If you were at Moonrise this past weekend there’s a good chance you ran into a smiling face in an orange shirt ready to hydrate and help. This group of incredible individuals, spearheaded by Eric Bonnavent with help from Kevin Madert, EJ Hooch, and Dom Lu, is known as the Star Team. Composed of 130 volunteers between the two days, their job was simple: run around the festival and provide water, candy, bags of ice, and assistance for anyone who may need it.
Although Moonrise did a better job of providing shade this year (along with some friendly low-80s temperatures and partly cloudy skies) there was still plenty of sun and a muggy, stifling tent that created risk of dehydration for attendees. Eric spoke about the overall health of the attendees saying, “There were a substantial less number of hospital transports compared to last year, all of which resulted in no serious incidents. While any hospitalization is a serious matter and we always strive for none, we looked at having so few as a huge success, given that last years number of transports were pretty low as well and this years’ number of attendees were nearly double.” Although we don’t have the official numbers, to have the same amount of incidents with nearly double the amount of people is fantastic.
The relatively low number of hospitalizations and health issues are a huge testament to the Star Team that we saw hustling hard all day long. We spoke to one Star Team member who said her pedometer (a contraption that measures steps) recorded her walking 18 miles on Saturday. Eric spoke about the team saying, “I had a great team backing me this year as well as extremely strong support from management. A lot of companies don’t really value this type of volunteer coordination work, and especially not for more than it just being good PR. Evan with Steez Promo really got behind the idea, appreciates what it does for patrons, and how much better it makes their overall festival experience.” We couldn’t agree more as we saw a constant stream of volunteers moving throughout the crowd to reach people stuck deep in it, carrying water bottles and misters to keep people cool and hydrated.
To us, it’s an absolute no-brainer that the Star Team at Moonrise 2015 has set the standard for volunteer programs at festivals everywhere. If a festival truly cares about its patrons there’s really no excuse to not have some sort of program in place to care for their well-being.
A big thanks to Eric for taking the time to organize the Star Team and answer our questions, big ups to Glow and Steez for allocating the time and resources, and of course a huge round of applause for the volunteers who brought personality, energy, and positivity all weekend long.
Connect with Moonrise Festival:
https://www.facebook.com/moonrisefest
https://twitter.com/moonrisefest
https://instagram.com/moonrisefest/
http://www.moonrisefestival.com/
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