Eye-Witness Account: Working The Ticket Booth at SNWMF

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Wendy Russell, RAW #124

Amlak Tafari’s booming bass pounds from the Village Stage with Roots Father Bernard Collins’ clear lilting voice floating above it. I scan the crowd looking for the four volunteers that were to go erect another fence around a newly-made campground set up for the unexpected spillover. Camping was sold-out. I had wristbanded the volunteers, turned around to answer a question, looked back–gone! The truck came to take them down to the new camp.

Two other young people suddenly peer through the hole cut in the glass of the Volunteer Window at Sierra Nevada World Music Festival:

"We want to go to the show. It sounds like such a great line-up!"

We talk about that awhile then I ask what volunteer list they might be on. "No list, we were hoping you could gift us tickets?" "I can’t do that, I really like this job and I do it honestly so I can keep it." Throughout my years at the door or in the ticket booth I had adopted that standard answer to such requests. I feel that’s the truth and anyone would understand my point. I DO have a great job! But the couple keeps on, explaining their many hardships and trials to get here to my window.

The four fence volunteers straggle up and I look around for the driver. A line is behind the couple at my window. The young woman actually starts to cry. She hiccups through her tears, "You could let us in." It’s true, I guess. I see her eyes flicker to the table behind me, stacked with wristbands, parking passes and All Access lammies, a veritable goldmine of fun at Sierra Nevada World Music Festival. "We came up here to Angel’s Camp from Santa Barbara. We don’t have tickets or money, but we came a long way, pleeease?" The boyfriend looks at me so earnestly; he’s about the age of my son and I melt for a micro-moment, knowing we had been told no more volunteers were needed, "Let me call and see if they can use you to help clean up tomorrow after the show in trade for a ticket," and I pick up the walkie-talkie–but boyfriend stops me, "No, we gotta hitchhike out with whoever is leaving in the morning. How about just letting us in?"

The young woman suddenly sobs out "It’s YOUR fault," tears streaming down her face. "You seemed so nice, why are you doing this to us?" My sympathy turned to amazed shock then into indignant piss-offed-ness. "My fault?" I start–but right then the driver shows up. I call for the four volunteers as fellow crewmember Kathy Sturgill asks for the next person in line, over the shoulder of the crying girl. That guy says he is from a radio station; his boss was to call and get ten all-access passes for him. At the same time an irie bunch of dreaded folk come up to our side door–they had the wrong wristbands and were here to trade up. Kathy and Chris Colver pour over the many pages of lists to verify these requests. It’s either there or it’s not. We have no discretion to put you on the list if you are not there, but we do have rules to follow that streamline and follow time-tested procedures.

"MY fault? It’s MY fault you came here with no ticket or money? I am not allowed to give away tickets!" The radio guy wasn’t on the list. He had no business card or anything to help the volunteer crew find him on the lists or to call and verify. He stomps away angrily, yelling something at Kathy as the young couple still crowding the window continues pleading, telling me that the girl’s parents don’t like the boyfriend so they had withheld her allowance until Monday. My patience is gone but I let them talk, getting ready to give my standard answer again. The next three people in line were on the Volunteer List–they had called in advance to SNWMF last week to confirm and they went through smoothly, although our Volunteer Crew was still working over the shoulders of the two in the window.

Lady Souljah shows up for her shift as a young woman rushes the window, almost climbing on top of the pleading couple. She shouts, "The lead singer of the band now on the Main Stage said I am on the Volunteer List! Hurry! I hear him!" The crew and I look at one another, all thinking the same thing: why would an artist put a girlfriend on the Volunteer List? She wasn’t on the list. She said, "Well, maybe the Security Crew list?" We look. Nope. "The Hospitality List?" Nope. "The Artist List?" Nope. Looking at the program, I ask her what the lead singer’s whole name is. She looks at me blankly. I motion her away.

The young couple starts again, asking if I would trade a ticket for--"Please, I want to stay nice. I can’t give away tickets. I can’t trade tickets. I get to work these festivals because I don’t break the rules! Please, walk away." The irie dreads were being wristbanded with their new backstage wristbands. Two weren’t on the backstage list but they calmly waited while we checked why. They told us stories of reggae in their area as we waited. The lead singer’s girlfriend came up with a tall man draped around her. He exploded in the small window, "You told her she wasn’t on the list! You sent her away!"

"Calm down!" we all say at once. "She didn’t know your whole name! Or what list she was on! So many people come up with wild stories..." Turns out she was on the Stage Crew list. Go figure. She got her wristband, and off they went. The irie dreads’ okay came through and off they went too, giving gifts of green to some of the crew. We all exhaled and relaxed a bit before the next person, discussing what to do before you arrive to make it go smoothly when you are on a will-call list or if you are a volunteer.

Call or fax two weeks beforehand, verify your passes, ask what list you are on, who your crew boss is or what time you should arrive. Plan on doing your shifts well to earn the ticket you receive in exchange for volunteering. If you are members of the press, send your credentials and previous articles or photos well ahead of time. And please be nice to us, have patience and usually we can work it out. Enjoy the show!

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Wendy Russell, ex-promoter in Fresno, CA for 15 years is now Festival volunteer, organizer, writer and photographer, and also editor of Reggae Festival Guide. She is a radio DJ on Satellite Radio Bilingue nationwide, worldwide at www.radiobilingue.org.