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Orlando Entertainment Culture

When you are looking for a new place to live, with endless varieties of entertainment and culture, what kind of things do you look for? For me, I look for activities, food, drinks, festivals, and music.  Growing up on Long Island, and right outside of New York City, I was fully surrounded by all of the culture and entertainment I could possibly imagine.  But, after living there for the first 20 years of my life, I decided to make the hard choice of leaving my comfort zone, and moving to a new place. Since it was my first move though, I wanted to go somewhere where I could still feel a sense of community and familiarity.  Orlando, Florida has been a second home to me my entire childhood, as I grew up going to Disney World multiple times every single year.  So, this felt like the perfect opportunity to have my first big move to a new city with a new culture.

Orlando is a really amazing and unique place when it comes to culture. You have all of those aspects of culture and entertainment that most larger cities have, with a huge added layer. Orlando’s theme parks like Walt Disney World and Universal Studios were a huge draw for me when I made the decision to come here. I love the theme parks, and knew working at the parks would be a fun opportunity for me as an entertainment management major. I found that the theme parks brought such a different cultural experience than many other places I’ve been. There is a huge community just within the theme parks and there are endless things to explore within each park.

My favorite aspect of the theme parks is their festivals throughout the whole year. Each park has their own festivals full of food, drinks, theming, and entertainment during each season. As someone who loves EPCOT(and works there), my totally biased opinion is that they have the best festivals. I think they have the perfect combination of live entertainment and special offerings that I usually can’t even completely see throughout the whole festival. I love the focus EPCOT has on culture and how they incorporate that into every single thing they do. With their Flower & Garden festival or Food and Wine Festival, you can try new foods from different cultures while also experiencing live concerts and performances around the park from local artists and more well-known artists.

While I have explored the theme park culture thoroughly, I feel like I need to explore more areas of Orlando. There is so much to see and do in Central Florida. Something else that I love about this area is the cruise industry. Living in Central Florida is amazing because you are 45 minutes away from both coasts that have beautiful beaches and cruise ports that make it super easy to travel. The best part about living in Orlando is the array of opportunities I can have, as far as my future career goes.  With such an immense entertainment industry with such variety, I feel like I have so many options once I graduate and I have a lot of peace of mind when it comes to that.  

If there was one thing I could improve about the Orlando entertainment culture, it would be the music scene.  There are concerts and a lot of smaller venues, but as someone who sees a lot of bigger artists, I think we could use a midsize arena or amphitheater.  With many artists only going to Tampa, Jacksonville, or Miami, I find myself always traveling to shows that I want to see.  I would much rather be able to drive 15-20 minutes to my shows, and Orlando could become a bigger hotspot for more famous artists.

As the time goes on and I am about to graduate, I find myself looking for what is next.  Where could I possibly have my next big adventure and learn about a new culture in a new place.  My best friend just recently moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and I have been considering moving there for a while now.  If I want to work in the music industry, Nashville would be an absolutely amazing place to be.  Each little area surrounding Nashville has its own scene and culture, and the more you explore it the more you realize it isn’t just for country music lovers.  It is so hard to even think about leaving this amazing city that I have called home for the past two years, but it also excites me to think about learning about a completely new place as I start this crazy new chapter in my life.

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"OcTourber"

By now, we can see how much I love concerts and theater, since I write about it every week.  Growing up in New York exposed me to so many artists and a variety of genres.  Now that I live in Florida, I don’t find it as easy to enrich myself as not as many artists come to my area, as well as live theater.  Having New York City down the road from me my entire childhood really spoiled me into my adult life.  So, there’s only one way for me to see my favorite artists, and that is to travel as much as I can to different places to see them.  One of my favorite memories ever is when me and my friends went “on tour” in October of 2021.

2020 was a rough year for absolutely everyone.  With COVID running rampant around the entire world, almost every aspect of life was put on hold.  This was especially true for the entertainment industry.  With no live events happening in person, artists had to find ways to perform and entertain their audiences virtually.  That was a great distraction from the struggles of reality during such a dark and sad time for the entire world.  With that, many tours and shows were rescheduled for 2021.  For me, all of my concerts for the year just happened to be rescheduled to the same exact month.  This meant I would spend the entire month traveling all around the country, and that was perfect for me.  It was all within this month that I would see Harry Styles, Greta Van Fleet, and the Jonas Brothers.  But, it wasn’t just one concert each.  I would end up seeing 12 concerts in that one month, and it was one of the best months of my life.

