Report on SRG Beach Se7ens Festival
Organising a Rugby Festival
Over the course of this year I have been part of a committee that has been organising one of the largest Rugby 7s Festival in the UK. We started to organise this year’s Festival in January, and we went through several stages such as; idea formulation, marketing, team registration, and finally the adding of the finishing touches. One key theme throughout this year’s meetings was growth; we wanted to this year’s festival to be bigger and better than last years; in terms of spectators, vendors, sales, and teams. To achieve this, we all were given control over different areas of the festival, but we also could advise eachother in meetings; for instance, I was mainly focusing on the Touch Rugby Tournament, and the Matt Hampson Foundation Charity Legends Game, however, I also helped with digital marketing in order to help reach out to a younger audience.
With large festival such one this one, you must use a variety of methods to attract teams, and players. A major tool for me when reaching out to teams and players was social media; many teams have a social media profile on Facebook and Instagram, and messaging them on these platforms allow you to reach out to people you wouldn’t necessarily have contact information for, I spoke to teams from the south coast to the north, and this was all down to social media. When organising the Legends game, I learnt how to network by using LinkedIn, I connected to hundreds of Ex-Rugby Professionals and coaches so that I have contacts for future endeavours and the legends game at the festival. This networking led to me having conversations with household names such as Andy Goode, Toby Flood, and James Haskell who I can contact in the future should the need arise. Whilst these players were unable to play, LinkedIn gave me a tool that allowed me to contact true rugby legends who agreed to play in our charity game such as; Canadian and Bedford Full Back James Pritchard, and Ex-Ospreys Front Rower Matt Dwyer.
In the 48 hours before the festival, we unfortunately encountered setbacks by last minute dropouts, with players being unable to play in the legends game. With the festival being so close to my most intense week of exams, my stress levels were pushed right up, as I had to replace several players at very short notice, and this was only made worse by players who didn’t turn up at all for the game. However, with this being a rugby festival I was very fortunate that a number of local rugby legends were present and willing to step up and play in the Charity Legends Game, and without them we would have a very difficult time trying to put the game on. However, when the game finished all the stress was worth it, and I truly say that it was one of the proudest moments on my life, as I finally saw the result of 6 months work pay off. Before getting involved with organising the annual SRG Beach Se7ens Festival I would have never thought about entering any other side of Rugby except playing, however getting involved with this side, excuse the cliché, has given me friends who I never thought I would have, and has allowed me to grow an extensive rugby network who I am able to contact should I need them. The Rugby community is truly amazing, the number of people who have expressed support for what we were trying to do has been amazing and heart-warming, and I can’t wait for next year’s festival.
By Jackson von Uden.
