I spent the last four months of my life working for a company called One Reel on an event called Bumbershoot. Before I got this internship I had no idea what Bumbershoot was, and now, just a few days after the festival has ended, I can honestly rank it as one of the most rewarding, amazing, inspiring events in my life. I’m head over heals in love with Bumbershoot and One Reel, and can honestly say I’ll be doing anything I can to stay involved with the company and the festival

I found a craigslist ad for an internship at an organization called One Reel in late April. I applied, as I was in need of an internship, after learning a bit about the organization. Then I waited, not knowing that the little I learned from their website doesn’t even scratch the surface of what One Reel, and Bumbershoot, are all about.

This is Kiah, programming coordinator for One Reel. My Bumbershoot summer begins with her. I was in the editing lab at the University of Arizona in early May, my thesis film picture-locked. I was with color grading my film, when I got a call. I answered, and Kiah was on the other line. She wanted to know when I would be available for a phone interview, and we scheduled one for the following Wednesday at noon. I was excited, but didn’t have much time to think about it. I went right back to color grading.

Wednesday came around, and I woke up unusually early. I sat nervously awaiting her call. Noon came, and nothing. I sat frozen, looking at my phone for ten minutes, from 12:00 to 12:10, waiting. The call came finally, and to my surprise, it wasn’t just her on the phone. She, Bob, and Chris (who I would later learn comprise the programming team at One Reel), were all on the other line, and I was on speaker phone. Yikes!

I remember little about that interview. I was so nervous, I paced my room, back and forth, the whole conversation. My voice was trembling. I know I wasn’t making sense, and I know I was rambling. I could hardly understand what they were saying through my crappy cell phone’s speaker. I was sure, half way through the interview, that I was done for. Kiah promised I’d know by Friday what decision they’d made.

So there I was, certain I’d blown it. Two days went by, and sure enough, on Friday, I get a call from Kiah. I remember her exact words.

“We were wondering if you would like to be our intern.”

“I’d love to.”

I know now how fortunate I was to get this internship. One Reel internships interview in February, and some start in March. My internship had actually been filled, and for whatever reason the intern they initially selected didn’t work out, hence the craigslist ad in April. Bob, Kiah, and Chris: Thank you, so very much.

I moved to Seattle a week later, and a week after moving I had my first day at the One Reel office. My first day was scheduled on a Tuesday, so I could also attend my first Programming Department meeting, which happen every Tuesday. I met the whole Programming team that day.

This is Bob, Programming Manager for One Reel. He turned out to be my supervisor per se. He acted more like a mentor, actually teaching me rather than just giving me tasks to do. With every task came an explanation and a lesson. He was always patient and never afraid to tell me I was doing something wrong. I worked with Bob closely on the Visual Arts and Kid’s Activities for Bumbershoot. He’s a terrific guy.

Chris is also a Programming Manager at One Reel. Also a terrific guy. He picked me up at seven in the morning to go to SeaFair one time. Kind. Cool. Generous.

This is Sam, and this is Yoshiko, programming interns. They dealt with mostly musical acts and contracts and travel arrangements for the bands while I dealt with visual artists and kid’s activities vendors. Both of them are amazing, and I’m glad to now call them my friends.

This is Stephanie. While not technically a programming intern, she felt like part of the team, as she came to all of our programming meetings. She was technically the advancing intern. Also a very amazing person that I’m glad to now call my friend.

I also met Michelle, Executive Director for the festival. She is extremely kind, and an incredible leader of the festival.

The summer was a very consistent build up toward Bumbershoot. I contacted artists and kid’s activities people, I wrote up reports, made schedules. Somewhere in there, the WaMu Family Fourth happened. This awesome event I spent a fair amount of time on. Bob had planned a bunch of very cool activities for the kid’s play field, and it was my job to follow up and coordinate with the different vendors. We had clowns and bouncy castles and kite making. The day of, I spent my day in the kite-making booth, supervising the volunteers and making sure we had enough kites pre-made to deal with the demand. A very rewarding, if slightly exhausting, day.

I can’t really distinguish the summer’s individual parts. I obtained insurance info for venders, got big vinyl panels printed, poured over maps. We did site visits, coordinated the bands at SeaFair, and still had time to have a little fun. The build up grew exponentially, along with the stress. An excited buzz could be felt building in the office, until finally, we were two weeks out from the festival, and Bob and I are driving all over Seattle dropping credentials and maps and parking passes off to artists and comics and poets and animators.

