Volunteer 40 hours

My second last Fringe shift was interesting; lovely in a way because I got to hear my friend’s set on the outdoor stage a couple of blocks away, but also awful because I worked with an incredibly annoying jerk the whole time. Arrogant, rude, and full of asshatishness, he really did make me feel like I was sacrificing a perfectly good Saturday afternoon. I very much enjoyed being replaced at the end of my shift just as he had 4 customers fighting over the last 2 tickets to a show, which he was holding at his till.

The last shift was better. I got to work inside on the last morning of the festival with much nicer people. Good to end on a high note.

Second Fringe box office shift done; a bit livelier today as I wasn’t stuck away out on the edge of the site. Instead I got to work a booth in amongst the food vendors and two of the busking stops. (How does that guy juggle swords on a unicycle like that?)

With my volunteer benefits I bought a ticket for a show that’s selling out very quickly. I hope it’s as good as its ticket sales indicate.

So I had my first shift today. It was very slow out at my little satellite box office, but I still managed to sell a few different kinds of tickets, and also had my computer freeze twice when a couple was buying tickets for 3 different shows at once. It was awesome.

Did my training for the Fringe yesterday. I’m on the box office team this year and I’m looking forward to it. Working the Fringe really is ideal; I get to support a festival that I enjoy, nothing’s very far because I live in the neighbourhood, and one of the volunteer perks is getting special Fringe money that you can put towards show tickets, which I enjoy using. I’ve done front-of-house the last two times I volunteered (3 years ago now), so box office is new for me, but the ticket system seems pretty straightforward. Seems. I haven’t really worked with money in a couple of years now, so I’m sure I’ll screw up at some point, but still: I’m happy to help out and looking forward to my first shift in a couple of weeks.

Did some unpaid work time today helping out at my colleague’s film festival, which I’ve been helping with really for the last few months. It was fun though; I’ve never stayed for the evening showings before so it was actually a nice evening.