This year I have volunteered as the Deputy Festival Designer and Stage Manager of the Great British Beer Festival, steadily building upon my role each year from just stage crew in 2017. Having worked at the festival for five years, I have continued to learn about its working before joining the festival design team this year. This has given me experience designing in the impressive Kensington Olympia, from helping with digitally drafting the layout and calculating order schedules to chalking out and building the festival on-site. This has given me hands-on experience with construction and drafting that I haven’t had from university, and I am keen to improve my role in the team throughout the following year.
2023 Festival Plans | Kensington Olympia
Volunteering as part of the stage team and becoming the stage manager after a few years, I learned about stage design and lighting. Although working at the festival has been predominantly a hobby, I have found that some things, such as thinking about light and colour, have also informed my architectural work and interests in practice. In particular, working backstage became a precedent for researching how colour can be used in architecture in my Colour on Stage and Derry projects. My interest in theatres inspired my undergraduate dissertation and final design project, the Aquilo Theatre.
