First Festivus! (aka, festival)

Our first festival was last weekend. It was the Disney Jazz Celebration, which is different from the other 9 weeks of festivals we do. It was a lot of fun and really something I wish I could have done in high school.

The Jazz Celebration took place over 3 days, with Thursday being the Welcoming Ceremony. There was A LOT of talent hired for this weekend: 6 adjudicators, 3 for vocal and 3 for instrumental, 3 clinicians, and 3 guest performers. We showed a short video of Louis Armstrong singing on a riverboat in Disneyland and then opened the floor to the performers. They were all quite young, between 25 and 30; the small age difference made it very easy for the students to relate to them. They could also play their butts off. Throughout the weekend, Jessy J had a consistently sized fan club. Check out her video and you might see why. But seriously, what's up with the horses?

Friday and Saturday consisted of master classes, clinics, jam sessions, and performances. If you performed one day, you did the rest on the other day. I was only assigned to performances, but we were all festival coordinators. That's our official title; we try to cut down on the use of intern because it could lose us some credibility. I had 2 groups on my own, a couple with some other interns because we were drastically overstaffed for the weekend because of the small number of bands. Come mid-March on though, we'll all be very busy.

Saturday night was the Awards Ceremony, which was a lot of fun. We give out participation awards to each school and announce their rating, giving the award to 2 student reps from each school. Then we have a jammin' concert (official title) that actually was jammin' pretty hard. Each talent hired for whatever reason got up and played for a bit. So much talent in one place...it was amazing. Too bad I didn't have my camera! After the performance, we have the directors on stage. We then give each of them a tote bag (fancier than I make it sound) and then we announce the Best in Class, Gold, Silver, Bronze, and special awards (best rhythm section, etc.). But for that...we need Mickey! Always exciting to have the big guy around. After we kicked everyone out, it was to Ale House we went. Rene said it was the smoothest a first festival had ever went. Much exciting.

This past week was intense activity wise. Monday and Tuesday were normal. Wednesday night my grandparents were in town (with the rest of my life in tow) and we went to The Turf Club at Saratoga Springs. They liked the food, which was the most important thing, and I had the prime rib. I always wonder the big hubub is concerning prime rib, so I figured I would have it where it was gonna be "good". Well it was...still didn't like it. Way too much fat. But those potatoes and apple pie were excellent.

Thursday we went to see the Globetrotters! It was the first event of inaugural ESPN: The weekend. Well, it wasn't the first ESPN: The Weekend, but Disney's Wide World of Sports was just renamed ESPN's Wide World of Sports. Makes absolute sense in terms of branding, it just makes me wonder why they took so long to do it. Anyway, the game was awesome (as expected) and we all had a lot of fun.




























Friday, all the interns took Rene to dinner at Boma, a buffet at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Holy crap...it was good. That's basically all I have to say on that. I tried everything. No lie.

On another note, Mandy's back from here week-long excursion to Bellefonte, PA. She was getting ready to start her full-time position at Magic Kingdom, but she got a call to do part-time front desk at Ft. Wilderness. It's considered a promotion, and it's a bit of a bummer it's only full-time for now, but it will give her a better chance to get full-time sooner and also to get out of the parks (trust me, I've heard no one wants to work at MK).

Boy I dropped the ball on this thing...

Sorry I've fallen to pieces everyone. The more I wait to update, the more I have to and the more I'm figuring you're just gonna skim and look for pictures, haha.

Let's start with my birthday. My lovely laday friend took me to the California Grill for an excellent dinner. But if you don't know, the Grill is no ordinary restaurant; the Grill sits atop the Contemporary, one of the first resorts on property. It is also the closest to the Magic Kingdom AND has the monorail run right through it. Brilliant. Anyway, we get there just a couple minutes before 8, checked in, got me a birthday button, and that's when I realized...THE FIREWORKS ARE AT 8. Mandy might be the smartest person ever. So we watched those (the music is played in the restaurant in time with the fireworks) and of course they were awesome; I mean, it's Wishes. Come on.

We then had some dinner, and just like every dinner I've had at Disney, it blew my mind. My mind has been blown so many times, I feel like a Vietnamese mine field. That was probably inappropriate, but what are you gonna do. We shared a flatbread pizza which had roasted red peppers, some sort of greens, and duck. Yes, it was definitely duck season on our flatbread pizza. And it was as awesome as it sounds. For dinner, I had the beef tenderloin, which is becoming a habit when I eat out. I'm pretty sure they cut out the very middle of the cow and throw the rest away cause it tastes so good. Mandy had the scallops and they were butter in my mouth...cause I got to finish them. Awesome. It was the best birthday dinner ever. Hands freakin' down.

Everyone at the office brought a little something to the table for my birthday too. A couple people decorated my cubicle area and two people baked treats. It was a really great surprise. Then that Saturday I had people come out to Ale House to celebrate, mostly because it's the cheapest place around to drink.

The first couple weeks of work, not gonna lie, were pretty boring. Since a lot of what we were gearing up to do was already taken care of (tickets sold, forms sent and received, etc.)
we just assisted others on the floor. A LOT of nonsense for the not-yet-created Gospel Choir Event, filing contracts, straightening up the sully closest, learning how to use Outlook, reading our handbook, and a fair amount of feeling useless. We did get to do a couple of neat things here and there. Like when I start at Disney's Animal Kingdom and had my park orientation, we participated in orientations at Hollywood Studios and Epcot. It was interesting, but we learned a lot of what we already knew and once again, had The Basics drilled into our heads.

BUT, we just had our first festival this past weekend. The Disney Jazz Celebration to be more specific. It was a good time and went pretty close to schedule. Let me tell you, it was a lot more fun than sitting in the office. However, I am tired and this post is already too long, so if you've made it this far, congratulations. I wish I had a prize for you. Crap, I didn't even get to ultimate yet! Le sigh, next time.