#but fr everyone at my uni is so mad about this rule

[trewloves]

my university banning all visitors and/or overnight guests in any residences: :(

me and my roommate who were literally in love with each other for two entire semesters our freshman year: :)

[jahmusicandlive]

Latitude 2017

On the 24th April I moved back home from uni halls with the intention of finally spending over a month at home with my friends and family before going off to Reading in August. By the 25th I had been asked if I wanted to intern at Latitude starting as soon as possible, so four days later I was on the Latitude site ready to start another internship with Festival Republic, this time doing licensing.

Half of me felt more comfortable this time as I had already interned with FR and knew how the operation worked a little better, however half of me felt more nervous as there were a number of people on site who I had already met at Download, but I didn’t know the other interns as they were from another uni (unlike at Download where they were both doing the same course as me at the same uni). I had also just completed my licensing module at uni and so I had a little prior knowledge to build on but still wasn’t too sure what to expect.

The licensing cabin was on the other side of the site to production and the other offices, so until security control came in it was very quiet and quite excluded from the mania of production, which should be a good thing but personally I love the madness and when I’m in a quiet environment I tend to find it more difficult to focus. Everyone in the office was absolutely lovely once again and I settled in fairly quickly. This time I also had my own desk, phone, FR email, etc. and started to feel more like an employee than an intern (though of course I was still an intern).

My responsibilities included signage, catering tickets and keeping on top of documents like the contact sheet. As well as this I was also helping others in the team complete their responsibilities. The catering tickets were familiar and I was comfortable completing that task, however when it came to signage that was a different story.

At Latitude all of the signage to do with directions and locations was all hand painted and completed by people specifically there to do that job, however any signage to do with rules or guidelines e.g challenge 25, no smoking, banned items etc. had to be printed, laminated and put up by licensing (aka me). At first the job seemed fairly straightforward, there was already a spreadsheet from the previous year that I simply needed to go off alter slightly. After about 3 or 4 days of non stop printing and laminating it was starting to become a bit tedious and the laminators obviously thought so too as they started smoking and had to be fixed. At this point I couldn’t wait to get out of the office and put the signage up in the gorgeous sunshine.

I finally finished the signage and was ready to start putting it up. The first day was great, Robbie and I went out and did all of the signage for the wristband exchange gates.

The next day was stormy with thunder, lightning and a lot of rain and I was off out to put up signage on my own. The only flaw in this plan was that in spite of having a map I didn’t actually know where the locations were, and once finally at a location I didn’t know exactly where the signs were meant to go. This slowed down the process a lot but I carried on and thought it was still on track.

The next day the weather was terrible once again and I went out on my own once again. I got to one of the first locations and one of the bosses came and told me I couldn’t drive on the grass because of the rain (understandably) but about 2 minutes after he left it set in that I was going to have to walk around the entire site in the storm with all these signs, cable ties, a hole puncher, a staple gun and scissors on my own. I got myself into a little bit of a state as I suddenly worried that it wouldn't get done in time and since it was my responsibility it would be on me and because I was trying to make the best impression possible it really got me stressed. In no time at all Laura and Robbie both came to my rescue and we all walked round together and did the same the next day.

I think it’s safe to say we all underestimated the signage but we completed it and I definitely appreciated the team around me more than anything else at that point. The fact that they instantly helped and treated it as their own problem as well not just mine made everything so much less stressful and I fully felt a part of a team.

By the time all of the signage was up show days had managed to creep up on us and all of my responsibilities had been completed so for me it was a question of helping the rest of the team and responding to anything as it happened. 

Having been given two guest tickets my mum and sister were able to come up and enjoy the festival so in my off time I was able to wander round the festival with them which was lovely after a few stressful days. I also got to see Jack Garratt live which was INSANE and would fully recommend seeing him live to any one that gets the chance.

All in all Latitude was a completely different experience to Download, both within work and the social aspect outside of work (there was a fire with sofas around it at crew camp) and the knowledge I gained was invaluable. Shout out my “Lat Lic”  team, genuinely amazing people.

Next stop: Reading Festival.