“Let me ask you a question,” I say to him. “As one bearded man to another. If another man with a beard were to compliment your beard, would you be creeped out?” “No, not at all, although my beard is being a little weird today.”

We both laugh.

The next day we got on site. Seattle Center. The Space Needle sits on the center like a beacon (which is funny, because the Space Needle is exactly how I found my way to the grounds my first day there in the early summer). The grounds are an anthill of activity. Structures and stages are going up, people are scrambling, radio chatter is in your ear. The hive mind of it all is the Production office, housed on the third floor of the aptly named Center House. To walk in to the Production office is to walk in to military HQ. People are always moving, there are diagrams notes plastered everywhere. A giant map of the grounds hangs ominously on the wall.

“This is where you’ll get your radio for the next few days, until the programming trailer arrives, then you’ll get it there,” Bob tells me. Then we REALLY get to work. We go down to the Viz Arts rooms, which are still being put together by the Production team. The Viz Arts rooms are little more than the Seattle Center’s conference rooms until the Production team gets ahold of them, putting up walls, hanging drape, installing screens. The A/V dudes come in and install projectors and DVD players, and the stages crew installs stage. The rooms literally transform. Five plain conference rooms become two galleries, a performance art venue, an art school, and a banquet hall.

The days in the two weeks leading up to the festival stretch on. A day can seem like a week, and I began to notice that it was beginning to get difficult to remember what happened the day before. I guess that’s a by-product of putting on a festival though: you’re constantly looking forward, and it becomes difficult to take the time to look back. Something is always requiring your attention, and you’re always looking two, three, four steps ahead.

Its a week before the festival, and the visual artists all load in. I’ll introduce you to them all shortly. The weekend is a madhouse of moving artwork, hanging photos, painting walls. We loaded a 40ft solid wood table (that took about 10 bodies, moving the table in pieces).

And lets take a moment to talk about that table, shall we? This thing was amazing. It took ten of us to carry the biggest piece. It was like pulling a stump (literally, the benches at the table were all made of stumps) up to a tree that had fallen over in the forest. Did it bring you closer to the earth and to those around the table? Yes. Did it enhance the artist’s theme and room? Of course. Was it worth it? You bet. Was it a pain? Absolutely.

I get ahold of my laminate a few days before the festival. It’s shiny and red and gets me in to all sorts of places during the festival.

This is a very exciting time for me. The programming team is in a meeting room in the Center House, and the Backstage Coordinators as well as the Programming Runners and Escort Drivers. Catering is here as well. It’s Tuesday, five days to festival. We all introduce ourselves to one another and get our laminates. I also meet our Programming Radio Base.

This is Charlie. He worked as Programming radio base the entirety of the festival. I heard his voice so much during the festival he’s become my inner monologue. Yes Charlie, you’re still there narrating everything I read. I wonder if you’ve taken up a permanent residence in my head... Anyway, radio base means he sits up the production office and is our rock. He is the constant in the insanity of the festival. Have a problem? Charlie can help. Also he infiltrates your head.

We go over general stuff about the festival. People returning from last year go over things that have historically been a problem and troubleshoot them now before it’s too late.

After that meeting, we head right over to the all staff meeting, and I learn a few interesting facts. During the festival, Bumbershoot staff grows to 500 (!) and uses another 500 volunteers (!!). Thats a staggering number of people to work of the festival, I think to myself. But then realize that tens of thousands of people attend the festival each of the three days. Also, I learn what a situation is.

I spend the next two days off grounds, at work. I’m nervous, excited, and nervous about what’s in store for me. I really don’t know what to expect. Its almost like the first day at a new school. Even though your Mom keeps telling you it will be OK, you never quite believe her. Doubly so for me, as I had never even heard of a Bumbershoot before I got this internship, much less been to one. I really had no idea what to expect.

Friday comes around, and bright and early, I’m headed to the Seattle Center. I get there around 8 am, as per usual, and prepare for the kid’s activities load in. These go fairly smoothly. All the Kid’s Activities Vendors load in by noon, which leaves me free for the Mayor’s Arts Awards, an event that happens at the Visual Arts Rooms the Friday before Bumbershoot.

These are, again, pretty uneventful, as I find out fairly quickly if things are going according to plan there isn’t a whole lot to worry about. By the end of the festival, I felt like a doctor on constant call, needing to be ready at any moment to fix something. But more on that later.

