A Youth Promoter’s Voice / Lewis MacKenzie

GET IN presents, the promotions collective formed out of our GET IN project, are excited to reveal their line up of performers touring the Highlands & Islands imminently.  Until then, and over the next couple of months, we will be delving into the experiences of the youth promoters involved in GET IN.
Next up in our “Youth Promoter’s Voice” series is Lewis MacKenzie a 21 year old Baker from Muir of Ord.

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Tell us Lewis, how did you hear about GET IN?

I orginally heard about GET IN from my youth group as I studied events and they knew that I was interested in this type of work! It was also going to be helpful for my local community so that there would be a wider range of things to see and do! 

What have you enjoyed about your experience with GET IN so far?

I have really enjoyed meeting other like minded folks, working together to put on a successful tour and being proud of the work we have done! I have also really enjoyed learning the different parts of the training and what is all involved! 

Challenges?  Tell me a bit about them…

There hasn’t really been a difficult part to GET IN other than I find a lot of paper work a bit confusing and prefer the more practical elements! 

Did you learn anything off the back of any of these challenges?

As I have progressed with the training I have definitely learned new things such as contacting people and learning Excel in a different way! I have made new friends that are like minded and we are all there to help each other! I have also made great contact with my local venue as I had never talked to Hannah, the person who looks after it, but now we keep in contact!

What do you hope for a performer to take away having performed at your venue? 

I would like my preformer to take away the knowledge that small communities can put on a great night and we all support each other.  My preformer is also the first comedian to perform at my venue so it should be a great night

Give us a local tip for any visiting performer or audience?
Muir of ord is a busy little village with plenty of folk!  Everyone comes together to celebrate and join in with everyone and there are more and more performers coming to play this characteristic village.

How important is the local community to your promoting efforts?

My local community will be very important in my promoting my event as they will be the attendees, so they will hopefully help in taking people along and supporting the act and the tour

Going forward, what difference do you think GET IN made to you?

Since I have been on GET IN I am now thinking of the possibilities of future events and things I could hold in my community because now I have a better understanding of putting on live acts etc! I think through tourbook I can build up a list of promoters and new venues and means I could hold events in different local communities to me!

SO whats next for Lewis and GET IN?

I would love to do another year of GET IN as I will learn a lot more and have experience of holding a tour! It also means I can improve on the way that I do things and contact people! I should also have more confidence approaching acts and local businesses!