Live on the Lawn
A collaboration between Heartwood Soundstage, South Main Station, Tom Petty Weekend & FEST.
As I began to plan my summer stretch of Community Nights during January, I traced back into Heartwood Soundstage’s history to find a night called Live on the Lawn. These nights had been abandoned over the years, but I knew that they had the potential to become something special. I sat down with Heartwood Soundstage’s Marketing Coordinator and South Main Stations Marketing & Events Coordinator and began to brainstorm ideas for our nightly themes. With the approaching festival season at Heartwood, we decided to throw two curated events in support of Tom Petty Weekend and Gainesville’s FEST. Each night would feature three local artists specially selected for their ties to each festival. In order to fund our shows and build community bonds, we applied for the City of Gainesville’s GCRA Community Partnership Grant Program, and earned up to $4,000 in matching funds for our event. Taking place on May 7th and June 4th, each night brought out over 200 attendees and amassed over $700 in ticket sales for Tom Petty Weekend.
My Role.
As the Producer, I took the lead role in planning and executing the events, alongside my team at both Heartwood Soundstage & South Main Station, as well as Tom Petty Weekend & FEST support. My duties involved communicating directly with the artists curated by TPW & FEST, including but not limited to payouts, production, scheduling and hospitality. I collaborated with the Heartwood and SMS’s Marketing team as well as FEST’s Founder & Social Media Manager to execute a steady flow of information about the event through the month leading up to our FEST show. On the Heartwood side, I worked closely with our Production team to schedule out the run-of-show, procure artist information, design graphics and ensured the team was well-communicated with.
On the day-of-show I handled Site Management, ensuring a smooth run-of-show by overseeing our Production and Site teams. I managed the Heartwood bar staff, established point-of-sale systems, handled artist settlements and monitored merchandising. For the FEST show I took on the Photographer position, taking photos for bands Boat Stuff, the Joytraders and Orbiter, which will be used for Heartwood Soundstage’s social media pages.
In order to follow the guidelines of our GCRA grant, I oversaw the budget and settled out payments, spending and volunteer hours gathered in support of the event.
Unfortunately, due to summer in Florida, we were forced to move our FEST show inside, but this did not in any way hinder the success of our show! We also got to enjoy wondrous air conditioning.
Orbiter Photo by Me
Orbiter Photo by Me
Boat Stuff Photo by Me
Orbiter Photo by Me