The Mayor’s Arts Awards go smoothly, and afterward the Visual Arts Rooms stay open to the public. This is a great opportunity to run through a little mini festival in my head, and I learn a little bit about what it will be like during the festival. I also get my first taste of The Bottled Opera, a very cool performing arts group who performs an entire opera in a body of water, incorporating and playing the water in the opera. I meet the troupe and am able to catch their whole performance, abnormal for me over the next few days.

After their performance, I escort them over grounds and let them into their dressing room in the Center House, then its back to the Visual Arts Rooms.

Friday ends kind of abruptly for me, and after locking up the Viz Arts Rooms, I go home, and get ready to come back the next morning.

"I’ll be in at 8,” I tell Bob, " Something’s bound to go wrong."

I get in the next morning an I was wise to come in a little earlier than I had to. There’s still some electrical orders that haven’t been filled in the Center House for the Kid’s Activities, but never fear, Charlie’s here.

"Hey Charlie, remember that electrical order we talked about yesterday?” as I had mentioned to him briefly the day previous. “Its still not here."

"I’ll get on it,” like the superhero he is, and within the next hour we have power in the Kid’s Pavilion.

I meet my two super volunteers at 10, an hour before the gates open. These two folks will be with me for the next 3 days, one in the kid’s area and one in the viz arts rooms. I’ll introduce you to my kid’s super volunteer first.

This is Paddy. Because of Paddy I was able to focus my attention elsewhere, while he held down the fort and made sure the Kid’s Pavilion was running smoothly. He delegated volunteers there, and all I had to do was check in every hour or two and make sure things were going OK. He was really an incredible asset to me, just being there to keep an eye on things.

Speaking of the Kid’s Pavilion, lets talk about what went on there.

An organization called Parent Map, a resource for parents and parenting, were there letting kids make various crafts out of toilet paper rolls. Some amazing things were made by some very ingenious kids.

An organization called MudUp! was there. They’re an organization that is trying to clean up an protect 1000 miles of Puget Sound coastline. Rad dudes.

The Clay Animation Network, run by a very awesome independent animator named Lukas was there. An ingenious idea, a camera, a MacBook, and a projector is all this guy needs to set up for three days and let the kids of Bumbershoot make an animation over the three days. Ah. Maze. Ing.

The Pacific Science Center was there, with lots of small activities to teach kids about physics, and why its important... because, you know, it’s everywhere.

And Radio Disney was there, singing and dancing with the kids and the MudUp! mascot.

I then left Paddy to do his thing, and headed up to the viz arts rooms to meet my viz arts super volunteer.

This is Falascha, my super volunteer for the viz arts rooms. Also awesome. Also a superhero. She helped me a great deal while distributing volunteers to the viz arts rooms as needed, and also being there for the artists if I was immediately available.

Speaking of those artists, I think a formal introduction is in order.

This is Michael and I. Michael is Mr. One Pot in Residence. The deal here is simple. Every evening, he would serve dinner to 40+ people. Those 40+ people, in order to be fed, needed to contribute something to the table. That could be a performance, a reading, a speech. There were dancers dancing on the table, a band one night. Poetry. Prose. People poured there hearts out, and Michael filled them up again. During the day there was cooking happening, and multimedia going on. A very awesome experience.

This is Dan, curator of the Seattle-Tehran Poster Show, and I. This was a very interesting room. Event posters from both Seattle artists and Tehran artists on display side-by-side. Some awesome talent was displayed on those walls. Fellowship and friendship through posters, it was pretty striking.

This is Erin, Katie, and I. Yes, we’re robots. They’re from Gage Academy of Art, and they were putting on a “Drawing Jam.” What is a drawing jam? Well, let me tell you. When you walked into there room, you were greeted with a blank piece of paper, because in their room you create the art. Models stood, sat, and crouched around the room, and you drew them, with any medium you wanted.

This is Marita and I. Marita put together something incredibly powerful, and incredibly prolific. Several different artists with range of work filled her gallery, exemplifying the power one person has to change the world. An incredible amount of talent with contained in those walls (and outside the walls, as one artist had her very large-scale photographs on display out on the grounds). Photography, documentary, and civic duty met in that room to spark change.

This is Betsy, Sara, Mike, and I wearing headdresses made by Grand Openings. They’re from the Henry Art Gallery, affiliate of the University of Washington. Grand Openings is the performing arts group the Henry brought in for Bumbershoot. Lots of things happened in this room, and it difficult for me to describe any of it.

These are the people that I worked with for the next three days, which flew by. Before I knew it, the festival was over, and we were loading everything out. In all, it was an amazing experience. I’m happy to now be involved with this festival, and I don’t see my involvement ending any time soon.