly, but I couldn't remember her name, and Joyel -- well, I just couldn't remember her at all until I saw her name. Again -- more a reflection on me and my menopausal brain. Fern was an ROTC student from NCA&T. She had more energy than I had when I was five. Fern wanted be an urban logistical planner or something like that. She made maps and lists and planned out the logistics of Fun Fourth to the last detail. Unfortunately, what Fern hadn't counted on was that on the day of the event, you have to be able to adjust all those carefully made plans on the fly. Joyel was a runner. She was also nice, smart, competent, easy to be around -- she just came and did her job well and left.

The next year, 2006, we had Deanna, Nina and Sara. Part of our internal intern game we play is to guess at the beginning which intern will crater on the 4th, who will just be paralyzed and who will shine. Deanna was bubbly and outgoing, Nina was a complete space cadet who was rarely on our planet, and Sara tried so hard she just ended up annoying everyone. We figured Sara would be paralyzed, Nina would crater and Deanna would shine. In fact, Deanna completely cratered, Nina calmly sailed through the day as though she had been doing this every day, and Sara took us all by surprise by being competent, efficient and a joy to be with the entire day. Deanna and Nina came back the next year just to work Fun Fourth; Sara went of to Mexico to be an exchange student. We still periodically hear from all of them.

Kristen and LaToya were up next. Those two were about as different as they come, and yet they banded together against the common enemy -- me mostly, I think. LaToya had lots of sass and boyfriend problems and cleaned the office when she didn't like what we really wanted her to do. Hard to chastise someone for not doing what you want them to do when they are doing what you don't want to. Kristen was one of those rare finds in the world of interns -- the intern that just got it -- all of it. She seemed to intuitively understand how best to work with us, how we wanted things done, when to walk away because she was finding our nerve, why we do things the way we do them -- even the parts that barely make sense to us. If we could have kept Kristen forever, we would have, but after working for us part-time the next year on the Bicentennial, Kristen went out, like a grown-up, and got a real job.

Crystal was our lone Fun Fourth intern in 2008. Perhaps our reputation is starting to get around because we seem to be having more difficulty finding interns. I felt bad for Crystal -- the combination of being in over her head to begin with and not having anyone to commiserate with was hard for her. She was a very nice young woman and tried very hard so it's somewhat unfortunate that her Fun Fourth claim to fame will always be crashing a golf cart into the gate of a chain link fence on the Fourth because she didn't see it.

(At this point, I do have to at least mention Aislinn. Technically, she was a Grassroots intern in 2008, but we shared her with Greenefields Productions and the Coliseum's marketing department. She was only with us one day a week and was focusing on PR so she didn't get the entire Fun Fourth intern experience -- pulling staples from and cleaning nasty vinyl tablecloths, pouring out year-old soda, etc. She was, however, an excellent errand runner the week of the Fourth and did come in at 5am on the morning of the Fourth to shuttle performers to tv cut-ins. Of course, unlike the rest of us, she was back in bed by 10am, too. She also managed to parlay her internship into some free golf lessons. Obviously, she was our savviest intern.)

That brings us to this year's crop of interns. Carissa and Owen are the youngest interns we've had; they're the first interns we've had that have no particular interest in or knowledge of festivals or event planning; they're the first interns we've had that were friends coming into this chaos. Have they been the best interns we've ever had -- in the sense of independently helping execute Fun Fourth? Probably not, but they brought their own creativity and style to the job that has kept us laughing, they've certainly added a different dynamic to our blog, and what I will remember most about them and always be grateful for is that they were the first interns we've had that actually had a blast at Fun Fourth. Sometimes we lose sight of that whole FUN part -- they reminded us what it's all supposed to be about.

I often wonder how much impact we have on the young lives that put themselves into our care for a few months. Do they ever look and back and say, "When I was a Fun Fourth intern..."? I know that regardless of the fact that I can't remember some of their names, their stories live on in the fabric of Fun Fourth, the rituals that have become specific to every year's interns now. I hope we have become a part of the story of their lives, too.

And while about most of them, I will continue to periodically wonder where they are and what they are doing, this year's interns and the ones that are yet to come will not be so lucky -- in this new age of cyber development we are undergoing at Grassroots Productions, all interns are required to be my friend on Facebook so that I can stalk them and randomly issue quixotic instructions, just to see if the brainwashing is still intact. Perhaps, one day, they'll even have their own Facebook group!

