Hannah, a final-year student at City College Plymouth studying Live Events. In November last year, she, and some of her course mates took a trip to Cardiff to see ‘Bring Me The Horizon’ with the opportunity to go behind the scenes with the events’ team. The event was organised by City College Plymouth, and supported by Next Steps South West.
According to Hannah, the whole experience has reinforced her desire to work in the live events industry. Her account of the day, really highlights the benefits of getting as much first-hand experience as you can when considering potential careers. Hear Hannah’s account below (thanks for sharing this, Hannah!).
Live Event production Trip to see Bring Me the Horizon
Dates: 27th + 28th November 2018
An early start
We started off our week on Tuesday with our first day of the trip to Cardiff to see ‘Bring me the horizon’. We had to meet at City College at 7 am, yes we all complained it was too early and of course we were grumpy. But setting off this early meant we could have longer in the venue before the concert, talking to the team there.
The journey would take 2-3 hours so thankfully wasn’t too long sat down. We had to stop off in Exeter so we could pick up some students and get breakfast! Once we were all ready, we set off again. We put some tunes on, forgot about the rubbish weather and had a great time. We did some singing, talking and a lot of laughing. By doing this, time flew by and before we knew it we had arrived at the Motorpoint Arena. This was then when the production visit started.
Meeting the team
We met Sam Tozer (an ex-student of the course) at the stage door and he took us around the building, introduced us to the crew and talked a little bit about the show and how they got to the point of allowing the audience into the venue. We spent most of the day there, chatting to the crew, mainly sound lighting and the stage manager.
It was a very technical set up so we looked around in detail at the rigging and stage.
Taking it all in
After that we headed to the hotel we were staying at to check in and drop our bags off. We then had some free time to explore Cardiff city centre. We walked into town from the hotel and grabbed some food at Shake Shack. Then we walked around town for a little bit, taking in the atmosphere, looking in many shops and admiring the Christmas decorations. At about 6 pm we had to meet at the box office to get our tickets and then find a space in a very busy arena. We had free tickets for the evening so we walked straight in. It was amazing.
Finishing with a bang!
Even though it wasn’t the sort of music we listen to, I was still able to get into it. The lighting was pretty cool to watch because was very different from what you normally see at a music concert. It was quite loud but it all added to the atmosphere. To finish off the night, CO2 and confetti cannons went off on stage, and by the control.
So it was finally time to walk back to the hotel and get some sleep. The next day was the day to travel home. We all met up for breakfast and then we didn’t want to hit the storm that was due so we hit the road.
Before we knew it, we were in Plymouth and back.