A FREELANCER’S LIFE

TARA HOBSON CARNIVAL AT GLASTONBURY

Fresh perspective

Experienced events professionals can find freelancing daunting. Here, Tara Hobson talks about adjusting to freelance life and how freelancing has opened her eyes to a life full of colour and authenticity

My events career started many years ago as an event manager at Earls Court and Olympia (ECO). This job gave me a fantastic grounding and I’m lucky that I’m still friends with many of the people I met. I left ECO to work for a few years at Dubai World Trade Centre as an event manager before heading back to the UK, and in 2013, I found myself taking on the role of director of Carnival Village Trust, a Notting Hill-based arts charity that supports and promotes Carnival arts.

At the start of 2020, I was looking forward to the coming year. As director of Carnival Village Trust, it was a particularly exciting time as this would be our third year – under our subsidiary Notting Hill Carnival Limited – of working with the Carnival community to organise the iconic Notting Hill Carnival. I was the charity director for seven years and I immensely enjoyed my job, its challenges, and working in such a culturally rich environment with a small, creative, passionate, and dedicated team. However, I made a hard decision; I wished to create new opportunities and work on other projects.

After Notting Hill Carnival 2020, I was going to take the plunge and go freelance. Then, of course, the pandemic hit. Everything changed. I was fortunate that I was not furloughed and there were still projects that Notting Hill Carnival could work on. In 2020, we produced a wellreceived online event called Access All Areas and we started looking forward to life when the world of events would be back. I presented to Matthew Philip, the CEO of Notting Hill Carnival, the idea of taking Carnival to Glastonbury Festival and set the wheels in motion to make that happen.

GUT FEELING

As we edged towards August 2021, ticketed events had started to return. But due to several reasons, there was to be no Notting Hill Carnival on the streets of London for a second year. This left a massive gap in many people’s lives.

Some of you may be familiar with that weird gut feeling that tells you that you need to do something, even though the thought of it both terrifies and excites you. Can I? Should I? Suppose it all goes wrong? What if I’m not good enough? As I ventured into the freelance world, that’s how I felt leaving the security of a regular salary and an environment I was familiar and comfortable with.

MY LIPS ARE SEALED

My first contract was with LS Events, working with the team as a stakeholder manager for Operation London Bridge, the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. In July 2021, I signed an NDA and couldn’t tell any of my old colleagues or friends what I was working on. I was so tight-lipped that one of my friends was convinced I was working for MI5.

The stakeholder manager role had some synergies with my previous posts. For example, being able to communicate, and making sure that the right people had the

right information at the right time. But the world of Carnival could not be further away from Operation London Bridge.

Being part of the planning team for Operation London Bridge and returning to work on the ground as part of the delivery team was a humbling experience and I still pinch myself that I was part of such a monumental event in history, a very tiny cog in a ginormous wheel.

FRESH PERSPECTIVE

In the spring of 2022, my contract with LS Events ended and I started to look for my next venture. My career has varied from event operations and business strategy to the creativity of writing funding bids. Sometimes, this made me feel a little bit like a round peg in a square hole as I’m not “strictly ops”. I was beginning to question how I was going to balance all this experience into something meaningful that would work for me.

The spring and summer of 2022 did not disappoint. I started to work with an organisation called Deaf Rave, as its funding and strategy consultant. Deaf Rave is a deafled arts organisation with the vision of giving Deaf and disabled artists and performers a platform to display their love for music. Troi Lee, the artistic director and founder of Deaf Rave, commissioned me to work with him on the business strategy for the organisation and write an application to the Arts Council for National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) Funding. This would help stabilise the company and give it the opportunity to flourish and grow. Having secured the NPO funding for Carnival Village Trust, I welcomed the challenge. But as we all know, there have been massive cuts in arts funding and being awarded new NPO status is a rarity. We submitted the bid in May but had to wait until October to find out if we’d been successful.

I have gained so much professionally and personally from working with Troi and the Deaf Rave team. This was a new experience for me, and it has given me a fresh perspective on diversity and inclusion. It was encouraging this summer to see promoters, such as AEG, embrace inclusivity and diversity as Deaf Rave performed at BST Hyde Park and All Points East in Victoria Park.

NEW EXPERIENCES

Later that year, I was delighted to take on some freelance work with Notting Hill Carnival as project manager for the Judging Zone on Carnival weekend. It was amazing for the event to be back and to be part of it. Although a familiar ground in some ways, I felt that my time away working on other projects gave me a new perspective and I could bring new experiences to the team. I was also able to witness my idea of combining two cultural titans when we took Notting Hill Carnival to Glastonbury Festival. Working with Block9, I spent a few sunny days in Somerset, helping manage the Carnival parade of masqueraders in their stunning costumes. They entertained the Glastonbury crowds, and it was a delight to see.

GLASTONBURY

DEAF RAVE

ACCESS ALL AREAS

As the summer moved on, I took on a temporary contract as the event manager for Hackney Carnival. I acted as a conduit between the artistic directors, production, Hackney Council, the Police, and other stakeholders. This was a great opportunity to bring my Notting Hill experience to the event, and although there are similarities, they are very different events.

I closely collaborated with Deb Mullins and Manuela Benini – the artistic directors – to help programme the stages, activity areas, and sound system sites. I was to deliver their artistic vision, whilst accommodating event logistics and operational requirements. I was very much looking forward to the weekend, and it was great to work with Liam Worthy at LW Event Consulting and Alex Curtis and his team at CJA Events, but it was not to be. Due to the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Hackney Council took the decision to cancel the event two days before it was due to take place.

EXCITING TIMES

As the summer ended, the announcement regarding the NPO result from the Arts Council was upon us. I’m not sure who screamed louder as Troi and I opened the funding portal to see that Deaf Rave had been successful in securing NPO status. As we move into 2023, it’s a very exciting time for Deaf Rave. There is much to do as but we have established a strong and knowledgeable board, which includes Mel Wilds from Continental Drifts, Gideon Feldman from Attitude is Everything, and Richie Littler from Grooveschool. We have a festival tour in our sights and an incredible programme of workshops and activities for children and young people.

I’m still a newbie to freelancing and yes, it can still be a bit daunting when you are accustomed to the regularity of working for one organisation. There have been some speed bumps, but I have also learnt a lot whilst it being thoroughly enjoyable. I think it’s important to be adventurous and to save something for a rainy day. I think you should listen to that nagging inner voice that’s telling you to do something; your gut feeling should not be underestimated. I also believe that you should keep your door open to all opportunities and be prepared to say no. But most importantly, yes; you are allowed a holiday.

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