Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
I was working at the Master of Ceremonies on the Main Stage at the Richmond Winterfest this past weekend and was reminded once again about the importance of sticking to the time you’re given. If you’re asked to do a 20 minute set, do as close to that 20 as you possibly can. A tad over or under is fine, but if you’re asked to do 20 and you go to 25 (or more) it can be perceived as being rude and in the worst case scenario down right unprofessional. Due to some challenges in the scheduling this weekend the gaps between acts were very short which meant that if any one act went over on their time it threw the schedule out of whack for the entire day.
For many shows where there are only one or possibly two acts involved there’s usually a bit of flexibility in how long things run, but over this past weekend with acts starting a noon and going until 9:00 pm, especially with such little time between acts to do the change overs it was critical that people stuck to the time that they had been given and not go over… Thankfully many of the performers we worked with on the main stage were very accommodating and if were were a little off timing-wise they were happy to help get us back on schedule.
The other thing that I noticed on a day long event like this which really did help the day go a lot more smoothly for the people running the stage was having clear instructions for the technicians who are in charge of the lights and sound. If you are ever asked for a technical specifications sheet or a stage plot, it’s incredibly important and helpful for the people who have to tear down one act and get ready for the next if your instructions can be clearly stated and ideally very simple to execute. The less the technical staff needs to do the happier they’ll be and the better your show will look as a result.
So… Stick to your time, keep it simple and make your instructions clear. Do all of this and you’ll make a lot of friends when it comes to working an all day gig where you’re sharing the stage with a bunch of other acts.