To the interns who have gone before, we salute you -- Fun Fourth would not be the same without what all of you gave to it. To Carissa and Owen, safe travels back to NYU and UNCW -- I'm not sure how what you learned here will translate in your lives, but know that we carry you with us in ours.

Gathering my thoughts, finally

One good thing about Facebook is that it can help jog your memory. Inspired by Owen's post about the post-Fun Fourth "whaaaa?" period, as I like to call it, I decided that maybe I should gather my thoughts about this year's Festival. And then I realized that I'd already forgotten most of what happened. It's not that I have a bad memory; actually, I have a very good memory, especially for things that don't matter. But you, too, would be hard pressed to remember the events of a few crazy, hazy days in which you were operating on only a few hours of sleep. On July 5th, we all experienced that singular phenomenon known as the Fun Fourth Hangover. As I said to Carissa, you only wish you'd been drinking. And then I tried to drive back to the office with my parking brake on, wondering what that awful squealing was for a good minute before I realized it was my car. Take a bow, Robin.

But, as I was saying, I'd already forgotten a lot of what happened this year, but I did recall getting home late on that Saturday night and getting on Facebook very briefly. So I went digging for that status. Here it is verbatim:

Today I was whacked in the face by a tree branch, suffered auditory hallucinations, and laughed so hard that I cried while my boss talked about her idea of chasing me down the street with a gun and/or taser for the local news. And I got to eat funnel cake. And I didn't curse on camera. And I finally felt like I kinda knew what I was doing.

And I thought, "oh yeaaaaaah!" and it all came flooding back to me. Well, maybe not all of it, as I'm sure there are parts I'm repressing for the sake of my sanity, but good chunks of it. I remembered all I'd meant to do that week leading up to the Festival, but had left off or (more likely) forgotten about because I had to put together the Ops bins or transfer important files to a flash drive (which I ended up not using - oh well) or a million and one other things. But here are the things that I remember most clearly:

I was whacked in the face with a tree branch while riding in the back of our entertainment coordinator Kathleen's golf cart. She apparently forgot that Rachelle and I had hitched a ride, even though she was talking to us (yeah...I don't even know), and when she swerved to avoid a branch, her adjustment only changed the target from her to me, and I got hit but good. At which point we all started laughing hysterically, and only after a few minutes of that did either Kathleen or Rachelle think to ask if I was ok. If I'd had my wits about me, I would have milked it for sympathy and favors for the rest of my life. Alas, if I tried to guilt trip her with it now, she'd know I was kidding.

The auditory hallucinations came later that night, while Rachelle (who really was my partner in crime during the latter part of the day) and I were shuttling golf carts back to the parking garage, where they would live until they were picked up the following Tuesday. I had a radio in my golf cart, and all of a sudden I thought I heard a very inappropriate word over the airwaves. I grabbed the radio, turned the volume way up, and held it close to my ear. I didn't hear the inappropriate word again, but I did hear what sounded like "pizza" and "how much should we tip?" and I got very, very excited. It had to be at least 9pm, and I'd been up since 5am, and at that point the thought of pizza was literally the Best Thing That Had Ever Happened In The History Of Ever. And then I pulled up alongside two of our crew members and asked if they'd heard this wonderful conversation, and they looked at me as if I had lost my mind. A little while later, Rachelle and I went inside, and Rachelle asked Peggy if they had ordered pizza or if I was delusional. Peggy informed her that I had, indeed, gone crazypants. And all this occurred while I was operating a motor vehicle. So that was safe.

As for being chased down the street by a taser-wielding Peggy...well, as Owen pointed out, we're very particular when it comes to tablecloths and staples. We've all, at some point or another, gotten stabbed by a staple that didn't get pulled out when the tablecloth was removed from the table, and you learn very quickly that it's easier to make sure they're all out before the tablecloth gets folded up and sent back to the office. Rachelle and I brought a stack back from Festival Park, and I assured Peggy, who was putting them in bins to go back to the office, that all the staples had been removed. Well, it turns out I lied. And the kindly police officer stationed outside HQ had been gleefully showing us his taser, and I 'd been dragged before a TV camera earlier in the evening (hence the comment about not cursing on camera, which, as Owen also pointed out, was quite a feat) to talk about What We Do at Fun Fourth, and, well...that night, there was nothing funnier to us than the idea of Peggy chasing me down the street, in full Mommie Dearest mode, screaming "NO MORE STAPLES, EVERRRR!" Film at 11, back to you, Random Anchor person.

