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This will be an ongoing insight of what it is like as a technician at the Edinburgh Fringe. From our first week to our last, these will be an inside look at what happens behind the scenes that most people don’t get even a glimpse of.
We got sent an email for a meeting point and time for our first day. Bright and early Monday morning we were given introductions in a proper group circle and then showed around to some of the venues. Then the first truck of the week arrived and it was the normal chaos that always comes with any festival. Luckily, with as many hands as we had the truck didn’t take all day but it was still a lot of trying to make sure everything went into the right pile that it belongs to so it can go to the right venue. We mostly accomplished this. We were on the last few decks of stage in the back of the truck when we realised that there were two different types of pink labels…
The following day we began to turn a University Hall into one of the venues to be used by building the truss and attaching the light fixtures to it while continuing with the normal expected chaos of constantly asking “who knows the plan?”
The rest of the days for the first week were again unloading another truck at another venue and making sure everything there was as set up as possible for the following week. Except this venue has several smaller venues inside of it, and you can easily get lost trying to keep track of the different stairwells and the maze that leads to the various rooms and the demanding tasks that need to be done within each of those rooms. Thankfully, there’s other technicians there and we all help each other. One of the venues is a massive cave-like structure up 3 flights of stairs, which we were told is going to be a wicked awesome venue. I’ll have to come back and see that for myself as building that truss in there took more than a little effort.
At the end of nearly every day, it was a scramble to the local crew bar where everyone proceeded to attempt to find out plans for the following days to come, find out which venues we will be working in, and in general annoy the management team which is always great fun. It’s always good to get some laughs in with the other technicians over a pint, as the following weeks everyone knows will just be too chaotic to always make time for a drink with one another.
As rumours of all of us having a day off came to fruition, everyone including myself took it as a day to rest all of the freshly bruised muscles, tense joints, and prepare for the following week to come with the rest of the technicians and crew coming in on Monday morning bright and early with an email sent out for a meeting point and time.
Janine has always been a part of music and performing. The first show that inspired her to go into theatre was the Velveteen Rabbit which she saw as a child, and Drew works to keep that magic alive in her work. When Drew was accepted into an internship program for audio engineering at a recording studio, she jumped at the opportunity. That was at the start of 2020, and so much has happened since then, both in her career and in the world. Since then, Drew has taken several opportunities to work at recording studios, concerts, festivals, and even large theatres while spending some time on tour. Drew's favorite by far though, has been the chance to work on Broadways and West End shows, as this was a dream come true. Drew is honoured to get to share these experiences from being inside the entertainment industry.
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