At the end of June, I knew I needed to disappear. Not forever. Just long enough to hear myself think again. But I couldn't go yet. And if you produce anything for a living, you already know why…
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It is the second week of January. The planner is new. The pen still works. You write down the year you want -- rest more, train someone to share the load, finally take the trip -- and for about nine days, you believe yourself. Then the first artist hold lands. The first budget reopens. The advance starts breathing down your neck. And by the time you…
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You asked a team member for an update. A routine check-in. Status on a few moving parts you needed to track. The call ended with them telling you they felt grateful. Relieved, even. Like they'd finally gotten something off their chest. Sit with that for a moment. Because that moment -- the one where…
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It is closing night. The headliner is twenty minutes from walking out. The field that started this morning as a thousand separate people has become one body leaning toward the stage, and you can feel the air change before a single note plays. You have felt that shift before. The moment a…
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You ran the team debrief. You sat in the room while the department heads walked through what held and what broke. You captured the near-misses. You wrote down the protocols worth keeping. You did the organizational work, and you did it well. There's one debrief you didn't run.The one where you're the only person in the…
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The festival ended three to four weeks ago. The adrenaline is finally out of your system. Some of your team took vacation. A holiday weekend may have come and gone. The emotions have mostly settled. You still like your coworkers. And now, this week, the meetings are starting to populate again. This is the window…
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It's the Sunday after wrap. It's 2pm. You're in your kitchen. The laundry basket has been at the foot of the bed for three weeks. The fridge contains seven half-eaten things you can't identify. The garden has gone feral. There is mail on the counter you stopped opening in week one of pre-production. You haven't…
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Five years ago, the festival industry talked about sustainability as a bonus. Today, it is infrastructure. Five years ago, AI in event operations was a curiosity. Today, it is operations. Five years ago, festival mental health was a hallway conversation. Today, it is staffing. The industry you trained for is…
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