Full steam ahead

I get an email from our insurance agent, needing an update on our insurance policies.  I’m not sure whether this is a welcome diversion from the intensity of festival preparation, or not! It’s easy to forget the world outside when you’ve got all these festival deadlines coming up one after the other.  (Note to self: must find out where my perspective has gone).

A triumph in that evil Steve, the festival box office manager, and myself, have got the professional development program on line and up for sale, a week before the official program goes live.  Already there are some takers for one of the masterclasses.  Hurrah!  The web works!  The ticketing works!

Meantime, my lovely web volunteers continue to do their work off site uploading the text for 300 + sessions, and 400+ writers. It’s a massive task. All will be revealed on 17 July,. I’m doing work on the web this weekend in the office; need to have quiet space to concentrate on it, and I’ll make a note of how many films, walks, dinners and other events we’re doing for my next blog. We’re really pushing sales through the internet this year.  Went up from 20% to 60% in 2008, and we’re hoping to make that 75% in 2009.

An exception to the current work.work.work regime is the glory that is the Tour de France.  Nothing like watching other people work hard (very hard!) biking up mountains, dodging dogs and mad ‘devils’, in fantastic countryside in the hot, hot sun to help you find your perspective tucked under a sofa cushion.  Looks a bit depressing for local boy Cadel Evans  but I always look forward to the Basque sections of the race, and the wonderfully named Euskaltel Euskadi team.  Suddenly the mountains turn orange.

Helenka
Festival Manager