Holding any sort of technical role in the theatrical, performance or events industry is always a challenging prospect, even for season technicians and operators. There are so many moving parts, you have to contend with the wants and needs of your cast, designers, directors, other technical departments and so much more, whilst also having to consider health and safety, budget, practicality, abilities of your team (if you have one!), capabilities of the equipment, and of course everything that is destined to go awry! But the one constant of this world (mostly!) is that you can expect to be in a building with some level of technical capacity, a built-in power supply and everything you need largely sitting in front of you, awaiting your technical prowess.
But imagine trying to accomplish all of that to a high standard, in the middle of a random field, with limited resources, a team with varying abilities and times when they are available, and nearly 10,000 people waiting for your presumably flawless work despite being miles away from a brick-and-mortar structure! Three weeks ago, it was this exact challenge which faced Mark Buckley, leader of the Technical & Stage Management Team and his crew, of which I was a part. With people from across the world heading to Chelmsford, it was down to this team to bring the party to the field, ready to make the Essex International Jamboree an event to remember!
The Essex International Jamboree is a week-long camping event attended by members of the Scouting and Girlguiding movements from countries across the world. Led by Camp Chiefs Karen Packer and Paul Walker, the event, which occurs every four years, sees thousands of young people, leaders and staff descend on Chelmsford in Essex to spend the week under canvas and celebrating themselves and their movements, learning new skills and making friends. This was the first such Essex Jamboree since 2016, with the 2020 incarnation cancelled months before its occurrence as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. With the theme this year being ‘A celebration of Girlguiding and Scouting’, and young people split into river-themed subcamps, 2024 was set to be a monumental return of the beloved event. Having attended as a participant in 2016, this was my second Jamboree, and first as a member of staff.
So what was the experience like? And what in fact did our Technical & Stage Management Team get up to? Come with me to Chelmsford and see the behind-the-scenes of one of the lesser-known teams at the camp.
Day 1 ~ July 25th ~ Two Days before Opening
We first have to establish that whilst the Jamboree began on July 27th, people had been on site long before then. In fact, by the time the entire Build, camp and Break-Down periods had been completed, some people had been on site for around 40 days! I arrived with around two-thirds of the team already onsite and after collecting my staff necker and pitching my tent, I was led to the Circus Tent to begin construction on the stage and audience seating, joined by various members of our team. From lifting stage deck in the rain to army crawling underneath to secure clamps, it was all hands on deck (no pun intended) to get the Circus complete, followed by rigging audio and lighting systems and fixtures throughout the tent, ahead of the week’s performances. It was also a great opportunity to meet and chat to my new teammates before the Jamboree officially began.
Day 2 ~ July 26th ~ One Day before Opening
My first morning waking up in the Thames subcamp was an early start and the first time I had slept under canvas since before the pandemic! Despite a rough night’s sleep, all was forgotten with what would soon become my favourite daily ritual – a Chef Sharky camp breakfast! All week, staff across the site were treated to the culinary prowess of Head Chef Sharky and his military kitchen, providing great food all week, including a cooked breakfast every morning (I got used to that quite nicely!). With young people due on site the following day, we were all busy throughout the day making our final preparations as other teams completed the Village and outlets in time for our arrivals.
I was teamed up with Milchy, one of the many Peters on our team, and Alex as we headed down to Enterprise, one of the ten activity zones to put together a presentation stage and PA system in each of their four marquees, as well as setting up television units in the Sports Café and at Wet & Wild. There was a tradition amongst the staff to name a Lemon of the Day for hilarious events throughout the camp, for which us three getting a 7.5-tonne lorry stuck on a 3-foot wooden post would have definitely been a contended if we hadn’t freed ourselves!
We then convened as an entire team to complete the various small jobs that needed doing before the Opening Ceremony, and also gave us a chance to take in the magnitude of what was around us. From the huge stage we were standing on, to the village built around us and the bare bones of what was soon to be packed subcamps as far as the eye could see, we were ready for the week ahead, excited to create memories to last a lifetime for every young person who was about to be in the crowd.
Day 3 ~ July 27th ~ Arrival Day
It was time for our site to increase nine-fold! As the sun climbed in the sky, and half of our team set to work programming the Opening Ceremony for the evening, the other half of us headed to EIJ Way to marshal our arrivals through the village and down to their subcamps. As the young people from across the world streamed in, the atmosphere was jubilant as new and returning faces came through the gates to begin setting up their sites, each with their own stories, hopes and dreams for the week ahead.
But believe it or not, despite the thousands of faces walking past, there was one that firmly stuck in our minds. We’d all been slightly sceptical about some of the rumours that were appearing on our team group chat about an unexpected sighting on site, brushing them off as an impossibility…until I looked up and saw a familiar figure walking back along EIJ Way to the carpark. Clad in large sunglasses and being tailed by two muscly men and trying to keep a low profile, was none other than the former Prime Minister Liz Truss, who had been dropping off her daughter at the event!
