Day in the life of Mike Clark, our festival "Runner"

miel

Mrs. Harvester
Staff member
Feb 17, 2009
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Mike Clark is our official “runner” for the festival. He truly has the patience of a saint and is crucial to the festival’s smooth operation.

What is a “runner”, you ask? Well, he is at the beck and call of the festival’s promoter, band managers, and bands. If there’s a need for something we don’t have on hand backstage, Mike hops in his car, braves Atlanta traffic, and runs to the nearest store to pick it up.

Mind you, we had zero “divas” this year within our roster; all of the details below are for the most part, routine requests year-to-year. It’s important to us to extend our Southern hospitality to bands and accommodate them as best we can.

Example of some of his trips this year:


 Sam Ash Music – drum heads
 Guitar Center (x2)
 Home Depot (x3) – locks, fans, plywood & spray paint
 Downs Safe & Lock Company – keys
 Target – throat drops
 Ginstar Computers – computer cable
 Airgas (x2) – washers
 Radio Shack – assorted cables & adapters
 Walgreens – protein shake and prescription drugs
 Chick-fil-a – salad and food for crew’s lunches
 SGA Production Services – pipe & drapery
 Wal-Mart – coolers & blank CDs
 C&S Cleaners –overnight dry cleaning of stage attire


THANK YOU, Mike for all of your hard work and dedication!

After-show fun: returning the pipe & drape
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“What the heck is that for??”
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“crew eats mor chikin!”
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“I wonder what these are for??”
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At Guitar Center
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Stuck in traffic
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Coolers. For water, right? ;)
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At Sam Ash
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Mike can be followed on Twitter: @MikeClarkHW

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I'll have to give him some of my stash of Throat Coat next year. Will bring more.
Thanks for your hard work, Mike. You Rule!
 
To reiterate what others on the crew have already said about Mike, he is awesome and helps backstage beyond what Jen pictorally demonstrated above. Both he and his wife, Tracie, are great people and fun to hang around! Besides the day I already want to add in the beginning to ease the commute, I need to extend my ProgPower experience an additional day at the end as late as they make me stay up year after year! lol!! 12+ hours on the road sucks after 3 hours of sleep (that was preceded my an 18 hour day and 3-4 hours of sleep before that)! Seriously though, thanks for all your help Mike!

The year Enchant (one of my favorite bands) played the Thursday night event, Ed's Taurus pedal-like floor unit died before sound check. I diagnosed a fried voltage regulator and Mike ran me out immediately to Radio Shack to get a replacement part. We got back in plenty of time for me to fix the unit Enchant was able to deliver the show as they intended! So thanks for that too, Mike!