1. The Evaluation<br />Saturday 2nd July 2011 the day of the festival. On the day it started out quite awkward as I was 20 minutes late to set up the stuff, however luckily the creative and media team didn’t start setting up the equipment for the stage yet, so I was saved. After that I went to DR1 where the creative and media team was waiting, firstly we all settled down with a quick chat and we were provided with a few refreshments from our creative and media teacher (Ms.Saroya), also we discussed what we had to do to set up the stage and equipment. <br />Therefore I was given tasks involving my role on the day which was ‘Sound Technician’, my task involved sound, music equipment and DJ which was my tasks for the day. Firstly as a group I was given a task to help with the stage as everybody else did, so I helped with the tarpaulin and the black covering. However after that the tasks were given separate, so I was told to work with Mr.Wasiq with the sound equipment such as the cables, mics and music equipment (there is a video on my blogger of me doing this task for evidence).<br />Secondly I was introduced to the DJ (Iffy) he was a cool guy, he was very helpful, confident and nice. The DJ then needed my help setting up equipment for the DJ; I had to set up his mac and laptop by charging it, bringing it up and helping what way to have it laid out. I and Iffy then came up with a playlist with a few songs we both liked for the actual day, for example certain genres people in the school like RnB, Pop, Rock and Traditional (e.g. Indian music). The DJ then went to eat, so then showed me how to use the DJ programme which was a big success as I got on with it and learnt it alright, by that I mean it was quite tricky.<br />3020695-308610-491490-322580<br />All of the stalls and even an army group (cadets), where setting up to be honest it only took them ‘5 minutes’ to do this. Then I had to bring down heavy music equipment from music and place the equipment where the whole creative and media team decided, for example the piano was a big problem as it was big, heavy and tricky where to place it so I made a suggestion to have it on its side on the far right of the stage on its side, and everyone agreed to place it there so we did. The mic stands where tricky to stand as the legs where quite weak, and the mic cables where quite long. The speakers where hard too place down as they were heavy so we decided to place them on the edge of the stage and on each side. Lastly the flip cam was quite confusing where to place, so because we wanted the flip cam to have a good view we placed it on the front of the stage, and the view turned out good, however people where in the way as that’s where the audience were.<br />After all of that the acts started to arrive and where directed where to rehearse from the PR manager (Paryann), which was quite confusing as she had to look for the acts as well. The acts where rehearsing in the Concert hall and the back of it which we called the ‘Green room’, where acts had the privacy and rehearsed well. Some acts where quite nervous so I decided to have a pet talk with them, for example I told them to “relax, you are going to be great”, and they staid confident on what they had to do, which went according to plan. <br />Now the actual Cranfords International Festival began, the festival started so good as we had a runner from great Britain and the school (Kyle), Mr.Prunty (Head teacher) gave a warm welcome and a speech for Kyle that turned out really good. So I started of being the DJ and put on a load of ‘get up and go’ music. After the host (Sara) introduced the audience to the festival and the acts, and the PR Manager (Paryann) showed the people who attend the festival where everything is for example where the stalls were, what stalls are here and were acts would be performing. When the DJ started doing his business, I then was talking to acts telling them when they will come on, which again came according to plan.<br />Acts started coming on to perform the first act was Steel band, they were a reggae band, which were really impressive, awesome and very confident. After that me and the DJ played our 3rd song on the playlist for 5 minutes until the next act came on, the second act was JKR Dancers they were the 2 acts on the day who done traditional dancing which was Indian dancing, however they edited on it and put RnB into the dance with the song (Jai Ho). Iffy then told me to play a song of my choose so I played Lady Gaga ‘Just Dance’, as it is a ‘get up and go’ song and very popular in our school, so I thought of what the audience wanted.<br />The 3rd act was a far distance act which our old creative and media teacher ‘Mr Lopez’ provided for the festival Richard’s Lodge School Performers the dancers done a dance called ‘Give me everything tonight’, which turned out so good. The 4th act was a few year 7 students from our school who are studying French, we choose them as they were cute and unique they are called the ‘French Singers’, and by the way they didn’t perform really well in my book as they were not very confident as we thought they would be, also a few of them dropped out in the last minute. Between each act I played songs from the playlist.