Saturday, April 12, 2014

ecmw pt. 2

On Saturday afternoon when I was volunteering as an ambassador, Nikki Roberts, the volunteer coordinator asked me if I wanted to work the following night at the East Coast Music Awards GALA!  I said I would LOVE to!  I didn't get to dress up, but I felt very professional in a white shirt and black pants and I put on some bling, and of course wore my volunteer badge, it kind of made me feel important.

I quickly made friends with a couple other girls that I would be seating artists with.  Taylor, Janna, Sam and I just clicked.  Sam actually had to work at the door but we caught up later in the night.  So, our tasks was to work with greeters and then seat the artists, sponsors, buyers and investors.  It was really crazy to begin with, because there was A LOT of misdirection.  To be completely honest, one of the girls that was telling us what to do was a little bit of a train wreck in my opinion.  One of my favourite parts of the beginning of the evening however, was once the artists started to come in on the 'red carpet' at the far end of the convention centre.  I know that this Gala is nothing compared to larger music awards, but I just kept asking myself "is this my real life?".  IT JUST ALL FELT SO COOL TO BE THERE.  The confusion made for a bit of a frustrating commencement of the night, but as 8pm got closer and closer, we were able to get guests seated.  I also got to do some other tasks, like hand out programs to artists.  I gave one to Lennie Gallant, who is one of my favourite Island artists.  

I was lucky and walked Two Hours Traffic to their seats.  They are so cool and I am happy that they were in attendance, and I was really sad that they didn't win their nomination for 'group of the year'.  It would have been a great way for the band to say good-bye.  Nikki also told me that we would be seat fillers for the night.  I didn't really know how that would work.  When the show started (and I literally mean show, because it was being filmed the entire time by Eastlink TV, and I made a television appearance at the beginning trying to get to my seat), one of the greeters told us to fill seats up anywhere in the artists section....

OKAY, so you mean to tell me, I got into this gala for free, I am already asking myself if this is all really happening, and now you tell me I can sit anywhere I want, amongst East Coast Music Artists???? So Taylor, Janna and I went to find some seats, and I think we were about 8 or 9 rows back from the front.  It was pretty much one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me.  The whole gala was so much fun.  The music was incredible!  There was performances by Amelia Curran, Ashley Condon, Dave Gunning, Jimmy Rankin, Kayo!, Megahan Blanchard, Mo Kenney (who is AMAZING), Paper Lions, The Town Heroes, Tim Chaisson and of course my new love DAVID MYLES :)

My auntie Karen, Paul and Matthew were there, and I went to say hi on a 'commercial break'.  Once the show was over, the girls and I figured some things out, and we went to get some food at Wendy's.  Then, Taylor wanted to change her shirt so we went out to one of her friend's house, and then also stopped at my place on the way back into town.  I liked hanging out with these girls, they were so sweet, funny and it was just great that we all got along so quickly.  Janna said something funny later, about how girls can be rude and caddy, so it was great that we could click so quickly!  We got back to the Delta PEI Convention Centre around 11:45 and the 'after party' was just getting started with the crazy French band.  We walked around a bit, and finally DJ Skratch Bastid made his way to the stage and I danced my little heart out until I left around 2:15am.

I had to work at 8am on Monday.  I was getting a little nervous as the girls and I walked through the lobby to leave.  THEN, something crazy happened.  Janna is super outgoing and is not afraid to step out.  She has met David Myles a couple of times, and I raved about him all night and she told me that if we did see him, she would ask if I could get a picture with him.  SO, just as we were leaving, we saw him standing by the doors and I pretty much freaked out, and I was also happy that Janna was with me because if I had have been by myself, I probably wouldn't have done anything about it.  She asked if I could get a picture with him, and he said "sure, of course".  We didn't say much, but he kept squeezing my shoulder, it was the best!  It was the perfect way to end an amazing night, and incredible weekend.










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