As the day drew to a close and we all got over seeing a former MP wandering around camp, it was time for us to head onto the village green and marshal for the Opening Ceremony, as subcamp by subcamp, thousands of young people took their places in front of our stage. Each parading their subcamp banner, the Opening Ceremony was a celebration of the return of EIJ, the countries that had joined us, and everyone who had made the week that was about to happen possible, in what can only be described as a phenomenal atmosphere. Once the ceremony wrapped up and the EIJ village opened, we moved to the Pit Barrier to watch over the crowd as the first band of the week took to the stage and the party officially began.
Day 4 ~ July 28th ~ Jamboree Day 1
I spent the large part of the first full day of the Jamboree assisting on the Outdoor Stage (Beach Stage), the site for EIJ Presents, the individual subcamp talent shows. With two each day and judged by the subcamp leaders with a slot on the Main Stage at stake, it was all to play for. Stage Managed by Lucia McAlister throughout the week, we were treated to a range of talent from our young performers whilst we busied ourselves with sound operation and basic outdoor lighting, adapting to each performer as required.
But as evening fell, I moved over to the House of Music, an outdoor party tent that would remind most of a club night out! Venue Managing that night’s silent disco, my team and I handed out more headphones than we can even recall as the three DJs battled it out for listeners and the young people partied the night away. With almost 500 people in the House of Music at its peak, managing the entire venue and a small team was quite a challenge, but hugely rewarding to see so many enjoying the experience, and coordinating our own team with the marshalling volunteers was a chance to work with a range of people, all brought together by this one extraordinary event.
Day 5 ~ July 29th ~ Jamboree Day 2
As the activities continued throughout the day, it was my turn to be drafted to help out. The neighbouring activity zone to the technical compound, Balancing Act, had struggled to get the number of volunteers it needed, so small contingents of our team went to assist on various days. I spent the morning with the high ropes team, checking harnesses & helping to get young people onto and off of the apparatus, and the afternoon saw me running the bungee run, watching rivals battle it out against each other to secure the victory!
A new evening also saw a new venue, as I went to the onsite cinema for that evening’s screening of Shrek 2, but a unique viewing at that. As if the previous evening had not familiarised me with them enough, I was reunited with the silent disco headphones for the silent film screening! A packed-out room led to universal excitement as everyone’s favourite ogre stormed onto the screen, and also meant I could watch the film myself! This was to be my last encounter with the silent disco headphones for the week, and after handing them out to ~700 young people, I can’t say I was too sad by the end of it all!
Day 6 ~ July 30th ~ Jamboree Day 3
The day largely revolved around the two daily EIJ Presents talent shows, with the latest two subcamps showing off their skills to their peers and the subcamp teams, with some powerful musical theatre renditions sprinkled in that certainly got me listening! The evening saw my return to the cinema, but this time to handle the technical running of both films for the ghost-themed evening. Sitting in the backroom, monitoring and adjusting the equipment with what can only be described as a unique set-up was a fun experience, even if watching both Ghostbusters and Coco simultaneously is much harder than it appears!
Day 7 ~ July 31st ~ Jamboree Day 4
Another day, another two talent shows on the Outdoor Stage, but this evening was set to be an entirely new experience on the technical team to anything I had done before. The Main Stage saw two acts on for the evening’s entertainment, but I was set to see them like no one else. I spent the evening in the Gallery, a unique trailer where many of the Main Stage’s functions were carried out. For the band which was on first, I was charged with operating three of the on-stage PTZ / ETZ cameras, getting good visual shots for the vision mixer to show on the screen to the side of the stage. Following band members, getting wide stage shots or audience images, watching the shots I was getting being selected and streamed live to the big screen was a great feeling and became a bit of a game, constantly trying to get the best images.
But as the acts changed over, so did we and I moved to a new position in the Gallery, managing the graphics being displayed on the LED screen at the back of the stage. Little did I know that my first experience on the Resolute graphics system that I had been introduced to no longer than five minutes before the performance began would be creating interesting visuals for Channy, a performer known for her sets at Scouting and Guiding events. From making her logo bounce around the screen to combining visual designs live as the set continued to match with the vibes of the music, it was a fantastic opportunity to learn a new system on the fly as the act continued, as well as for a performer such as Channy. It was really fun to try my hand at these new roles that I had no idea existed until before Jamboree, and can confidently say that this night was a core memory in terms of my technical experiences.
