Don’t call her a tool because she’s sober on Dillo Day and enjoying your slurred, nonsensical conversations – she’s with the band. Don’t say she’s an uptight Medildo – she’s in PR. And don’t think you’re the only one who crawled through that mud pit. Karen Werling of the Mayfest public relations committee, tells The Weekly about sober Dillo Day, her 5 a.m. wakeup call and the jelly of the stars.
How stressful is your job? What’s the time commitment like?
Obviously the time increases in Spring Quarter and before events, but I’d say I spent 10 to 15 hours a week doing Mayfest-related stuff like meetings or general promotions stuff.
Why the reluctance to confirm acts like the Decemberists – is Mayfest just building suspense?
It has to do with band contracts. We’ve had issues in the past with bands being flaky and and changing their schedules on us last minute. We want to wait as long as we can so we don’t get the student body’s hopes up and then have the artist not come.
Have there been any changes in how you promote your events in the last few years?
The changes have been moreso about what kind of promotions we do. Dillo Day kind of promotes itself, so we try to work on promoting events that aren’t Dillo Day, like the Battle of the Bands. We want people to realize that Mayfest starts before May 30.
How many people work on Mayfest?
It’s a big organization. There are 40 people on committees and the exec board and there are 14 on the general board.
So where are you on Dillo Day – do you actually get to enjoy it?
We enjoy Dillo Day in a very different way. We start working the night before setting everything up, and the day of we’re up at 5:00 or 5:30 a.m. the day of setting up, ushering in guests helping out the bands. We also have students who are runners. If there’s anything the bands need, like if they need someone to take all of the red M & Ms out of the bowl, there’s a student there to do that. For us, it’s a two- or three-day-long process.
Are there any artists who have asked for ridiculous things like the red M & M thing?
I was assigned to be a runner last year. The band I was assigned to work with was great, but I had heard in the past about artists who requested obscure things. Like someone wanted a very specific Northwestern sweatshirt from the bookstore, or some wanted to eat at only one restaurant downtown.