<br />The 5th act was Solo urban dance performed from an ex creative and media student this performer was ‘Ryan Hodges’, he was so good he also performed the same dance on the year 11 ROA which proves he has commitment to performing dance, I thought he was really good. The 6th act was Lampton Academy performers which sort of came 10 minutes late so the schedule was delayed on the day; however they did then performed and were amazing and incredible. The 7th act were a popular Theatre group ‘Stage Coach’ children performing Greece and a little girl performed ‘Lazy Song’, they were really good.<br />I then had my break and grabbed a chicken burger, crisps and popcorn, I know what a weird combination, anyways I only took 10 minutes and then went straight back to business doing tasks I provided to myself. After all of that the act 8 ‘Ladies’ students from our school Cranford, performed Valarie, and I thought they were really brilliant. Act 9 done the best performance I thought ticked all 3 of my boxes confidence, commitment and performance was ‘Street dancers’ from our school they were brilliant! And by the way the masks were a great touch, pure white very good for the carnival and their performance.<br />Act 10 was the famous caretaker of the school ‘Joseph’, he done a mixture of rapping and normal reggae singing I thought he was one of the most confident acts as he connected well with audience, however I would suggest putting Joseph the caretaker with Steel band as they were very similar acts. Act 11 was 4 professional dancers doing Zumba dancing and they were incredible as they connected well with the audience, on the other hand something went wrong as the schedule wasn’t accorded to plan the Zumba dancers went over time, which I don’t blame as every second they danced the audience just wanted more! <br />Act 12 were 3 confident, ambitious and young great singers, I thought they were amazing they were one of the groups I had a pet talk to as they were quit worried on how they turned out, however they were amazing, brilliant and so confident they made us proud. The 13th act was James and Sara doing an acoustic version to ‘Someone like you’, it turned out so well and amazing, although Saira forgot the words and because the audience was so friendly they sang with her and boosted her confidence, on the other hand James made no mistakes and was amazing! After that I then got interviewed about how the day went for me.<br />The 14th act didn’t go to plan as the person (Ms.Green) did not attend so we moved on to our next act which was a confident drama group from Cranford itself and they are called ‘Metamorphosis’, they were amazing and so confident. Act 15 was the most unique act from our school they were two students from Cranford playing the Piano which everybody loved so much, and I thought it went well they were confident and committed to the Cranford International Festival so much. Act 16 was another Bahngra dance act from another two students from Cranford, and I thought they were good however could have been more confident.<br />The last and not least act was the live steel band again, however there was a big twist PC Macintosh performed with them and connected with the audience really well, everyone had a laugh and to be honest I was breaking my heart with laughter as PC Macintosh started to wine with one of the Samba dancers and everyone was so unexpected to see that. PC Macintosh ended the Cranford International Festival with such a brilliant ending, by letting people leave with a smile on their facAfter all of that we ought to pack everything away which I thought was going to be quite hard, however turned pretty easy as we all worked as a team together and everything went according to plan. We had a discussion on who had to do what so I had to pack away what I started which was the music equipment, DJ equipment and bits of the stage. So firstly I started off by bringing up all the heavy music equipment and in that I had to bring up a big, heavy piano which was so hard so I called for help, me, Ms.Cartwrieght and Rajan bought it up trough team work and I thought it went brilliant! <br />-400050156845<br />Secondly I helped the DJ to put away his equipment and after all of that I then helped packing the stage away, one of the hardest things I thought of was packing the stage away, especially scaffolding however turned out pretty easy and not very complex. One of the easiest things was cooperation, everyone cooperated well and got the job done less than 30 minutes and that is very impressive. So I have learnt if you want to run a festival you need cooperation, teamwork and commitment and the Creative and media team, on the day ticked all of doe’s boxes, which differently went according to plan.<br />By Michael McCauley<br />