Your Runway, Your World
On the Saturday leading up to Thanksgiving, Bay Area Rising (BAR) hosted their fall event: Your World, Your Runway. Despite the week-long downpour from the Bay Area bomb cyclone, guests were not deterred from flocking to the heart of Downtown San Francisco for this immersive experience since YWYR was hosted under the shelter of the luxurious Palace Hotel. Nearly 500 attendees braved the rainy weather to behold an intimate series of performances and immersive experiences crafted by upcoming artists and musicians. Dozens of volunteers came together in the weeks prior to prepare for the grand event, such as transporting and setting up installations, decorating the stage, and situating the video and camera equipment.
As the last rays of sunlight peeked through the ceiling windows, the event commenced in the main room with a DJ set from eiiwun. The performance was followed by an opening from the hosts who described the history of the organization and its needs. As the event went on, more rooms opened for the audience to explore, each decorated with various themes. The night started with Noel Ryce performing in a room draped in white sheets, which hung above the attendees alongside clouds attached to the ceiling. Ebony Loren followed the performance in another room that hosted a mini art exhibit curated by Ally Wei. The night continued with singing and performing from a diverse line-up of artists.
Bay Area Rising built a space for creatives to come together and showcase their talent to the local community. It will be exciting to see what shows they have shortly, but as the lead organizers continually told us, none of these events would be possible without the dedication of all the wonderful volunteers.
Keep reading to learn what it was like to work with BAR!
Maria’s Experience
This past November was my first time volunteering with BAR. I learned about the opportunity from an Instagram ad around late August, and even though I didn’t know what exactly I was signing up for, I was just like:
So I took the bait. I was eventually assigned to the floral installation team in October, which was led by Laura of Flora Stories, a small florist business based in San Mateo. The week before YWYR, our squad met up at a studio in Potrero Hill to assemble the botanic structures, ranging from tree arches for the event’s entryway to building bushes with both the foraged and purchased plants. It sucked that the storms made my commute to the studio super cold and wet, but it was definitely not un-accomplishable. It was nice of Laura to supply snacks and pastries from Sheng Kee, and even order sushi for the evening volunteers that some nights amounted to 7+ people.
spent a few nights building tree archways here…
But I’ll admit, when I first signed up, I was slightly sketched out. BAR’s volunteer ad had asked interested volunteers to shoot them a direct message to their official Instagram account, and once they got back to me, they directed me to sign up on their Discord server. It felt super disjointed to me at first, mainly because all the formal communication between the lead organizers and the 40+ volunteers was through that platform. Personally, I don’t use my account at all nowadays, but the only reason I already had one was when I was dating a Rainbow Six Siege-ified gamer from 2019-2021 and he made me download it (lol). I even got kicked off the server one time because I failed to check the messages starting out. It was chaotic at some points. But for the most part, it worked.
DISCLAIMER: We found out nobody actually stole alcohol from the venue. Some volunteers just moved it out of the way into a cabinet to avoid the potential of have it stolen (lolol)
So although I was unable to attend the actual event, I can speak on my volunteering experience the night before at the Palace Hotel. I took the N up to Montgomery Street headed to the back kitchen to see a flurry of people walking in and out of the back kitchen, hoisting all the plant models and decorative mannequins to the elevators. I joined the pack, rolling dollies and carts of all shapes and sizes to speed up the transportation process from the UHaul trucks to the venue. Once the last of our materials were placed within the hotel, that’s when the real chaos ensued (but hey, at least we were dry now). People split off into their designated teams. The floral team had to spend the first 30 minutes putting away all the chairs in front of the stage, despite the fact that the organizers notified the hotel staff that we did not need them in that area. At this point, I was breaking a sweat stacking metal cushioned chairs taller than me (I’m five feet tall, so that’s not much I guess). Once that was all squared away, I spent the rest of the night rolling out turf grass and hauling foam blocks full of flowers and branches onto the stage. It was tedious but gratifying work. I had to leave around 8 PM to resolve a fight with my boyfriend (lol) just as a handful of volunteers were finishing their shift as well, but from what I heard the next evening, the event went splendidly.
Felix’s Experience
I’ll take it from here, Maria. I took the BART from East Bay to Montgomery Station, bracing myself for the full day ahead of the event. Volunteers and organizers are still putting together the final touches on the exhibits, with volunteers slapping petals and flowers onto the wall, the video team ensuring that the cameras and audio equipment are ready for the show, and artists finishing their exhibits just before the guests have arrived. The musicians and their crews arrived at the venue that day so they tested their audio, and instruments, and did some checks to make sure everything was ready for the next few hours. The energy in the room was a mix of nervousness but also excitement as the show was about to begin.
I was in charge of photography for the day of the event and it took all my energy to prepare myself for the eight hours of shooting ahead of me. All of the volunteers and staff managed to be able to finish the art exhibits (yippee!) and every room was a vibe to be in. Guests were able to sing and dance in some rooms and able to chill and relax in others, so guests were able to pick and choose how to spend their evening.
Some rooms were harder to shoot than others due to the limited space and lighting but if anything, it was a test for me to learn more about shooting in difficult environments and it was fun to see people jamming out to the music. If I ever needed a break, I escaped into one of the rooms to pass the time either making friendship bracelets or decorating Polaroid photos.
Here are some of the artists I shot for below!
A busy night and by the end of it, my eyes were barely open but I was able to get some free flowers from one of the exhibits (shoutout, Ally!) and take some spam musubi on the go for the ride home (thanks to the BAR organizers for feeding the volunteer team hehe). It’ll be a matter of time before the next BAR event, I’m sure the whole team needs some rest. But hey… who knows? Maybe we’ll see you at the next event?