All of my friends know me as the one who always has a trip planned with a concert hidden in there somewhere.  It is my favorite escape from reality and it is also something I want to pursue as a career. When my friends and I found out how many shows we would be seeing that month, we were ecstatic and immediately started planning our routes from place to place and booking all of our stays.  Unlike a lot of people, we love the entire planning process, traveling process, and everything that comes with it.  We see it all as another adventure and are very aware of how lucky we are that we get to do it.  We decided to call this trip “OcTOURber” because we would be traveling on tour with our favorite artists for the whole month of October.  The “tour” for us started in New York City where we saw Harry Styles two nights in a row.  Being in the pit at a Harry concert is an out of body experience and everyone should have that opportunity atleast once in their lifetime.  From there, we went back to Florida to see Harry three more times that week (Can you tell we are big fans?). 

The next week, we went to three Jonas Brothers concerts in Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, and back to New York again.  The New York show was extremely necessary as my mom is a huge Jonas Brothers fan.  I got the boy band obsession from my mom.  My mom was always at my Jonas Brothers concerts since I was 8 years old, so it wouldn’t have felt right if she wasn’t at atleast one of my Jonas shows.  

The last week of October was by far the craziest.  We ended up traveling from Orlando, FL to Los Angeles, CA to Connecticut to New York City all within the week. In Los Angeles, I got to see one of my favorite bands, Greta Van Fleet, for the first time ever. This was a surreal experience because we were in the very front row and got to interact with the band so much.  We did two of their shows in LA and also got to explore the area a bunch during the few days we were there.  From there, we traveled to Connecticut and New York where we saw Harry three more times.  The last show was a super special one because it was “Harryween” where everyone, including Harry, dressed up for the special occasion.  Having that show as the last one of “OcTourber” was super special and it was a great memory for me and my friends.

Having this experience was once in a lifetime.  It is another reason why I want to have a career in the live music industry.  Getting to travel and see artists live is my absolutely favorite thing in the world.  Having a career within that hobby would be the most amazing opportunity for me.  The experience taught me to work as hard as I can to succeed and get to the point where I want to be in the industry. 

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Childhood Experiences in Entertainment

At some point in everyone’s lives, they realize the career path they want to be on.  This could happen in one single moment, or in a series of moments. For me, it was definitely a series of moments.  Entertainment is at the forefront of everything I do. From going to school, to working, to extracurriculars and hobbies, I am always doing something in the entertainment realm.  As an entertainment management major, I am discovering new career paths I can take from so many industries within the huge entertainment industry.  I currently work for the Walt Disney Company, which “little Abby” never thought she would get to say.  I was at the Disney Parks twice a year my entire childhood, so it is surreal to know that I work there now.  As far as hobbies and extracurriculars go,  I love going to live events like concerts and Broadway productions.  This is something else I grew up with and it is a huge part of my life.  Growing up, I was exposed to so much of the entertainment industry.  This includes classical music, musical theater, live concerts, theme parks, and so much more.  I am so glad my parents exposed me to so much of the entertainment industry because it brought me to where I am today.  As I graduate this semester, I have so much to think about as far as a career path goes.  There are so many realms of the industry I would love to explore as a career idea, but at some point I will have to take the plunge and pick a path!

When choosing where to go to college, I had two big choices to ponder.  I am from Long Island, New York and had the opportunity to study in New York City.  This is an entertainment capital and I would have been extremely successful in finding my place there.  But, I had another opportunity to move to a completely new place and explore my options a bit more. I ultimately decided to make the move to Orlando, Florida where my life changed forever.  Going to Rosen was a great opportunity for me to really focus in on the entertainment industry, since all of the professors had a lot of personal experiences and stories.  You are both learning by the book and by experience, which is so important for an industry so crazy like this one.  This was a huge inspiration for me to get school done and jump into a career.  In the past two years of school, I have learned so much about the “in’s” and “out’s” of the industry and how to be successful, no matter which path I choose to take.  The variety of courses and experiences you can have while in college can really help guide you in your future choices.