(Sadly, no one thought to actually take a picture of our brilliant scenario,
so this will have to suffice.)

And I got my funnel cake, and it was good, and no one was stabbed in the getting of it (at least not by me).

At some point in the near future, I'll blog about what I do when we're not in Fun Fourth Panic Mode. That post, I assure you, will not be nearly as long as this one.

Fun Fourth Haiku of the Day

Delicious fair food

Crafts, rides, music and more

Fun Fourth Festival!

-- Peggy Hickle

End of the World

In case you've not experienced this for yourself, let me share with you an irrefutable fact -- some of the most pivotal moments of life begin as what seems like a coincidence. Ancillary conclusion -- there are no coincidences.

Case in point, End of the World Records. Bear with me, as it may take awhile to get to the point part of this case, and how it relates to Grassroots Productions. The first thing you need to know is that I am a huge fan of bagpipe music. (I told you this might be a long road.) While other girls were swooning over David Cassidy, my heart belonged to the Band of the Black Watch -- my dearest wish was to see them perform live. (Yes, I got to go see them in high school. No, I never got beaten up.) The reason this is important is that it was my love for bagpipe music that took me to the High Point Theatre almost 5 years ago to see the first concert by Jamestown Pipes & Drums. As a part of the concert, the band had invited the wife of one of their pipers to perform.
Her name was Andrea Reese, and when she began to sing her first song -- one of several original compositions she played that night -- my mind lit up like a lightning storm on a late August night. Despite the fact that the sound technician couldn't find his way around a sound board for anything, my world was transformed. I knew I was privileged to be hearing an amazing talent.

So the second thing you need to know about me is that I was trained to be a stage manager so when I go to the after party, I am compelled to shoot my mouth off about how much better the concert could have been if this, that and the other thing had been done differently. Ah yes, I'm sure you can see what's coming -- by the end of the night, I had pretty much agreed to stage manage the second concert (in fact, I stage managed two more concerts, joined the band and learned to play a tenor drum before it was all through, but that really is another story).

In addition to being so bedazzled by bagpipes that I practically signed my life away to a band, I also managed to gush all over Andrea Reese in a very teenage, star struck fashion. The result of that was a phone call from Andi a couple of months later, asking if I wanted to drive to Lenoir with her, where she had a date at a recording studio to lay down some tracks for her CD. Well, gosh, what almost 50 year old, crazed fan, singer wannabe wouldn't want to do that? Andi was livin' the dream, and I was gonna tag along as far as I could!

So who knew that tucked away in Lenoir, NC is Epiphonic Studios, an amazing recording studio in a renovated Catholic Church, complete with stained glass windows? Founded by Nate Pritchard (who has worked on albums for the likes of Martina McBride, Allison Krause and Dave Matthews), Epiphonic is an artist's dream come true. After a day in the studio with Andi, I was more smitten than ever -- with her music, with recording studios and all that wonderfully geeky equipment (so many buttons, so little time), and with the entire music industry as a whole. As much as I would have given my right leg to have even a fraction of Andi's talent, the truth is, I was chosen to clap and cheer.

You never know when inconsequential events in your life will prove to be turning points. So here we are, four years later. Over the years, Andi and Nate have both become good friends of mine. I have been lucky enough to get to watch, not only the evolution of Andi's first CD, Rain, etc., which will be released on May 26th, but the birth of Nate's new NC record label, End of the World Records -- every bit of which, from the artists to the labels that go on the CDs, has roots in North Carolina. Their desire to bring their passions to life has inspired me in ways I could not have foreseen. And it has been my pleasure and my joy to be chosen to clap and cheer all along the way.

Now -- what in the world does this have to do with Grassroots Productions, you're still asking? Well, I have had so much fun clapping and cheering, I want to share the fun with the rest of the world. On May 31st 2-5pm at Center City Park, you, too, can clap and cheer for Andrea Reese as she performs at our very first Sunday in the Park of 2009, along with another little group you may have heard of -- Polecat Creek.

Did I make my point about there being no coincidences? Perhaps it will all be clearer when I see you at Center City Park on May 31st. Hey, who knows, maybe later I'll let you listen to my bagpipe music collection.