The Event itself was a great success, overall we raised £45 for Oxfam's Humanitarian Fund for Ukraine with roughly 25 people attending the event on the night.
Pre Event (arriving at the venue, setting up)
The first part of the day was posting on social media We got access to the event at 5pm and it took roughly 40 minutes to set up amps, chairs, the merch and door table as well as sort the float and rider for the event, The last 20 minutes consisted of a quick soundcheck by Teose, as Raveloe was working she was unable to soundcheck and instead agreed to line check prior to her set.
The Event
With doors kicking off at 6pm, the majority of people arrived within the first 20 minutes, majority of my time in the fist hour was dedicated to meeting and greeting people that I hadn't seen in a long time due to covid, however the opportunities were great for networking for people I was familiar with but had no proper introduction to outside of the internet. The volunteers did a fantastic job at creating an atmosphere that felt relaxed and easy to navigate, especially with chatting to newcomers who weren't as sociable when they first arrived. All volunteers were given their roles prior however one of my volunteers who was in charge of Social Media on the night had to leave within the first hour due to sudden illness (Unfortunately, I don't have much explanation outside of this, as it was very sudden and I didn't find out they had left until after hosting the panel) This unfortunately meant that activity on the instagram account was lacking, especially in terms of story posts. However, the ill volunteer used forward thinking and asked another volunteer to take over with social media on their own personal account and tag the sunken sofa instagram so that the ill volunteer could share the stories on the project instagram throughout the night.
The panel took off at 7:05pm, with a minor delay due to one of the panelists losing track of time downstairs. As the host, I opened the panel with a thank you to everyone who came along, and explained a bit about the project itself and Sunken Sofa. The questions that were asked included:
1- First off, if we can go round the panellists and get you to introduce yourselves and your work in relation to DIY and the Alternative Music scene
2- How easy was it to break into the local music scene when you first started out? And for the likes of Gary and Steven, would you say there would be any differences if you started the Goldmold and Struggletown in today’s scene?
3- Would you say your own connections and networks had an impact on finding your place in the scene? Or was this more of the case of finding your own place and creating your own networks? 4- Did you study at college/uni/wherever else and has that been beneficial in your project/work?
5- Have you found the DIY music scene in Glasgow to be inclusive of all backgrounds and abilities? (e.g., Gender, Disabilities, Race, LGBTQ+ Community, Age, Income, skill level/instrumental ability etc.) is there anything that you think can be done to make the scene more inclusive?
7- How do you find yourself funding your project(s) and your passion for DIY?
8 - If you could change one thing for the better of DIY within Glasgow’s alternative music scene, what would it be?
9- If you could give one piece of advice to someone who is looking to start their first DIY project (whether that be as an artist, promoter, label – anything really!)
These questions alongside further discussion into different topics from the narrative of the panel made for an incredibly interesting panel, with all participants showing clear passion for the topics discussed
The primary themes found within the discussion included, furthering inclusivity, 'just doing it' in regards to starting grassroots projects, the importance of networks and collaboration and that profit shouldn't be a primary motivator if you want to succeed within DIY scenes.
Attendees sat on the floor for this part of the event, which created a very comfortable and relaxed environment, however I will consider finding space for seating at the next event - I do stand by my choice of limiting seating as the old hairdressers as a venue provides limited space.
Curated Open Mic
The open mic started at 8pm after the 45 minute panel, with Teose playing a 20 minute acoustic set with a basic acoustic/microphone set up. Part of Teose's set was audio recorded and used in the video created by my volunteer (See 'Networking Nights' page on this website to find the video)
Raveloe's set was a different set up, switching between acoustic and electric guitar plugged into my amplifier and a vocal mic set up, both sets were successful and created a wonderful feeling throughout the room, which really set the tone of a relaxing event!
Finally, the event came to a finish at 9pm with the last 20 minutes giving attendees opportunities to networking with each other, discuss the panel and the live music. Packing up after the event was a very simple process and was done in roughly 25 minutes due to the minimal lineup.
Overall the night was a huge success for a first time Networking Night.
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