CLEVELAND — WonderStruck Music Pageant has drawn hundreds to Lakeland Group School yearly because it began in 2016, creating an area the place individuals can expertise stay music and boosting the native financial system.
From scheduling artists right down to sorting trash and recycling, it takes lots to place a music pageant collectively.
The gates at Wonderstruck Fest don’t open till 1 p.m., however the pageant’s manufacturing supervisor, Mark O’Shea, mentioned he’s up and at it lengthy earlier than then.
“I stay on the grounds here because we have these really nice RVs,” O’Shea mentioned. “I woke up at five, been up since five.”
O’Shea wears many hats on the Elevation Group, the corporate that runs WonderStruck and 4 different music festivals within the area.
He’s accountable for coordinating the pageant’s energy, connecting with the artists, ensuring the set-up and tear-down of levels runs correctly, monitoring climate circumstances and dealing with every other hiccups that come up.
“One day, we were trying to figure out what is it that I do,” O’Shea mentioned. “It’s like an air traffic controller, and the artists and the bands and the crew members are pilots, and I just have to direct them where they’re going.”
He mentioned the job is demanding, beginning months earlier than the pageant date.
O’Shea has spent that point assembly with the facility firm, native regulation enforcement and mapping out what number of crew members shall be wanted at every stage for the performances.
All of them keep linked on the day of the pageant.
“I think we have over 150 radios on site,” he mentioned.
As soon as the gates open, if the whole lot goes in line with plan, the crew runs on autopilot.
At that time, O’Shea mentioned he stays on standby.
He mentioned he is aware of nearly everybody’s identify within the crews he oversees, one thing that’s not unusual for individuals within the business.
There aren’t many individuals within the area who do that work, he mentioned, so they see one another at most large occasions.
Whereas they do have enjoyable, the work might be draining.
O’Shea mentioned he’s left live performance manufacturing earlier than, however his ardour for stay performances attracts him again each time.
“You can see already, a large crowd of people just standing out here, ready to go, having fun, enjoying the weather, having a drink, food in their hand,” he mentioned. “This is what’s rewarding for us. The smiles, the roar of the crowd, the cheering. It’s infectious. It really is.”
The Elevation Group will host WonderBus Music Pageant in Columbus Friday, Aug. 25 by means of Sunday, Aug. 27.
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