Ignite PlanningInitial idea:
To organise a whole school musical event which will promote a feeling of community spirit and across both campuses and sections of the IST community. Although we are one school the fact that we are on different campuses means that we sometimes feel like two separate schools. When there has been a cross-over such as pre ISSEA events it seems to have been appreciated by all. I would like to organise this event which I hope will use the medium of music to inspire and unite our school.
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1 week before event:
The performers have now submitted their song choices, and I have listened to all the groups who will be performing. Although an audition was not required to perform I wanted to listen to al groups to make sure that people were prepared and up to performance standard. The new proposal form has been sent in with all details of the event. I am having daily meeting with Mr Hewit as there are still many aspects of Ignite which need finalising. At the moment with numerous ID deadlines due in it is really hard to juggle my normal workload with all the additional things which need to be done. Each evening I have several emails to send and respond to. I am corresponding with the Es music teacher, Security, Mr Tate, Ms Milne and Mr Sylvester (from Food lovers) and the lighting provider. I am also in touch with Irfan from the student tech team who will be covering the stage lighting and also Mr. Adrian who will be covering the PA system. Although initially the band/group TRIBE agreed to perform they have recently said that they have not been able to practice and therefor will not be performing. This is a real disappointment to me as I was hoping that their performance would encourage an audience not attainable from the other acts. TRIBE is a well-known group in the IST student community and it would have been good if they could have performed. Never the less I hope that without them there will be a broad audience. After my meeting with Mr. Smith I realised that I would require more support staff than initially expected. As it was an ‘out of school’ event because it was a student organising it, this meant that I would have to organise any support staff needed as well as their overtime pay. A lot of the budget so far had been self-explanatory, for example because Food lovers would be catering they would automatically organise themselves. However, this part of the event would need a budget from elsewhere. I initially thought of asking Food Lovers to contribute to the budget for the cleaners as a majority of the waste they would be cleaning would be from the food rubbish. After thinking this over I decided I would discuss with Mr. Hewitt and see what he thought. We decided the best way to make the money was to have a donation box available on the evening. Although this made it uncertain whether we would make enough there was limited options where else I could get the money from. |
The day of the event:
In the morning I briefly met with Mr. Nsari to confirm the preparations were in place. At 12:30 the stage was being set up and the P.A system was already up and being tested. Mr. Hewitt and Mr. Kelly spent the last hour of the school day making sure everything was set up and ready to go for the rehearsals after school. I think it was great to have been setting up before the end of the school day as this meant people saw the stage and it would have reminded them about the event. Although I had already sent out an email to all performers asking them to make sure they were in place to do rehearsals straight after school I was disappointed that only a few groups turned up. However, gradually people came to do a quick sound test. All the stage crew had other commitments straight after school meaning they could only be briefly showed what exactly how the instruments and microphones needed to set up for each act. The atmospheric lighting people did not arrive at the expected time, 2:30pm, meaning it was quite a rush to set up the fairy lights. The elementary school performers arrived at 5:00pm to practice and go through each of their performances. At 6:35 promptly the event began. Student feedback:
Grace: “ the invite music event was the best thing I have done since I arrived in Tanzania. I particularly enjoyed watching so many people perform. I really liked the stage and the lights. It looked really exciting I hope that it will happen again next near” Beth: “it was an awesome event. I loved taking part and performing." |