ÅRSFESTEN PÅ RUC
THE ANNUAL PARTY
WHAT IS ÅRSFESTEN?
Årsfesten, or The Annual Party is a one-day festival for all of RUCs students. We usually expect between 5-7.000 guests. We have current artists playing on our main stage, events during the day, a cozy bodega with danish folk music,
8-10 bars, and a food court with delicious streetfood from all around the world.
A YEAR OF ÅRSFESTEN PLANNING
Below you can see a chart of how our year plays out. We meet up with this years new people, and start planning the festival from february. During the year we will have large meetings with everyone, working and social weekends, and it all culminates in a 10 day "power week" where we live on campus and work from 8-22 every day setting up for the party. We cap the year off with a party to celebrate our voulenteers, and then an evaluation trip where we celebrate ourselves. Not show on the chart below, is that we also have 1-2 meetings for 1-2 hours with our sub-group every month, to work on our specific area.
Does this mean we only do it for one year?
No quite the opposite. Most of us actually stay during most or all of our time here at RUC. Once you get a taste of it, it is tough to leave. Because we plan Årsfesten every single year, our organisations calender just naturally follows a one year cycle. This also means that we expect everyone to be part of our organisation at least from Februart to October, but preferably for multiple years.
What do we do during all that time?
It takes a lot more work to organize a festival than what our guests might realize. Besides all of the big discussions at our meetings, we also have to get first-aid courses, fire fighting courses, conflict management and crowd safety courses as well as a terror and evacuation briefing. We are responsible for 5.000 guests, and we want to make sure that the festival is as safe as possible. During the weekends where we eat, sleep, live and work together, we make sure that communication between all of the sub-groups is smooth and up-to-date. Above all we make sure to have fun together, and the result is that we become a super tight knit little family, who also goes to concerts together, attend pub-quiz nights, goes climbing and does a lot of other fun stuff between the meetings. It is important for us that there are space for everyone, also those who don't drink, have allergies or other special needs. Each year we divide ourselves into sub-groups, this assures that we all get to work on the areas that we find interesteing. You can read more about the sub groups below.
DO WHAT YOU FIND INTERESTING
We are all voulenteer students with our own jobs, studies and social lives, so it is important for us that everybody gets to work on the areas that they find interesting. For that reason, we do most of the work in our sub-groups. As the size of the organisation varies from year to year, the selection of sub groups may change as well. If we are fewer people for example, we shift some of the work-areas onto different sub-groups. Generally though, we have the selection below.
Musik
Musik or 'music' is the sub-group who chooses which artists to book, and how our main stage looks. They are responsible for negotiating and making deals with all of the booking labels, having the contact with our stage supplier, and setting up or VIP lounge so our artists gets the proper treatment. We are working with very large budgets, so this sub-group always gets an amazing insight into the danish music industry.
KÆP
KÆP stands for "Kunst Ævent og Pynt" (art, events, and decoration). This sub-group is responsible for Årsfestens daytime events, and the general atmosphere of our festival site. This can be lightstrings and decorations hung from the trees, wayfinding and signs, a giant light-up rainbow, a glitter booth, an outdoor living room, or whatever else they might imagine. Being in this sub-group allows one to let their imagination run wild, build things, paint things, and just be creative.
PR
PR stands for 'public relations'. This sub-group is responsible for all of our interaction with the outside world. The group makes a communication strategy at the beginning of the year, helps shape our brand and identity and makes sure that the entire campus is hyped up for our festival. They are also responsible for our ticket system, and communication with our external partners. Members of PR gets to be creative and shape the sub-group into what fits them, whether they like to dabble in graphic design, website building, making tik-toks, guerrilla marketing or something else entirely. Having any experience in the field is not required (as with all of the sub-groups).
BAR
It might be self explanatory, but the bar sub-group is responsible for all things bar related. This includes deciding what the bars will sell and making deals with suppliers, deciding how many bars we need and where they should be placed, managing and training our voulenteer bartenders, and supplying the bars during the festival.
Sikkerhed
Sikkerhed, or 'safety' is one of our biggest and most important sub-groups. They are responsible for all things safety and logistics. This includes making a safety and evacuation plan, having contact with the fire, hospital and police authorities, having contact with our logistics suppliers, and soooo much more. This sub-group gives has an insane amount responsibility and planning, and will look pretty darn good on any CV, no matter what job you want.
HR
HR stands for 'Human Resources'. As PR are responsible for all external communication, HR is responsible for all internal communication. This sub group is responsible for planning meeting agendas, decide what food we eat together, make internal social events, and make sure that everyone are happy. HR is the drama killers that makes sure everyone stays good friends :D
HC
HC stands for 'Hand Command'. This sub-group is responsible for everything related to our voulenteers. Årsfesten is extremely dependent on the dedicated helping hands we get during the week leading up to the festival. HC will communicate with all of our hands, and coordinate how we recruit and utilize them.