Kirsty's Work Experience at Wigtown Festival Company
Hi! My name is Kirsty and I’m a third year pupil doing work experience at the Wigtown Festival Company. I’ve loved coming to the festival every year since I was little- whether it was with my class on a school trip, or with my Dad and older brother at the weekend. I like to think that the festival is the reason I absolutely love reading and writing.
As you can imagine, I was thrilled to be able to have this opportunity, so, here’s my blog about everything that happened. Enjoy!
_MONDAY MAY 27th_
Apparently, not everything I’m going to learn on this placement is Book-Festival-related! It turns out that if you go to Co Op and buy Skittles 4 minutes before your bus home leaves, YOU WILL MISS IT! And if you forget to bring a jacket, YOU WILL GET SOAKED! On the bright side though, I’ve learned something for next time- and I still have some leftover Skittles at home, as I write this on Tuesday morning.
It was really cool to sit down with Anne and learn a bit more about the festival’s background, and I loved meeting everyone who works in the office!
_TUESDAY MAY 28th_
I live close enough that I can walk to and from school every day, so seeing a lovely view isn’t usually a privilege I get! Lucky for me, the past two mornings have had absolutely beautiful weather. I managed to catch this snap from the bus this morning.
I’ve been drafting posts for the Big Wig and Big DoG facebook pages all day, which is actually really fun! I pretty much just use social media as a way of talking to family, or sending silly photos to my friends, so I’m finding it interesting to see how it can be used for marketing too!
_WEDNESDAY MAY 29th_
Today I scheduled all of yesterday’s drafted posts. Now I’m researching upcoming children’s book releases- and in the process, just adding to the list of books I really, really, really want to read! I’m planning to buy my little brother “There’s an Alien in Your Book” by Tom Fletcher, (purely because I need a good excuse to buy and read a children’s book) and I’m also really looking forward to “White Bird” by RJ Palacio, because I loved their previous book, “Wonder” . Anyway, back to work!
_THURSDAY MAY 30th_
Today I’ve drafted a couple of event descriptions for Big Wig 2019. All 3 books look absolutely fantastic, I cannot wait to bring my little brother along to the festival this year!
I’ve also been thinking about ideas for WTF 2019, which has been really fun. I drafted up a list of books/authors I’m interested in inviting and they're ALL based in the USA :(
Update from later on: I’ve just found out that Rowan Coleman, co author of “Mirror, Mirror” is based in the UK! I’m currently in the process of drafting a letter to her about the possibility of doing an event at WTF 2019.
_FRIDAY MAY 31st_
Bus trouble this morning so I ended up being half an hour late! It turned out alright though, I made my last day a little more memorable I guess.
With help from Anne we finalised the email to Cara Delevingne and Rowan Coleman, who knows how that’ll turn out!
Hopefully after i finish this up it’ll get uploaded somewhere...
At the End of It All
At its core the Work Experience programme is about doing a mini version of a job you want to do when you leave school. Even after my placement I have no CLUE what I want for my career, but the experience I’ve had is invaluable. I came to the Wigtown Festival Company pretty nervous, I’d never done anything like this before. Soon, however, I learned that there wasn’t anything to be scared of! I’ve met a lot of really nice people, had the opportunity to help out at WTF, and learned a lot about the inner workings of a festival that I really love.