If any city is well-versed in putting on a Festival, Melbourne is your go-to, and our Audio Students had the opportunity to help bring St. Kilda to life.
St. Kilda Festival, Australia’s largest community festival, is renowned for celebrating the best of community spirit and live local music. Getting hands on experience at events like these are such important stepping stones into allowing students to find their passions and assess which role in the industry they’d best suit.
It is with the heaviest of hearts that St Kilda Festival brings us the unfortunate news that the 2021 St Kilda Festival will not go ahead due to risks and uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We know this will bring disappointment to those who support the St Kilda Festival year on year and we too feel that sadness. Our thoughts are with those in the arts and events industries who work tirelessly to deliver the events we love, and continue to feel the strain and devastation of cancelled events due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To our partners, event staff, artists, suppliers, stallholders, volunteers, local traders and, of course, our enthusiastic festival-goers, we can’t wait to see you when we return in February 2022. And to steal a phrase from Hot Dub Time Machine (pictured closing out the 2020 Main Stage), it'll be the Best. Party. Ever."
To keep our Melbourne friends spirits high, we're celebrating the work that JMC students previously did in 2020 for St Kilda Festival!
Melbourne Audio students got the opportunity to be a part of the February Festival over two-days. They were presented with situations that are almost certainly only available in a real-world environment. From mixing front of house and stage monitors to memorising stage plots, loading gear, and everything in between, it was an Audio student’s dream work environment.
“It was incredibly valuable, I was able to look at technical riders and stage plots, ranging from new and upcoming bands to Aussie legends, Icehouse. The stage manager was incredibly helpful, explaining what needed to happen between each set change. Everyone that was working backstage were incredibly lovely, and super helpful with all my questions! The vibe backstage was amazing, people were so calm, got a chance to enjoy the music, but also knew the importance of these set changes and the rush involved.”
“My role over the weekend was to go through a stage list and make sure that the required equipment was setup during the changeover between every band/act. The monitor engineer that was at our stage let me have a look over his workflow and the way he worked with artists in a live setting. Questions from my end were encouraged and answered by a bunch of stage crew. As an aspiring engineer myself, it gave me insights into the work and know-how of a live-audio scenario, things one needs to be mindful of and above all, the behind the scene problem-solving.”
Not only was there a bunch of work going on, students like Lauren got to meet one of their favourite artists, REMI, such a star-struck moment! Students got to stop past various other stages during the day to check out artists and find their fellow students just as excited and inspired with the work they were doing.
We are so glad these students had a great time, getting some valuable experience and learning lessons they can take with them into further career opportunities.
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