Come for the women, stay for the festival
So I get this call from my brother, or I might have called him, and somewhere along the line he asks me whether I feel like volunteering at Westival, the free open air film festival his wife's in charge of coordinating the volunteers of. As usual with these kinds of things I'm not exactly enthusiastic about doing so. There's a bit of the usual banter about how I should - involving the fact that there's a lot of female volunteers and my brother and his wife feel I need to lose my single status - and I say I'll think about it. So my sister in law sends me the sign up form. And I kind of forget about it. That is until she sends out a general reminder to volunteers about signing up with the proper information and dates of availability.
At this point I'm like what the hell, it's not like I'm doing anything else, let's go for it. I'll be off from work for three weeks, haven't planned anything and will most likely end up spending that time on the couch watching DVDs or surfing the net. Probably getting bored out of my skull by the time weeks two ends. Besides, one of the plans was to get to know Amsterdam a bit better and this seems like an excellent opportunity to do so.
A Man's gotta do...
So I sign up for the Construction/Deconstruction crew and the Know It All Crew for the four days of the festival. Which meant I'd be starting the day at 15:00 with helping out setting up the festival. This included, but was not limited to, setting up 137 beach chairs, laying out electricity cables, carpets and beans bags and assembling the screen and getting it up into air. Having done that I'd man the information point / crew headquarters, giving program information to passers by and coffee and cake, or beer and chips as the case may be, to my fellow volunteers taking a breather. To finish the day off all the things we set up had to be put back into the containers, closing up shop around midnight.
Complement this with a day helping to take delivery of the containers and filling them with all kinds of lend/sponsored decorations and a day to get all of it of the square and back to the people it belongs you end up with a six days of work. Some of it easy, setting up beach chairs is a rather pleasant way of spending a working day, some rather physical. The rubber mats for covering the cables were supposed to be light weight. They weren't. Cue the curses. But at least it's a way to work out without having to go to the gym. Which I don't do anyway, so I'm finally getting some exercise. I'm still kind of recovering from it several days after the festival has ended, but - as the saying goes - no pain, no gain.
Music and Movies
The gain: having a great week with fun people doing something the public enjoyed. There were at least 200 people enjoying the movies (one ore two shorts with a feature length movie to finish the evening) every evening. Even Friday night when the weather wasn't all that great. As in it actually rained five drops and we weren't sure if it'd blow over or start pouring. , Handing out raining ponchos took care of protecting the people and fortunately it didn't get any worse.
With the weather having been excellent the week before and the forecasts for the festival not too good, cue those curses again, the weather ended up cooperating nicely. Apart from the aforementioned five drops it didn't rain and Saturday and Sunday were actually quite sunny.
The three bands on the program played for quite a bit fewer people. It would be nice to extend the program a bit with more bands to make it more of a item, or find a better way to showcase them, but they sounded great and definitely added good times to the festival. In case you weren't there, which is pretty likely, check out Sounds Like Katia's dreamy indie pop, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines' post rock and the funky grooves of Steye at their respective internet presences.
Though I didn't really watch much of the movies, with the exception of Intouchables, all of them are/seemed enjoyable. Intouchables is an excellent movie about living life to the fullest no matter what. Rabat's a fun road movie. Personally I wouldn't have gone out of my way to see it, but well entertaining and certainly no waste of time. The Artist deserved the Oscars it got, and I like the ideas behind it, but is just not my cup of tea. Happy-Go-Lucky, to me, is best watched on a small screen in the comfort of your living room with a cup of tea and some good friends. Where several of my co-volunteers where incredibly annoyed by the main character, and I can see why, and found the movie unwatchable, I enjoyed it. As I generally do with slice of life, intimate movies with a just touch of magical realism. Not for everybody, but if you go for this kind of movie, think Smoke, well worth watching.
It's like watching the tides
In the end, there's a couple of things that stood out to me during the week. Foremost: there's nothing better than working with a group of like minded people towards something and making it work. You get to the square, there's nothing but a square, you start setting up, people arrive and enjoy a movie, and you put everything away to do it again the next day. Forty volunteers doing what needs to be done. In a sense it's like watching the tides roll in and out. Not just because it was setting up and taking down things, but because of the fact that if you weren't there, you'd not know we were there the next day. We left nothing but footprints and (hopefully) happy memories.
And it wasn't just the volunteers. Shopkeepers lent us decorations, sponsored food and drink and generally supported the festival. Which was a nice change from some of the low level bureaucrats that the people who organized the festival had to deal with. I really respect Ute, she who thought of and organized it all, for dealing with the hurdles that were put in front of her. Or more accurately, the same hurdle that was put in front of her repeatedly. I don't think I'd be able to deal with that and not go bat shit crazy. A badly run bureaucracy sucks when you want to play by the rules. In the end it didn't matter. The bureaucratic dragon was slayed, the festival came and conquered and a good time was had.
The high point for me personally was watching Intouchables with 500 plus people on a Saturday night. There's something magical about so many people all enjoying the same thing at the same time. People brought their own chairs, watched from their balcony... Call me sentimental, but when you hear that many people laugh at the same time when the stars are out, I get a lump in my throat. What can I say: it feels damn good.
