In the last two weekends I have visited about 6 countries. The festival season brings with it long hours and lots of travel. As festivals take place all over the world, and in the Northern hemisphere all around the same time, the distances are only limited by how far you can fly between shows.
Travel is both the greatest joy and the biggest downside of our profession. Visiting new countries is fantastic, but the mechanics of getting from A to B are tiring and boring. My attitude has always been one of trying to reduce the stress of travel as much as possible. I always leave a ridiculous amount of time to get to the airport. I would rather be early and sitting in departures than on a delayed train worrying about missing a flight.
Morning call times are the same. I always aim to be down ten minutes before call time. I never have breakfast first then check out, I always check out first then grab breakfast in what time is left. I have done lots of zero tolerance tours. If you are not there at leave time you make your own way to the next show. This is harsh but practical. If one person misses the flight, someone else will take up the slack, nobody is irreplaceable. But if everybody misses the flight, there is no show.
So I set two alarms, double check my clock is set to the right time zone and triple check the leave time. Then try and grab some sleep in the three and half hours before we leave for the next show…
Hope you all have a dry and safe festival season!
