VE Day 75th Anniversary

Bank Holiday Friday 8th May 2020


Not the day of celebrations the country originally envisaged but people were making the best of it. I nipped out quickly to take a picture of our bunting. Unfortunately we couldn't fly the flag from the tower. 

I spent all day pulling together the various parts of our celebration service and concert tonight. I was really quite nervous about hosting the entire thing online myself. "Keep it simple" I had said. I ended up with various singers and musicians playing live from their own homes, various people reading from their own homes, powerpoints with embedded music, videos etc. I had the job of stage managing all the technology. By 6pm the adrenaline was running on overdrive. 

People started arriving at 6.30pm but I didn't "open the door" until 6.40pm. Twenty minutes of bringing people online gradually and checking their audio was working. We started at 7pm and after an initial technical hitch everything started running far more smoothly than I had ever imagined possible. We had a couple of other minor blips along the way. Thankfully I was in text contact with one of the organising committee throughout and she was able to alert me when something wasn't working right - like the time I was enjoying a video but no-one else could see it! I can't believe we got through it as well as we did, all performers were excellent, everyone managed their technology and we had a big communal wave during Pomp and Circumstance to finish. 

The planning committee had a brief meeting afterwards to share a drink together, relieved that we'd pulled it off. 

The preparation in the last couple of weeks and the other key jobs I've managed to cross off the list this week, have kept me away from things like blip. I certainly haven't seen any of my virtual holiday this week. Hopefully now I will find some "me" time this next week. Fingers crossed.