EEP! I have just committed to organizing a hafla (bellydance party) for the end of August. This is scary. I am not an organizer. I procrastinate, put things off, generally I am not good with dealing with things like dates, deadlines, anything like that. And somehow, I have become involved in organizing a large get-together.
This isn't like I've been forced into it. It's actually long been a secret dream of mine to organise a hafla, to have one locally instead of having to travel miles to the nearest event. It's just that, my mouth seems to have run off with itself and decided to make concrete plans where before there was just idle day-dreaming.
Me and a group of friends have been talking about organizing a local hafla for what feels like ages. But it's always been that idle day-dreaming, with nothing getting planned. Well, someone else tried to book a hall in a nearby town, but it was full till November, and since we had already talked about it, they spoke to us about having one here at the end of summer. More idle day-dreaming followed, but I began to see that it could actually happen, and all it would take is a few easy steps in the beginning (like every journey!)
And that's where my mouth started running off. I spoke to some people at the class I attend last night about it, and they were all really keen. So I said I'd phone up the guy who's in charge of the local church hall and book it. And this morning, I did. The first "easy" step, taken care of. Done. The hall is officially booked for August 29th, 6 till 11.
Now though, I am terrified. Everyone keeps saying there is so much to organise when having a hafla. Tickets, performers, sound systems - those are just the ones I can think of now. I'm sure there are a lot more I'm forgetting. There must be. I have a terrible feeling it'll get to the night, and I'll have forgotten some intergral part of the event. :)
I won't be alone in organising it though. I have that group of friends I talked about who I'm sure I can "organise" out of day-dreaming mode, if need be. But I've got a feeling it just took someone to take that first step, and everyone else will jump in with me. I hope so, anyway.
We (me and my friend) have already decided that we're not going to have a buffet or anything at this hafla, just to make it less trouble to organise. Some haflas do have buffets for the half-time interval, as it were, but I think it would just be too much. So the tickets will say "Bring your own drinks and snacks!" Another thing taken care of.
Next week I'll ask people from the class if they want to dance at it, and I've got a list of people I can email to ask to perform. It's all starting to take shape, and it's scary and exciting at the same time!
I thought as it leads up to the hafla, I'd write here about it. About all of the things that need doing, as they need done, and as they get done. It might be useful for other people to have a resource of what another person did to organise a bellydance event. And it lets me write out the adrenaline! I'll tag all the relevant posts "organising a hafla", so later it'll be easy to find all these posts.
(Blimey, I seem to have gone into full organisation mode! What on earth is up with me!!!!)
3 comments:
Ooo, fun fun! Haflas are awesome! Our Hafla's usually entail everyone bringing a picnic and sharing food. We have it in a hall that has a bar though, so apart from bringing water (dancers), the drinks are bought from the bar. Will it be a fundraising event?
Yes, we're going to give the proceeds from ticket sales to a charity, but I've no idea which yet!
OMG that's a big undertaking! You must be nervous. I'm a procrastinatore as well, and would be freakin out at the prospect of not being able to procrastinate. :-)
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