As I started school in Orlando, working for Disney was always on my mind.  I had grown up going to the parks, and my sister had worked for Disney for a few years with the Disney College Program.  I had applied a few times, but my progress got cut short by COVID.  This was a minor setback, as I always knew I would end up with the company one way or another. Two months after I moved down to Florida, I got my first job at Disney. It was not with the company itself, but with a third party company that worked within EPCOT.  Still, this was equally exciting for me as I would get to work in my favorite Disney park!  I worked with that company for a few months, made lifelong friends, and had the most amazing experience with management that I still keep in touch with.  It was bittersweet leaving them, as I would miss them a lot.  But, Disney contacted me to interview for an attraction’s role at the parks.  I interviewed and immediately found out I would be working at Spaceship Earth at EPCOT.  Anyone who knows me knows how much I love and appreciate EPCOT, so working at their iconic attraction was really special for me.  At the end of 2021, I was transferred to The Seas With Nemo and Friends, as well as Turtle Talk With Crush.  I have been there since, and it has been the most amazing experience.  I have a second family when I go into work and have an amazing relationship with everyone there.

As far as hobbies go, I am always planning my next concert or broadway show.  I absolutely love live music and it is definitely the frontrunner of my career paths currently.  I would love to work in management for live events while traveling the country.  This is something I have also done my entire life with my family, and it is something I hold very close to my heart.  As someone who travels around the country every year to see my favorite artists perform in different places, it would be such an amazing experience to have that as a career.  As I get older and more big decisions have to be made, I look back on the experiences that made me who I am today.  I was engulfed by so many memories of my childhood that brought me to this place.  I think it is really amazing that I will have so many opportunities and options as I graduate, as my experiences have prepared me to be successful in any direction I decide to go in.  In the end, I have my parents to thank for everything because they exposed me to all of this entertainment from a very young age.  I know they are so proud seeing me do what I love every single day.

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The Vibes of a Venue

My absolute favorite activity is attending concerts.  For as long as I can remember, I have been attending shows with family and friends.  As an entertainment management major, I have the opportunity to explore many different careers within the industry, and the live music industry always stands out to me.  I would absolutely love to turn my favorite pastime into a lifelong career.  Why pay to go to concerts when I can get paid to go to concerts?  

When I am purchasing tickets to a concert, I will always be looking at what type of venue I am attending.  Each type of venue offers a completely different experience.  I would say the big five types of venues are indoor general admission venues, outdoor general admission, amphitheaters, arenas, and stadiums.  I also look at what type of artist I will be seeing.  I look for a different vibe and energy for each artist I see. Something extremely important to me is artists having a variety of venues so I have the option of where I may want to see them.

One of my favorite types of venues is an amphitheater. I love when I can attend an outdoor concert that has a beautiful backdrop behind the stage.  The atmosphere of the amphitheater provides a very chill vibe and relaxed environment.  Some of my favorite artists, such as 5 Seconds of Summer and Greta Van Fleet use amphitheaters as their venues often.  I personally love the idea of having an assigned seat where I won’t have to stress about getting a good seat or standing for a super long period of time. My favorite amphitheater is Jones Beach Amphitheater on Long Island.  I grew up on Long Island, and having the beach be right behind the stage at sunset was always such a memorable moment when I went to a show.  No matter where you were sitting in that venue, you had an amazing view of both the beach and the stage.

The type of venue I frequent the most would be arenas.  I have always loved arenas because there is so much you can do with them.  My favorite example of this is Harry Styles’ residencies at a variety of arenas around the United States.  The arenas created “Harry’s House” to allude to his new album.  They had themed drinks, merchandise, and plenty of photo-ops both inside and outside of the arenas.  Harry broke a few venue records throughout his residencies at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and The Forum in Los Angeles.  My favorite part about Harry doing arenas was his stage set up.  He had a 360 degree circle stage in the center of the pit of the arenas.  This way absolutely everyone in those arenas had an amazing seat.  I attended shows in both Los Angeles and New York and never had a bad spot, which was amazing.  Arenas have so much leeway with what they can do with their huge spaces and I love that aspect for sure.  My favorite arena would have to be Madison Square Garden because of the memories I have there seeing many of my favorite artists growing up.

Stadiums are a type of venue I would like to attend more often.  I have seen some artists at stadiums and have gone to some NFL games, but I don’t have much experience with them.  I love how grand and exciting the vibe is of a stadium.  The fact that over 50,000 people are coming together to experience music all together is something I find really cool.  There is nothing more beautiful than everyone turning their flashlights on in a fully sold out stadium. My favorite stadium would probably be Gillette Stadium in Boston. I was among the lucky few who got to see One Direction’s last ever United States show back in 2015.  The energy and emotions of the crowd knowing they were not going to be back for a super long time (and we are still waiting) was moving and made for an extremely memorable experience.  The architecture and areas around the stadium were also really cool to explore. 

