I'm still broken.
I need sleep, my right knee's only purpose now is to "stand" as a warning to the other knee, with my head still carrying the remnants of Monday's hangover like a maggot in a monkey skull. Was it worth it for a week of festival volunteering?
Totally.
In 2006, a friend of mine got involved in the Dublin International Film Festival. It only took two years of me stewing in my hatred of working a bank job before I took his advice to do the same. So, in 2008, I volunteered for my first festival. Being the guy who got me involved, Paddy was basically my spirit guide for that week and a half. My single friend who spent way too much time talking about his own arse. He was a walking case study in how to successfully cock block yourself. Just never got hints, ranging from the subtle to girls blatantly throwing themselves at his single self. On the other hand, I was smugly in the midst of a long term relationship marked by occasional death and constant arguments over my being painfully shy and introverted. And I'd just shaved my luxurious, full head of hair for the first time.
Over the course of that festival, I came out of my shell, and went from being described as "a man of few words" on opening night to being part of all conquering quiz champs The Hat Jamboree
....and changing my whole outlook on what I could do going forward. Met some good people at that festival, caught up with some of them occasionally through the year, but not a whole lot of socialising going on in those Bebo days. I couldn't wait for everything to kick off again a year later. Volunteering had a profound impact on me, and changed the course of things for me more than I could have anticipated.
Paddy? Paddy, by the end of that festival, was still the personification of masturbation (sorry buddy).
By the time 2011 rolled around, a lot of things were different. I was now the human embodiment of self cock blocking, post-Twirlgate and just a few months away from chucking myself down some stairs rather than tell a girl I wasn't interested. I'd gone from a 3 star volunteer
To whatever the hell this was
....or this
That first year of DIFF had spurred me on to leaving banking behind, and getting involved in multiple other festivals. Getting paid to do one of them, front of house at Dublin Fringe, gave me a taste for making a living of it. DIFF 2010 saw me cut my teeth as a venue manager, with an eye for the way things should be done.
Drinking at the same festival led me to getting a job at an Edinburgh Fringe venue box office. Another pivotal DIFF moment for me.
When 2011's film festival rolled around, I was back for my second year as venue manager, and leaning towards a future out of Ireland in box office. A little (lot) balder, a little wiser. Paddy was back too, as one of my deputies. He was now in a long term relationship. We'd essentially switched lives....partly. Dude was (and is) still doing far better than I could dream of, professionally speaking. It was a different crowd by then. The 08 crew had moved up or moved on, for the most part, and a new and excellent group of people had come aboard.
As much fun as I had, and although I'm still buds with a lot of people from that time, it wasn't my best festival. Partly due to some personal stuff, and partly due to festival fatigue, I knew that I was done with DIFF. Hell, I was done with Dublin in general, and it showed in my efforts. Except for singing Build Me Up Buttercup over the radio to one Miss Elphinstone as she spoke to a customer- that was some of my best work. One more Ed Fringe later and I had a flat in Scotland by October (with another person I'd met through DIFF in 2008 no less, in the form of DJ Phil).
Don't get me wrong; there were high points
....aggression (if only in honour of Phil's short lived Tumblr page that was Halpin -vs- ____)
....strange visitors
....erotic adventures
....and the other short lived Phil Tumblr project that was Fuck Yeah What Deebs Wore.
I went off to Edinburgh to work a bunch of festivals for actual cash money, and ended up working box office gigs in a couple of theatres. This has been my full time deal for the last number of years thanks to Paddy and the Dublin International Film Festival. I came back more or less every year at some point or other for a special guest spot as "guy who drinks and gets memorably weird at the quiz".
Then, last year I went back to volunteering. It was strange to be doing so again, perhaps more so as I was now volunteering alongside long time volunteers who had only been starting out in my last year. And in a festival that had changed a great deal since my last time working at it. It has a little more to it now. A professional buzz that was starting to move it away from the smaller operation it had been those years ago. Still, it had retained the core dynamic of being a fun place to meet new people or hang out with old friends once your shifts were done. And that fresh fear of meeting someone for the first time, only for them to say "Oh YOU'RE Deebs! I've heard all about you...." and for me not even have to ask what they've heard. It might not always be the same story, but it's one of a number that do the rounds. Can't think why....
