Me hanging a banner at the Merchandise tent

Banner Crew: Elyse, Mandy, Tony, and me at the office

All of us making a tile for the GuideOne Interactive Mural

Me taking a bite out of the watermelon sculpture!

Me driving the gator! (One of the best parts of the job lol)

Winding down on Sunday night after the Festival: Elyse, Wes, Mandy, Me

The Saturday of the Festival went pretty smoothly. We had a very brief episode of rain, but then it cooled off and was a great evening. Once again, there were a ton of people there, listening to one of three music stages, looking at the awesome art, eating lots of food, and, of course, drinking lots of beer. Saturday night after the Festival was over at 10 p.m., we held a small party for all of the artists. By that time I was dragging and just wanted to go back to the hotel, but we had to stay and clean up after the artists had left.

Sunday was also a very good day for the Festival, even though it was very windy. My mom, sister, and my niece came down for the afternoon and that was fun to walk around with them looking at all the art. I showed them all of my favorite pieces of artwork and we bought a few things.

At 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, the chaos began–it was teardown time. Imagine 200 artists, the tent company, and all of the food vendors trying to load up at the same time within a 6 block area. I helped organize the teardown of the Emerging Iowa Artists, and they had all left by about 6:15. Then, I began helping the other interns with tearing down the banners that we had worked so hard to put up. Once that was finished, we spent the rest of the night cleaning up the office and driving the gators around looking for things to clean up off of the streets. What took us three days to put up only took us about 12 hours to completely tear down.

Monday morning was the worst. By that time, my adrenaline was completely gone and after only about three and a half hours of sleep, I had to drag myself out of bed at 5:00 a.m. to go help open the streets. Us interns were a little late getting there and the rest of the crew had already opened the streets. Our boss was a little ticked at us! The rest of the morning was just cleaning up the office a little more. At about 9:30, we were all finished and headed home to get some much needed rest! I got in bed about 11:00 a.m. and slept all day until about 5:30 p.m. To say the least, I was exhausted! Fortunately, we got the rest of the week off. :)

I’m back to work this week but our last day is this Friday, the 10th. We’re just organizing and finishing up the last bit of paperwork we need. It will be so nice to have the rest of the summer to relax!

Never did I imagine my feet and body could hurt so bad. But never did I imagine how much fun I would have putting on an event for 200,000 people! Last week was the craziest experience I have ever had. I’ll probably have to make several posts to get in all of the things I want to say about the whole thing. We spent all day Wednesday and Thursday setting up the site in Western Gateway Park in downtown Des Moines getting it ready for the Festival. This included lots of manual labor like hanging banners, setting up the onsite office, and closing several streets (the Festival site went for almost six blocks!). We had production meetings every day at 7:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. to make sure everyone was on track and knew what they were supposed to be doing.

My favorite day was Friday when the Festival actually started. I was in charge of helping the Emerging Iowa Artists (college-aged artists) so we had a meeting with them first thing that morning. Throughout the three days, each EIA had to give a demonstration of their particular type of art, so I had to make sure they had all of the supplies they needed for their demo. I also had to help a few professional artists with their demos and materials–all I can say is that some artists are very needy and very quirky!

Friday night was the highlight of the Festival with a free concert featuring Collective Soul with headliner Gavin Degraw–it was a blast! Shawn Johnson also made an appearance before Gavin went onstage and then she sat in the front row with her friends. So at one time, I was 5 feet away from Shawn and 10 feet away from Gavin! That’s about as close to celebrity-ness as I’ll ever get! Gavin and Collective Soul were both great in concert. There were a ton of people at the Festival that night to see the concert, and luckily the weather was great. While Collective Soul was performing, me and the other interns got to go on the roof of a nearby building and we took some pictures–that was sweeeeeet!! I have posted them below…

I will continue to get my thoughts together and post more about the Festival in a few days. Stay tuned!

Yesterday (Saturday) we held the Volunteer Orientation for all of the people who will be volunteering at the Festival next weekend. While that was going on, the other interns and I helped Stephen (DMAF director) and Beth (Production manager) map out the site, which means we got to graffiti Des Moines! Actually, we just used spray chalk to mark out where all of the tents will go. Unfortunately our tape measure broke so we only got about half of the site done. We’ll have to finish it up tomorrow night.

This week will probably be the busiest week of my life. We’ll be setting up the site on Wednesday and Thursday, then the Festival begins on Friday at 4:00 p.m. We’ll be staying at a hotel downtown from Wednesday through Sunday so that we can be close to the site. All of the Event Staff have meetings every morning at 7:00 a.m. and the Festival doesn’t get over until 10:00 p.m. every night, so I’m not expecting to get much sleep lol. I will try to get as many pictures as I can and post those sometime the week after the Festival. We’re all hoping for great weather!!

The Festival begins next Friday, June 26th. I’m gearing up for a very busy next two weeks. Last week we made deliveries of the commemorative posters to many of the sponsors (not fun driving all over Polk County!). I know this week and next will be crazy busy but I know two weeks from today, we’ll be proud of all that we accomplished and we’ll be able to relax!

2009 DMAF Commemorative Poster by Keith Grace: “DMAF Zinnia”

Last week, we held a luncheon for all of the DMAF sponsors in the Pappajohn Education building downtown (very neat building, by the way!). The Festival director went over some of the important information for the sponsors and showed off the two paintings that will be featured at this year’s Festival. Both paintings (shown below) were done exclusively for DMAF. It was fun to get to see some of the people who really contribute to the success of the Festival.

Below: Stephen talking to all of the sponsors. The paintings are right beside him–the flower and the DM skyline, very neat!!

The Interns, from left: Elyse, Maggie (Me), Mandy

I’m gearing up for my fourth week at my DM Arts Festival internship. My first week or so was kind of slow and I felt kind of bored. I’m the type of person who needs to stay busy–I like the challenge of having many tasks to complete. Now, the internship is definitely picking up and I stay busy most of the day, luckily without being overwhelmed. I was put in charge of the Emerging Iowa Artists (EIA’s, the college-age artists), the volunteer program, and I also help with the entertainers. Some of my duties throughout the day include staying in contact with EIAs and the volunteers, making credentials, and putting together binders/information for various important people associated with the Festival.

Here’s to a good week!
Maggie

After 21 years and no real job experience, I decided earlier this year that it was probably time for me to grow up and get some real world experience. So I began my search for a summer internship and found an opportunity through Central’s Career Center. After an interview and several weeks of waiting, I accepted an offer for an internship with the Des Moines Arts Festival. In this blog, I am going to share with you my experience this summer and what I learn along the way. I know this internship will be a great opportunity for me to develop my career skills and will be a chance to network with some exciting people in the great city of Des Moines! I hope you enjoy sharing in my journey!

Be sure to check out the Arts Festival by clicking the picture above or www.desmoinesartsfestival.org to learn about the exciting events that will be going on this year as well as the volunteer opportunities available. The Festival will be held June 26-28 in downtown Des Moines. Be sure to make plans to attend!

Maggie Paris