The California Bluegrass Association, in keeping with their longstanding practice of building future bluegrass leaders through aggressive contemporary action, has announced a Leadership Training opportunity during this year’s Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival in Grass Valley, CA in June.
CBA is offering 12 positions in its new Music Festival Production program to give those interested in show and event production a chance to learn on the job during a major bluegrass festival. Though rotating assignments, these “interns” will have the opportunity to observe close hand how a large scale festival is managed, by being on the inside as the show goes on.
Or as the program directors describe it…
Leadership participants will be embedded with various festival operations and production teams, gaining hands-on experience. You will work with experts to create a high-quality festival experience for attendees and learn to solve those inevitable problems in real-time.
This program runs a full week, from June 10-17, in order to encompass both the set up and tear down for the Father’s Day festival, which occurs June 13-16. Participants can expect to work a full eight hour day while on site, divided between assignments with different administrative and management teams, and in volunteer time with several festival squads. The volunteer time is the only payment requested by CBA for being involved in this training program.
But they won’t be sent into the wild unprepared. Before any shift, participants will be briefed in seminars by team leaders.
Participants can expect to spend time in the following festival areas:
- Safety and Hospitality
- Box Office and Access control
- Stage Sound
- Festival Security
- Catering
- Merchandise Sales
- Stage Management
- Artist Relations
- Site Operations & Logistics
- Concessions and Vendor Management
- Production Office Management
Free tent or RV camping spots will be offered to those in the program, and all meals during the week will be provided.
Though not strictly limited to students, this training program is designed for someone studying theater arts, music production, or media in college, or in the early stages of a professional career in music or event production. But those interested in using the program as an entry level introduction are also encouraged to apply.
Applications to this initial CBA Music Festival Production training program can be completed online, and must be submitted by April 15 to be considered.
This appears to be the first program of its type to be offered in the bluegrass world, and could possibly fulfill summer internship requirements required by many universities.
Full details are available online.
