I have an 8am class and it’s hard to wake up for. Waking up for anything Oktoberfest related was a different story. I absolutely love gaining the event experience, and I could not have asked to work for a better company. Jen and Deb treat us all like family, and I look forward to any time I get to spend with them.
On October 6th, we showed up to Wheeler Park, ready to work. I was excited to see the set-up process because I hadn’t worked this event before. We started mapping out vendor spaces, and quickly found out that we didn’t have enough space for all of the vendors in the layout that we’d planned. Jen and Deb were quick on their feet, and changed the layout the day before the event. I re-drew our vendor map, and we worked on whatever else we could until the tent crew arrived. The tent crew set up tents for the Merchandise, Info, First aid, Finance, and Kids Areas. That day was a little bit difficult, because the tent crew was one we hadn’t worked with before, and they weren’t quite sure about what to do if their crew lead wasn’t around.
While we set up light stands and vendors, the fencing crew got busy putting up the fence around the park. They were awesome to work with, and were also helpful with things non-fencing related. I got to greet vendors and direct them to their spaces (like I’d done at blues and brews), and had a great time meeting them and seeing all of their set ups.
The next day was the actual festival, and we got there bright and early again. We helped the last of the vendors get set up, and then prepared each of our stations for the festival. I worked merchandise with Kyrstin. We had volunteers working with us the entire day, which was super helpful. We put them in charge of getting people to sign up for contests. We were selling a lot of cool things like t-shirts, sweatshirts, koozies, ear warmers, stickers, and hats. All of it was so cute!
I helped Jen lead the contests all day, which was a lot of fun. I set alarms on my phone for fifteen minutes prior to every contest, and went to the stage to notify the emcee that we needed him to call the contestants up. As soon as the contestants got to the stage, I explained the rules and then sent them on stage. I acted as a referee/judge for most of the contests. It was a lot of fun, but the guys who participated in the men’s beer stein contest got upset every time I told one of them they were out. If your arms start to fall, I’m gonna call you out. That’s just how it works. It was fun regardless.
After the event was over, we started to take down the banners and collect trash to throw away. We reloaded the U-haul, and left for the night. The fence guys took the fencing, the tent guys took care of the tents. It was a pretty easy tear down.
Overall, I had a lot of fun at this event. There was a pretty large turnout, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Some of my friends even came to the event to see me! I’m so excited that I get to be here to work this event again next year!
Emalynn