INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (#1)

 Over the years I have attended, worked with and organized hundreds of festivals and events. With this new series, "INSIDE with the Festival Nomad", I want to give you an "inside" look at some of the festivals and events that I have been involved with or that I have visited. Along the way, I have had a lot of fun and sometimes frustration, but I have never been bored!

Organizing My First Event

I was in my early 20’s and I had never been involved in any kind of an event, let alone organized one! But that is what I was asked to do. I was a fairly new member of the Young Men’s Advertising Club of Toronto, when the President called me and asked ME to do him a favour! How could I refuse! He was OUR President, after all! So here I was, the new chairman of the YMASC Car Rally and I was “panicking”! Fortunately, I was able to “recruit” a couple of “green” (that’s inexperienced, not earth conscious!) to join my committee. Together we worked with the previous committee’s notes (very complete), and started planning our event. I think the most fun was choosing the “rally” route! The three of us climbed into my car and we started off. Never having planned a route before, we didn’t have any pre-conceived restrictions. We knew our start and our destination, so we just drove! As we twisted and turned my fellow “newbie's”, wrote down directions, turns and landmarks! We also searched for items (unusual trees, interesting buildings and funny signs) for rally participants to identify along the way. The idea was for them to "find" these items to earn additional points. Back then, being ambitious young men, we were able to obtain some really great prizes. So, doing well in the Car, Rally was a priority amongst rally participants!

Those were great days! I can’t tell you how much fun we had in the planning and then the execution of the event, but it was a lot! The dinner parties, the laughter and the “secrecy” all added to our excitement. Even though we were very inexperienced, everyone at the rally enjoyed themselves and, we, the organizers, thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We were the hit of the club, at least for the moment. This event, more than any other, sent me on the road for a life-long fascinate with festivals and events!