Even with the threat of those famous Flagstaff rainstorms, the first Mountain Country Music Festival was a complete and total blast—and that’s coming from someone whose musical tastes certainly aren’t inclined toward country music! Working the entrance of this event, I got to see a whole new side to festivals. Having previously worked with only volunteers at Blues & Brews in the summer, I was pleasantly surprised by how different this job was. I enjoyed seeing the curious, wide-eyed faces enter the festival, and the happy, satisfied country-loving faces leave later that night. Even though it was the first year of this festival, everyone seemed to have great time—myself included!

The biggest challenge for me during Mountain Country Music Festival was handling the technology. Peak Events, being the cool and modern event planning company that is it, uses iPhones with ticket scanning apps for all their events. Unfortunately, this awesome technology sometimes fails in human hands. When a big line had formed halfway during the festival, my iPhone battery went completely dead (luckily we had a backup!) Often times the ticketing app would freeze up too, and I would have to try to make it work, even as the line of impatient music fans grew. I definitely learned to work fast, multitask and handle impatient people—all skills that a good event planner needs to have!

Amanda