Day 8 ~ August 1st ~ Jamboree Day 5
Now reader, based on my previous entries, where do you think I spent the day on Jamboree Day 5? If you guessed at the Outdoor Stage working on the EIJ Presents talent shows for the final two subcamps, you would be absolutely correct. And one of them seemed to have a distinct Matilda the Musical theme, with three of the acts performing a song from the Roald Dahl musical!
Following the joy I had the previous evening, I was back in the Gallery operating three PTZ / ETZs for the International Showcase, with contingents from across the world performing on the Main Stage. The highlight of the evening was being taught the Nutbush by the Australian contingent, with hundreds of young people joining in to the sound of Tina Turner’s Proud Mary, with striking visuals from the crowd being captured by me and broadcast on the screen in real-time for the audience to see, as well as watching the footwork to help everyone join in (and avoiding doing so myself was a particular challenge, it’s so catchy!). We finished up the day by heading to Comforts, a calm area where staff hung out after their days, and Lucia, Milchy and I gossiped into the early hours of the morning!
Day 9 ~ August 2nd ~ Jamboree Day 6
Friday’s dawn marked the final full day of EIJ 2024 and a lot of marshalling for the day’s events! A contingent of techies began at the Pit Barrier, keeping an eye on the picnic on the village green as the final of EIJ Presents, judged by Camp Chiefs Karen and Paul crowned the winner of the week’s shows on the Outdoor Stage. As this wrapped up and we prepared for the evening’s tasks, it was also an opportunity for the entire technical team to get a photo together on the stage, as well as signing each other’s neckers, for a special memento of the time we had all spent together. With signatories from Australia, Florida and Dubai, it really was the mark of a worldwide jamboree and the family we have all become!
As night drew in, we returned to the crowds to marshal for the jamboree Closing Ceremony, a celebration of everything that had been achieved, the people behind the Jamboree and the subcamps and young people who had made it all possible. This led into the final Main Stage performance by the band Brightside, before everyone returned to their subcamps for their final night onsite. But as everyone began to bed down for the night, we had one last push to begin clearing the Main Stage of equipment before Departure Day drew in…
Day 10 ~ August 3rd ~ Departure Day
As the young people, leaders and groups began to leave site, Milchy and I took several of our team back down to Enterprise, Wet & Wild, Sports Café and It’s a Knockout to break down and collect our equipment, in a sad near-mirror of the beginning of the week’s ventures (but we didn’t get the truck stuck this time!). We managed to have way too much fun with a discarded fridge, playing a strange version of Deal or No Deal with the departing traffic as we loaded it up. As we reached the compound, we joined the rest of our team loading all forms of equipment crates into the awaiting lorry, packing away much of the equipment we had used to work our magic during the week, as members of our team started to depart in a sad conclusion to our full-team’s efforts.
But we had little time to dwell, as the night marked the evening of the staff party, with everyone scrubbing up nicely for an evening at the Urban Umbrella, the specialised staff bar onsite! With performances from Brightside who had returned from the previous evening, and followed by music from our team’s own DJ Pete, the staff party joined the entire camp staff together to celebrate our achievements, and everything we had accomplished in the previous few weeks. Drinks, bad singing and memories flowing, it was a satisfying end to my final night onsite, and with the Australian Contingent having left earlier in the day, it was a funny squeeze to fit both Lucia and myself into my tent for the night, which had been dubbed ‘The Coffin’ owing to its size compared with the rest of my team!
Day 11 ~ August 4th ~ My Final Day
As I awoke on my final morning, it was time to get into my feels as I faced the prospect of leaving the team I had become so close with over the past ten days. My final Sharky breakfast (another sad loss since coming home) was followed by a late meeting back in the Urban Umbrella to take down all of the equipment from the previous night’s party. As the final boxes were packed, umbrellas taken down and friends said goodbye to, it was time for me to head off and back to reality. I headed back to The Coffin, packed my stuff and took down my tent and began the long walk down the lane back to the real world, with memories in my head and a smile on my face.
EIJ 2024 was a hugely triumphant event following the bitter disappointment at 2020’s cancellation. And my first time as staff at an event such as this was an experience unlike any other. I have learnt and developed a host of key skills, met some extraordinary people from across the world and created memories that will last a lifetime. And it has also reminded me why it is that I still remain such an active member and ardent supporter of the Scouting and Girlguiding movements, because seeing so many young people learn new skills, meet friends and enjoy their week as much as I did was a rewarding experience that cannot be put into words.
I encourage every single person who reads this to go and be a member of staff at an international jamboree, whether this be in Essex or at the hundreds of others around the world, because it is an experience that is unrivalled and is worth every second and every penny. EIJ 2024 was a true celebration of Girlguiding and Scouting, and one which I am extremely proud to have been a part of.
The 2024 Essex International Jamboree ran from July 27th to August 3rd in Chelmsford, Essex. The next EIJ will be held in 2028