Again this year, I decided that coming home to volunteer was a decent way to use up some holiday time from work. A Snelgrove Holiday as it is officially known. Add in an opportunity to visit family, and Paddy's return to the fold for the first time since 2011, and there was no way I wasn't going to be about.
Plenty has changed in those five years. I've moved to Edinburgh, and found a new line of work. Paddy got married, and worked his way into tech nerdy work that I have no way of understanding, Yet there we were in the year of our lord 2016, and I'm back in a long term relationship with a girl who has to live with my bullshit, and Paddy is back being my single friend who talks way too much about his own arse. We're right back where my DIFF adventure began 8 years ago. Older, balder (in my case at least) and....still making a tit of myself at the quiz.
I've worked quite a few festivals since I first started out on this road in February of 2008. At least one every year since, some for as little as one day, others for as long as six months. I've worked the biggest arts festival in the world, and did it again. Worked a festival that inspired that one in the first place, and worked out on the border of Scotland and England for some classical musical deal that I only remember for the pan haggerty.
But DIFF is my festival. It will always have the fondest memories for me, and no other job can rival its place in my heart. It's the one that's given me a fucked up knee, by kick-starting my several month long love affair with limbo. An injury that required Paddy to catch me while I was doing a spot of queue management this year, because my knee completely buckled.
http://fooltide.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/distinguished-by-disgrace.html
It's a festival that required me to babysit an idiot.
http://fooltide.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/is-it-bird-is-it-plane-no-its-blog.html
A festival that brought about the most awkward handshake in recorded history.
http://fooltide.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/shake.html
This year it allowed me to hear Richard Gere name drop the Dalai Lama on a night when a woman literally abandoned her baby to get a picture of him on the red carpet, allowed me to break The Curse of Murphy's Law, and allowed me to get all kinds of inebriated in the presence of some excellent people.
Chances are that if you'reading this, you have met me solely because Paddy convinced me to apply to get involved with a relatively small film festival almost a decade ago. The quality of a festival can be judged by the people who make it happen. For this reason, I would recommend DIFF to anyone. It might not have the sheer size of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (which I would also suggest everyone should experience), but there's an intangible charm about Dublin's fair festival that has me thinking it's more special than any other.
A special mention to Sam, who, having captured so many instances of my stupidity, once said:
"I have come to the realisation that IF I ever turn out to be a well respected and somewhat famous film person.......history will record that you were my first muse. This is disconcerting."
Thank you to the people who make ADIFF what it has been, and what it is today. Thank you to all the people who have been responsible for capturing the moments where I have made such a gobshite of myself, and for those who've helped to make those moments happen.
I'll see most of you next year.
To whatever the hell this was
....or this
That first year of DIFF had spurred me on to leaving banking behind, and getting involved in multiple other festivals. Getting paid to do one of them, front of house at Dublin Fringe, gave me a taste for making a living of it. DIFF 2010 saw me cut my teeth as a venue manager, with an eye for the way things should be done.
Drinking at the same festival led me to getting a job at an Edinburgh Fringe venue box office. Another pivotal DIFF moment for me.
When 2011's film festival rolled around, I was back for my second year as venue manager, and leaning towards a future out of Ireland in box office. A little (lot) balder, a little wiser. Paddy was back too, as one of my deputies. He was now in a long term relationship. We'd essentially switched lives....partly. Dude was (and is) still doing far better than I could dream of, professionally speaking. It was a different crowd by then. The 08 crew had moved up or moved on, for the most part, and a new and excellent group of people had come aboard.
As much fun as I had, and although I'm still buds with a lot of people from that time, it wasn't my best festival. Partly due to some personal stuff, and partly due to festival fatigue, I knew that I was done with DIFF. Hell, I was done with Dublin in general, and it showed in my efforts. Except for singing Build Me Up Buttercup over the radio to one Miss Elphinstone as she spoke to a customer- that was some of my best work. One more Ed Fringe later and I had a flat in Scotland by October (with another person I'd met through DIFF in 2008 no less, in the form of DJ Phil).