My least favorite types of venues would have to be GA venues.  I find the entire process of no assigned seating very stressful, and many times uncomfortable.  I have waited for some of my concerts for over 24 hours just to be front row for a show, and it is not a favorable way to see a concert with people pressed up against you.  I also find that it can be super dangerous as crowds get extremely cramped and security is pulling people out of the crowd unconscious.  While I don’t love the idea of GA venues, there are still some super cool ones to note.  One of my favorites is the Rooftop At Pier 17 in New York City. It is one of the coolest sights to have the New York City skyline behind the stage while watching a show.  I had one of the best nights at a 5 Seconds of Summer show at Pier 17, and while the seating situation was not my favorite it was still very memorable.  

Seeing my favorite artists up close is super important to me, as I love getting to interact with them during their shows.  I have been super lucky to be front row for a lot of concerts like 5 Seconds of Summer, One Direction, Harry Styles, Jonas Brothers, and Greta Van Fleet.  But, the venue has so much to do with how memorable my shows are.  They completely change the vibes I feel when I enter the venue and when the lights go down.  I can’t wait to travel more around the country and world and see other venues like Red Rocks Amphitheater or Ryman Auditorium because of the rich history all of these venues have!

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The History of One Direction

Anyone that knows me knows how important One Direction is to me.  I have grown up with them since I was 11 years old.  Since 2012, I have seen One Direction over 20 times, and many more times if you include their solo projects.  Being a part of a fandom is a super cool experience that I think all kids/teenagers should have.  It gives people a sense of belonging to have a common interest and I know so many people who have made best friends for life through their favorite artists or sports team.  I have traveled across the USA and even out of the country to see One Direction, and they have helped me realize what career I wanted to have very early in life.  As someone who is very knowledgeable on all things One Direction, I still have people ask me questions about them quite often.  I have always been known as a big One Direction and Harry Styles fan by my classmates and coworkers, so they know who to go to for all of the info.  So, why not take this opportunity to lay out some of the big moments in One Direction history back from 2010 all the way until the present.

In 2010, the five boys all auditioned as solo artists for season 7 of the X Factor in the UK. The boys were initially eliminated from the competition before then being asked to return, where they were asked if they would stay in the competition as a group by Simon Cowell. After weeks of successful performances, fans waiting outside to catch a glimpse of their new favorite boy band, and getting voted into the finale, One Direction finished in 3rd place overall. Unfortunately for the band, this meant they were no guarantee of a record deal and their future was hanging by a thread. Weeks after the finale, they were brought in for a meeting and told Cowell was taking them onto his record label, giving them a chance to record their debut album.

In 2012, I had the opportunity of meeting One Direction at a CD signing on their first trip to the states. In order to get a ticket to attend the event, you had to be in the first 1000 people to buy their debut album “Up All Night”. We slept outside of the mall where the album/wristbands were being sold for around 20 hours and overnight. The next morning, we were escorted into the store to purchase the album and were given info about when to return later that day to meet the boys. A few short hours later on, we approached the table where we met these five boys which only existed on a screen for us until that point. Seeing them in the flesh for the first time was absolutely surreal. We got our CDs signed and talked to each of the boys. To this day, I still feel so lucky to have gotten to experience this very exclusive event before One Direction became the huge phenomenon they were and hopefully will be again someday.

Following the success of the release of their first album and tour, One Direction was offered a movie deal in 2013. The film would be titled “This Is Us” and would follow the boys on their second arena tour, Take Me Home tour. The film showed different performances from their concerts, antics the boys got up to while traveling the world, visiting 37 countries, and a tour of their hometowns where you got to see where the boys grew up and meet their families.

I’ve had some absolutely incredible experiences with One Direction throughout the years. My sister and I went to 17 concerts all over the country, including a trip to Canada for one show of their last tour. Growing up in New York, we had countless experiences and opportunities to meet the boys and see them quite frequently. I can’t thank One Direction enough for the happiness they have brought me throughout the last 11 years they’ve been in my life. This July will mark the 13th anniversary of the band being formed on the X Factor. Everything in 2010 had to happen the way it did for these boys to end up together. The morning of his audition, Harry decided he didn’t want to go but was convinced by his mom right before his turn, Harry also made the minimum age requirement by one day in order to audition, and Zayn’s alarm didn’t go off. It’s crazy how fast the time is gone and I hope one day in the next few years, the boys will reunite and I will be able to see my favorite people in the world make history once again.