Friday at the festival.
Aug. 27th, 2010 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dalesqlhurrah. Opening day of the festival. sixth day of the festival for me. Lots of cruising about with a golf cart loaded with a little bit of everything electrical and fixing all the last minute problems. Mostly pretty minor. burned out bulbs, broken lamps, checking every tent that was supposed to get lights and/or power actually got it.
And just as the first acts were starting to take the stage, and the marching band (all 100+ of them, if you count the baton-twirlers/cheerleaders) was assembling for the parade, I get a call that the beer garden is having electrical problems. I won't go into detail, as only electricians who have done festivals could really appreciate it and for everyone else, it would be intensely boring. But suffice it to say that I spent over two extremely frustrating hours troubleshooting the electrical system, much of it waiting for multiple intermittent faults to manifest themselves and observing what went out, changing what things were plugged in where, and repeating.
So I saw the marching band... marching past after the end of the parade heading towards their buses. I missed the opening acts on all the stages. well, I could actually see and hear the main stage, but I was concentrating on the electrical problem, not listening to the music.
Finished that, got back to the ops compound and got told I needed to go turn on all the portable light towers and aim them. The festival was nice and crowded by now, so getting to all the towers, zen aiming the lights while the towers were cranked down and folded over, then cranking them upright and then more cranking to elevate the mast, then start up the generator and turn them on. repeat this for five towers along the most pedestrian-clogged axis of the festival, with somewhere north of fifteen thousand people already on site, and shuttle buses full of more of them coming every few minutes from remote parking.
tired and hungry, got some very nice teriaki chicken and lomein from one of the food vendors, and a immensely fattening doughboy from another. because, dammit, I deserved something yummy and fattening and loaded with all the butter and cinnamon sugar I could stand. sat in the ops compound eating my dinner and telling sea stories for a while, and headed back to the hotel. Z!, the other festival electrician, will shut everything down for the night, while I get to wake up early tomorrow to start everything back up for the morning.
anyone near bangor, maine this weekend, should come to the festival. lots of good food, music and fun. www.americanfolkfestival.com
And just as the first acts were starting to take the stage, and the marching band (all 100+ of them, if you count the baton-twirlers/cheerleaders) was assembling for the parade, I get a call that the beer garden is having electrical problems. I won't go into detail, as only electricians who have done festivals could really appreciate it and for everyone else, it would be intensely boring. But suffice it to say that I spent over two extremely frustrating hours troubleshooting the electrical system, much of it waiting for multiple intermittent faults to manifest themselves and observing what went out, changing what things were plugged in where, and repeating.
So I saw the marching band... marching past after the end of the parade heading towards their buses. I missed the opening acts on all the stages. well, I could actually see and hear the main stage, but I was concentrating on the electrical problem, not listening to the music.
Finished that, got back to the ops compound and got told I needed to go turn on all the portable light towers and aim them. The festival was nice and crowded by now, so getting to all the towers, zen aiming the lights while the towers were cranked down and folded over, then cranking them upright and then more cranking to elevate the mast, then start up the generator and turn them on. repeat this for five towers along the most pedestrian-clogged axis of the festival, with somewhere north of fifteen thousand people already on site, and shuttle buses full of more of them coming every few minutes from remote parking.
tired and hungry, got some very nice teriaki chicken and lomein from one of the food vendors, and a immensely fattening doughboy from another. because, dammit, I deserved something yummy and fattening and loaded with all the butter and cinnamon sugar I could stand. sat in the ops compound eating my dinner and telling sea stories for a while, and headed back to the hotel. Z!, the other festival electrician, will shut everything down for the night, while I get to wake up early tomorrow to start everything back up for the morning.
anyone near bangor, maine this weekend, should come to the festival. lots of good food, music and fun. www.americanfolkfestival.com
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Date: 2010-08-30 03:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 08:27 pm (UTC)But, I'm all done now. All the electrical and telephone gear is picked up, coiled and packed into various boxes and bins to be packed into the trailer by our packing meisters. (Maximum road legal weight on the truck is 80 000 pounds. On the way up we weighed it and it was 79 700 pounds. There is also very little unused space in the truck. Those four cases of light bulbs we bought may have been a mistake... )
back in the hotel room and it's still daylight. Gonna take a shower and then consider dinner options while I catch up on junk e-mail and websites. check out of the hotel in the morning and heading back home.