Come along to Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival with Health, Fitness and Exercise student Rachael, as she takes on a summer placement with the Bella management team!
Team Bella
Let me introduce myself…I’m Rachael, a mature student at UHI Moray and an aspiring strongwoman. I have just graduated after studying health, fitness and exercise and a PDA in personal training for the past three years (a bit different to events or tourism) so what on earth made me apply for a Belladrum internship, I hear you ask!
When UHI emailed students asking for interns at Bella, I jumped at the chance of doing something completely different than the previous few years and penned my application email. Lots of roles were up for grabs, however, working directly with the Bella management team sounded right up my street. First hand experience of one of Scotland’s largest music festivals was too good an opportunity to miss! I have organised events in the past, and have a real passion for events planning and bringing fun and laughter into people’s lives. I really want to put Elgin on the strongman map and organise a competition, so I figured that an internship at Bella would really give me an insight into how a large scale festival was organised and executed.
Monday arrived and I was up early to shuttle my children off to the childminder and head for my first day as an intern. I was ready for whatever team Bella threw at me, that happened to be a mountain of laminating!
First task completed and it was time for a tour of the festival grounds, it was really great to see all of the different areas starting to come together, lots of hustle and bustle and various teams carrying out everything from building stages to putting up flags and decorations. It was hard to imagine that in only four days, over 20,000 happy festival goers would fill every corner of this epic site!
Every year has a different theme, this year was cartoon/pop art, so all of the decorations have to be repainted and renewed, including these awesome six foot signs that adorn the champagne bar. I helped to screw in the lighting around the edges!
By the end of Monday, I had met a lot of different crews and knew that the next day I would be helping the creative team to put up bunting, decorate the VIP area and decorate walkways. There was also more laminating to do, with some stapling thrown in for good measure! At this stage of the event it’s all of the little last minute jobs that really need to get done, even if they were less than glamorous, it was still fun as you knew what the end goal was and knew you were part of something bigger.
Wednesday evening saw the arrival of hundreds of campervans and caravans, all of these needed siting and settling in, it also saw me pitching my home for the next few days, quiet staff camping was provided and we even had hot showers, which were a godsend after a hard day working on site. It was also the eve of opening, so Wednesday was busy putting up signage, titivating, unpacking and setting up the vanity area in the VIP village.
Spiderman also swung by and set up home in the trees near the Bella youth spot. Getting him in position was no small task, given that he was approximately the size of a bus and it was warm and breezy, it took the creative team most of the afternoon to get him up and sitting pretty. It was all worth it to see the joyful looks on the kids (and adults) faces on opening day!
Throughout the whole week, onsite catering took care of our nutritional needs and for the coffee fix, Frankie and Carol at Bumblebeans were on hand and crafted a gorgeous coffee, with a cheeky slice of clootie dumpling!
The wait is over, the planning has finished, now it’s gates open time! Thursday afternoon, lots of early bird festival goers have arrived into the arena for the afternoon’s performances, last minute tasks have me running about between teams, lending a hand wherever it’s needed, putting up event maps, setting up phone charging stations and building jenga towers were all part of my day. By the end of Thursday, I had covered over eleven miles and was glad when I finished and ended up backstage whilst Skerryvore performed their set (all part of the perks of being a Bella team member). I stayed to watch Sam Ryder and Sigrid totally smash their performances and also found some friendly faces in the crowd (do you recognise them?)
Saturday started off with a shift in the VIP area making sure it was all set up, tidy and ready for opening at 9am, I worked alongside the lovely Club Clan Bella manager Cairan and together we made sure that the VIP area was fit for, well…VIP’s!
The rest of Saturday for me was spent divided between VIP and entertainments crew, who were responsible for everything not on the main stages, including a high energy stunt team, wrestlers and five weddings across the weekend!
The finale! Saturday was here, I started at 8am, down to VIP again (this was now my base as Cairan’s 2nd in command, not bad for an intern) as I was still needed at different points to help other teams, so I learned how to “flip” the dressing rooms (showbiz term for tidy it up) and brushed up my customer service skills ensuring all in the VIP village had the best possible experience.
After a very tiring, exciting week of being a Belladrum intern I was now finished and free to enjoy the remainder of the festival with family, so we sat on the grass in the sun and enjoyed watching Torridon together.
In the end I had covered over twenty miles, 153,000 steps, one box of churros, copious amounts of coffee, several new experiences and made heaps of new friends, I will forever look back on this experience with fondness and take away that it really does take a huge, dedicated team to put on such a festival, orchestrating so many different elements and ensuring that they all fit together in the end at the right place at the right time is a mammoth task and the Belladrum management team truly are inspirational!
For anyone else that gets offered this opportunity I’d say take it, even if event management isn’t something that you’ve ever thought about, because this experience is far more than just putting on a show, it’s about teamwork, resilience, adaptability and seeing what you’re really made of, and I for one do not regret one step, one laminated sheet or late night!
That’s all folks!
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