Don't get me wrong; there were high points
....aggression (if only in honour of Phil's short lived Tumblr page that was Halpin -vs- ____)
....strange visitors
....erotic adventures
....and the other short lived Phil Tumblr project that was Fuck Yeah What Deebs Wore.
I went off to Edinburgh to work a bunch of festivals for actual cash money, and ended up working box office gigs in a couple of theatres. This has been my full time deal for the last number of years thanks to Paddy and the Dublin International Film Festival. I came back more or less every year at some point or other for a special guest spot as "guy who drinks and gets memorably weird at the quiz".
Then, last year I went back to volunteering. It was strange to be doing so again, perhaps more so as I was now volunteering alongside long time volunteers who had only been starting out in my last year. And in a festival that had changed a great deal since my last time working at it. It has a little more to it now. A professional buzz that was starting to move it away from the smaller operation it had been those years ago. Still, it had retained the core dynamic of being a fun place to meet new people or hang out with old friends once your shifts were done. And that fresh fear of meeting someone for the first time, only for them to say "Oh YOU'RE Deebs! I've heard all about you...." and for me not even have to ask what they've heard. It might not always be the same story, but it's one of a number that do the rounds. Can't think why....
Again this year, I decided that coming home to volunteer was a decent way to use up some holiday time from work. A Snelgrove Holiday as it is officially known. Add in an opportunity to visit family, and Paddy's return to the fold for the first time since 2011, and there was no way I wasn't going to be about.
Plenty has changed in those five years. I've moved to Edinburgh, and found a new line of work. Paddy got married, and worked his way into tech nerdy work that I have no way of understanding, Yet there we were in the year of our lord 2016, and I'm back in a long term relationship with a girl who has to live with my bullshit, and Paddy is back being my single friend who talks way too much about his own arse. We're right back where my DIFF adventure began 8 years ago. Older, balder (in my case at least) and....still making a tit of myself at the quiz.
I've worked quite a few festivals since I first started out on this road in February of 2008. At least one every year since, some for as little as one day, others for as long as six months. I've worked the biggest arts festival in the world, and did it again. Worked a festival that inspired that one in the first place, and worked out on the border of Scotland and England for some classical musical deal that I only remember for the pan haggerty.
But DIFF is my festival. It will always have the fondest memories for me, and no other job can rival its place in my heart. It's the one that's given me a fucked up knee, by kick-starting my several month long love affair with limbo. An injury that required Paddy to catch me while I was doing a spot of queue management this year, because my knee completely buckled.
http://fooltide.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/distinguished-by-disgrace.html
It's a festival that required me to babysit an idiot.
http://fooltide.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/is-it-bird-is-it-plane-no-its-blog.html
A festival that brought about the most awkward handshake in recorded history.
http://fooltide.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/shake.html
This year it allowed me to hear Richard Gere name drop the Dalai Lama on a night when a woman literally abandoned her baby to get a picture of him on the red carpet, allowed me to break The Curse of Murphy's Law, and allowed me to get all kinds of inebriated in the presence of some excellent people.
Chances are that if you'reading this, you have met me solely because Paddy convinced me to apply to get involved with a relatively small film festival almost a decade ago. The quality of a festival can be judged by the people who make it happen. For this reason, I would recommend DIFF to anyone. It might not have the sheer size of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (which I would also suggest everyone should experience), but there's an intangible charm about Dublin's fair festival that has me thinking it's more special than any other.
A special mention to Sam, who, having captured so many instances of my stupidity, once said:
"I have come to the realisation that IF I ever turn out to be a well respected and somewhat famous film person.......history will record that you were my first muse. This is disconcerting."
Thank you to the people who make ADIFF what it has been, and what it is today. Thank you to all the people who have been responsible for capturing the moments where I have made such a gobshite of myself, and for those who've helped to make those moments happen.
I'll see most of you next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment