Archives for August 2010

Covering any festival can be hard work - oh don't feel sorry for me - I know that wandering around taking a few photos, filming a few interviews with 'stars' and coming up with something interesting to say isn't exactly work.

But, sometimes getting those interviews mean running from having a chat with a stall holder at one end of the field, back to the main stage, waiting around for the previous interviewer to finish, doing a quick interview and then running front of stage to take photos for a gallery.

Straight after taking photos it's time to go out and get a vox. This is my least favourite part of being a journalist as nobody 'really' wants to talk to you and you're asking the same question over and over again.

At least that's what is supposed to happen.

At the Grassroots festival I went around the field at Val de la Mar with our BBC Blast Introducing reporter Sam Falle.

We started well - finding someone to talk to, asking them what they think of the festival and their highlight and then moved on.

Unfortunately that was about the only part of our 20 minute 'voxing' experience that did go according to plan.

We spent the time chasing people and asking them to talk to us, we had others talking to us but saying things like "I like grass, I like roots and I like eating grass roots" or talking about looking forward to bands not due to play.

But because of the pace we were moving around and the speed between questions - the chance of getting enough sensible responses for a 'traditional vox' were slim.

In the end I did manage to get about four responses into a piece I made for BBC Channel Island News - but that was a fraction of what we had available.

So, instead of leaving it on the cutting room floor we decided to make something of it and create the 'Grassroots ambush' focusing on Sam Falle chasing people down for a response to the question: Are you enjoying the festival?

There were a lot of people at Grassroots taking photos, filming and asking questions.

The festivals official photographer was Matt Porteous who has put together an amazing gallery on his website.

You can read some great comments from people on the events Facebook page.

Including Charlotte, who highlighted just how good the event turned out to be for families: "Thanks soooooo much, first festival for my three boys (8,9 &12) and they had a blast!! Well done to you all xxxx"

And of course you can see everything Sam and I created on the day through the BBC Jersey website.