Viva La Gong

Viva La Gong Festival was on 9 - 12 October, at Maccabe park. Viva la Gong Festival was a comunity event at Wollongong. It showcased local arts and cultural projects by young and old, and reflectied the talent and cultural diversity in the region. It was a lot of fun!

Viva La Gong Work Experience Highlights

One of the highlights of work experience for me was working as stage manager assistant for the launch of Viva La Gong. i had never worked at a launch and it was great experience for me.

Assessment Activity 3: placement evaluation( 250)

The skills you have learned
Feedback you have received
The impact of the experience of your work placement or work
An evaluation of what you have learned through work placement.
Some skills i learned while working at Viva La Gong areInterpersonal Skills and i got to Work as part of a team, also I to take initiative and work under pressure. I also learned aboutOH&S issues. It was great experience for me at Viva La Gong was a lot of hard work but it was nice working at an event where everyone was happy and having fun. I learned a lot about everything from setting up tents to managing the stage. It was fun. I learned how to work in a team that sometimes was under pressure. I received some nice feedback that i had done a good job.Students interested in becoming a volunteers, can contact The Cultural Services Department of Wollongong City Council Services Wollongong City Council: (02)42514712

Viva La Gong

Assessment activity 1: Short Report (250-500 words)
Describe the people involved and the processes you used to research, obtain and confirm placement.


How did you organise work experience?
Peter our teacher told the class we could do Viva La Gong as our work experience and Paula Rodriguez came to our class. Paula told us all about Viva La Gong work experience and explained the different jobs we could do. I decided straight away that I wanted do my work experience at Viva La Gong. Paula got the people interted in working for Viva La Gong to fill a form with our details. When she needed volunteers to work she would ring us up and ask if we could work. Doing work experience for Viva La Gong was a great opportunity to get a glimpse of how a festival is organised.

What work did you do?
For my work experience I worked during the actual festival during three days.On Friday 10 October 2008.I worked from 8am to 2pm. On Saturday 11th of OctoberI worked from 8am to 7:30 in the afternoon. On Sunday 12th i worked from 8am to 4:30 in the afternoon( some of my responsibilities included setting up tents, serving the information tent, traffic control, stage managing at Prayer Bells, collecting tickets at Prayer Bells) helped with setting up the launch of Viva la Gong for 8 hours ( setting up flags, running errands, stage management assistant) 8 hours of office work at Cultural Services ( answering phones, running errands, mail out) and 6 hours in promoting the festival ( put up posters in businesses in Berkeley, Unanderra and Warragong) i also had to attend to two information days at Cultural Services.

Highlights of Viva La Gong

Circus Cabaret was one of my favorite events of Viva La Gong starring
Nick Rheinberger. Nick also came to our class to talk . He told us about his very interesting career in talk back radio.He also taught us about copyright and legal issues. I was really surprised I actually enjoyed learning about legal issues.It is a very interesting subject. I would definitely recommend Certificate 4 of Communication and Media that likes learning.

My second favorite event was Prayer Bells. A choral work by Constantine Koukias for three solo cantors - in Hebrew, Greek and Latin - and eight male voices, accompanied by a quarter-tone set of specially crafted Hand Bells. The work spans the cultural and historical
boundaries of the three divergent but related chant traditions, Hebrew, Orthodox and Latin.

Where did you do work experience?
Wollongong City Council
Cultural Services Department
Characteristics of the organization
The Cultural Services Department of Wollongong City Council:
a) Promotes and supports diverse community events, activities and organisations to promote inclusiveness and tolerance.b) Improves public knowledge of cultural diversity in the community.c) Develops and implements promotional strategies for commercial and community events and initiatives, including a calendar of events for sport and other events, and an integrated community event and activity web site.
d) Integrates art and culture within open space, recreation and community facility developments.e) Develops public programs that celebrate cultural traditions and contemporary practices.
Why did I choose this place for my work placement?
I wanted to experience working in event management.
Duration of my work placement
7 days. Worked at Cultural services and did mailout, anwering phones and promoting Viva La Gong from Friday 10 October to Sunday 12 October, 2008.
the coordinator of "Viva La Gong Festival" Paula Rodriguez invited us to work at Viva La Gong.
Viva La Gong Festival focuses on street arts, community participation and high quality staged programs.
Some of the events of this festival were: Tim Freedman, Katie Nonan, street theatre; comedy; busking, musical performance; circus arts; puppetry; Cabaret; pavement art; art installations; Kite flying; children’s theatre; children’s craft; large and small site-specific dance and performance spectacles. A folk band Anemone.Wadi Wadi a local indegenous dance group.
People that I worked with Viva la Gong-Festival Coordinator: Lisa Nolan
Volunteer Coordinator: Paula Rodriguez
Volunteers: Most of the volunteers in this event were Students of the Communication and Media Cert 4 from TA FE some of the students I worked with : Ana, Anita, Tim, Ben, Yuan, Thien, Michael,Yu e.t.c I also worked with some volunteers from TAFE learning event management.
Interpersonal Skills Required, Work as part of a team, Take initiative ,Work well under pressure Good Knowledge of OH&S
work experience at Viva La Gong was a lot of hard work but it was nice working at an event where everyone was happy and having fun. I learned a lot about everything from setting up tents to managing the stage. It was fun. I learned how to workin a team that sometimes was under pressure.Students interested in becoming a volunteers, can contact The Cultural Services Department of Wollongong City Council Services Wollongong City Council: (02)42514712

Viva La Gong work experience

The spirit of 'Flight' in all possibilities was the theme of "Viva la Gong 2008 Festival" this year. The theme honoured our local heritage of early aviation and it was held over four days.Venues this year included McCabe Park with a Big Top Tent, lower Crown Street and Civic Plaza for a Street Festival. IPAC and Wollongong City Gallery as well as various community venues and Galleries had Exhibitions and Concertsthat were held throughout the four days.There also was creative activities of fun for children and families, Outdoor Concerts and arrange of Markets was part of this great Festival Event!

This year i did my work experience at Viva La Gong. The volunteer co-ordinator was Paula a Diploma graduate from Communication and Media from Wollongong TAFE last year.