Guest Blog: Working as an emerging producer on Medway Light Nights 2022 – Ashleigh Burr

In her second blog,  Ashleigh Burr writes about working on the Medway Light Night's festival that took place in and around Rochester on 11 & 12 February 2022. Ashleigh worked with us as part of Creative Estuary's Estuary Emerging Producer Placements programme Some of the additional photos in this blog were taken by Raven, part of our Make Waves programme.
[caption id="attachment_463127" align="aligncenter" width="640"] (From left) Tracy Brunt – Ideas Test Deputy Director; Gurvinder Sandher – Cohesion Plus Artistic Director; Lucy Medhurst – Ideas Test Director; Sonia Nayyar – Cohesion Plus; Ashleigh Burr – Ideas Test Producer for Medway Light Nights Photo: Cohesion Plus[/caption] My name is Ashleigh and I worked with Ideas Test, as an emerging producer on placement through Creative Estuary, to produce “We Are Medway” at Medway Light Nights 2022. As a recent graduate this was my first professional job as a freelance producer, which was both exciting and daunting. I greatly enjoyed working on a community focussed project, in particular getting to meet so many interesting people during our filming period. I was lucky to be able to visit lots of places that were new to me, including Jamia Gillingham Mosque, the Brook Theatre and MESS ROOM.   [caption id="attachment_463086" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Josh from Cybersaur Arts and Gurvinder from Cohesion Plus on filming on location for We Are Medway Photo: Ashleigh Burr[/caption] One of the challenges I faced along the way was working within a tight time frame, especially as we wanted to include as many people, communities and groups as possible. To include everyone, we did have to go slightly past our filming deadline, but it was the right decision, and the project was still completed in time for the event.   [caption id="attachment_463206" align="aligncenter" width="640"] The view from Rochester Memorial Gardens on Saturday of Medway Light Nights 2022. Photo: Raven, Make Waves programme[/caption] On the event nights everything finally came together. On Friday night we also held the Lantern Parade which was a total joy. Local schools travelled along Rochester High Street holding their handmade lanterns while local live bands played. My highlight of the whole event was seeing lots of the people we had worked with proudly bring their families and friends along to enjoy the event.   [caption id="attachment_463207" align="aligncenter" width="640"] People in Rochester watching & walking past the Medway Light Night's film 'We Are Medway', created by Josh Garner from Cybersaur Arts. Photo by Raven, Make Waves programme.[/caption] I have really enjoyed this placement and have had the unique opportunity to learn and hone my skills alongside Ideas Test, Cohesion Plus and Cybersaur Arts. I’m very hopeful for more events like this in Medway in the future. I am currently completing my MA in Collaborative Theatre Making at Rose Bruford, and my plan from then is to gain more experience as a freelance producer, particularly in outdoor and community arts events.