And as far as my relationship status goes: I'm still single. Nothing new there. But even though I'm not particularly unhappy about it, it does have at least one upside. It'll give me a good excuse to volunteer again next time around. Not that I really need one. Even though I'm usually not that enthusiastic about getting off my couch, I'm almost always happy that I do. This time even more so. I got to know Amsterdam a bit better, met all kinds of interesting and fun people and was part of something the audience enjoyed. I don't think it gets much more fun that that. Which means only one question remains: where do I sign up for next year?
At this point I'm like what the hell, it's not like I'm doing anything else, let's go for it. I'll be off from work for three weeks, haven't planned anything and will most likely end up spending that time on the couch watching DVDs or surfing the net. Probably getting bored out of my skull by the time weeks two ends. Besides, one of the plans was to get to know Amsterdam a bit better and this seems like an excellent opportunity to do so.
A Man's gotta do...
So I sign up for the Construction/Deconstruction crew and the Know It All Crew for the four days of the festival. Which meant I'd be starting the day at 15:00 with helping out setting up the festival. This included, but was not limited to, setting up 137 beach chairs, laying out electricity cables, carpets and beans bags and assembling the screen and getting it up into air. Having done that I'd man the information point / crew headquarters, giving program information to passers by and coffee and cake, or beer and chips as the case may be, to my fellow volunteers taking a breather. To finish the day off all the things we set up had to be put back into the containers, closing up shop around midnight.
Complement this with a day helping to take delivery of the containers and filling them with all kinds of lend/sponsored decorations and a day to get all of it of the square and back to the people it belongs you end up with a six days of work. Some of it easy, setting up beach chairs is a rather pleasant way of spending a working day, some rather physical. The rubber mats for covering the cables were supposed to be light weight. They weren't. Cue the curses. But at least it's a way to work out without having to go to the gym. Which I don't do anyway, so I'm finally getting some exercise. I'm still kind of recovering from it several days after the festival has ended, but - as the saying goes - no pain, no gain.
Music and Movies
The gain: having a great week with fun people doing something the public enjoyed. There were at least 200 people enjoying the movies (one ore two shorts with a feature length movie to finish the evening) every evening. Even Friday night when the weather wasn't all that great. As in it actually rained five drops and we weren't sure if it'd blow over or start pouring. , Handing out raining ponchos took care of protecting the people and fortunately it didn't get any worse.
With the weather having been excellent the week before and the forecasts for the festival not too good, cue those curses again, the weather ended up cooperating nicely. Apart from the aforementioned five drops it didn't rain and Saturday and Sunday were actually quite sunny.
The three bands on the program played for quite a bit fewer people. It would be nice to extend the program a bit with more bands to make it more of a item, or find a better way to showcase them, but they sounded great and definitely added good times to the festival. In case you weren't there, which is pretty likely, check out Sounds Like Katia's dreamy indie pop, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines' post rock and the funky grooves of Steye at their respective internet presences.
Though I didn't really watch much of the movies, with the exception of Intouchables, all of them are/seemed enjoyable. Intouchables is an excellent movie about living life to the fullest no matter what. Rabat's a fun road movie. Personally I wouldn't have gone out of my way to see it, but well entertaining and certainly no waste of time. The Artist deserved the Oscars it got, and I like the ideas behind it, but is just not my cup of tea. Happy-Go-Lucky, to me, is best watched on a small screen in the comfort of your living room with a cup of tea and some good friends. Where several of my co-volunteers where incredibly annoyed by the main character, and I can see why, and found the movie unwatchable, I enjoyed it. As I generally do with slice of life, intimate movies with a just touch of magical realism. Not for everybody, but if you go for this kind of movie, think Smoke, well worth watching.
It's like watching the tides
In the end, there's a couple of things that stood out to me during the week. Foremost: there's nothing better than working with a group of like minded people towards something and making it work. You get to the square, there's nothing but a square, you start setting up, people arrive and enjoy a movie, and you put everything away to do it again the next day. Forty volunteers doing what needs to be done. In a sense it's like watching the tides roll in and out. Not just because it was setting up and taking down things, but because of the fact that if you weren't there, you'd not know we were there the next day. We left nothing but footprints and (hopefully) happy memories.
And it wasn't just the volunteers. Shopkeepers lent us decorations, sponsored food and drink and generally supported the festival. Which was a nice change from some of the low level bureaucrats that the people who organized the festival had to deal with. I really respect Ute, she who thought of and organized it all, for dealing with the hurdles that were put in front of her. Or more accurately, the same hurdle that was put in front of her repeatedly. I don't think I'd be able to deal with that and not go bat shit crazy. A badly run bureaucracy sucks when you want to play by the rules. In the end it didn't matter. The bureaucratic dragon was slayed, the festival came and conquered and a good time was had.
The high point for me personally was watching Intouchables with 500 plus people on a Saturday night. There's something magical about so many people all enjoying the same thing at the same time. People brought their own chairs, watched from their balcony... Call me sentimental, but when you hear that many people laugh at the same time when the stars are out, I get a lump in my throat. What can I say: it feels damn good.
And as far as my relationship status goes: I'm still single. Nothing new there. But even though I'm not particularly unhappy about it, it does have at least one upside. It'll give me a good excuse to volunteer again next time around. Not that I really need one. Even though I'm usually not that enthusiastic about getting off my couch, I'm almost always happy that I do. This time even more so. I got to know Amsterdam a bit better, met all kinds of interesting and fun people and was part of something the audience enjoyed. I don't think it gets much more fun that that. Which means only one question remains: where do I sign up for next year?