We spoke to Bees, Leicester’s biggest party animal

We sat down with campus celeb Sarah Beesley, the face of Rockstar Promotions, to get an insight into what it’s like being Bees.

Hi Bees. What are your responsibilities at Rockstar?

“I do lots of different things daily and weekly – I’m always running around instead of just walking and being calm. This year’s different to any other year I’ve been at Rockstar, I’m very much out and about and not in the office. I’m on campus Monday to Friday, promoting the events to people and finding out whose birthday it is (obviously we need to make sure they have a good birthday at a Rockstar event!)

“I’ll spend time helping smaller socials out, helping the ticket sellers if they need any help, arranging and setting up bits in the O2, climbing stuff I probably (definitely) shouldn’t be climbing to get artwork and posters up.

“After that, I’ll go to the office where each day I have different jobs to do. I email out to smaller sports teams and societies weekly and offer them help for their socials, and make sure all the Rockstar pages and halls groups are loaded with event information so people know where they can get tickets. Although it’s the same every week, you’d be surprised how many people need extra information, and it’s my job to give them that.”

“There’s lots of other stuff in the office too, like typing up VIP and Entry lists, Sorting tables and bottles out for peoples birthday, making sure they know what they’re doing and when and where to come and stuff. I don’t really know how to explain it, there’s just always lots to do!

“Other days I’ll go home first for around three hours, have a nap, eat then go back to halls, after halls I’ll get changed quickly from my hoodie and warm clothes into smarter clothes and head straight to whichever event we have that night, then I’ll work until around 2-2:30am.

“While at an event, I tend to run around a lot – maybe I just don’t really know how to walk. There’s setting other bits of the venue up artwork-wise, making sure the tills are ready, making sure the Rockstar staff are okay, the Rockstar Bus stop & Party bus is okay. There’s a lot to do before we open the doors to an event than what people think.

“I have a schedule and a rota, without this and my diary I couldn’t function, my brain turns into mush and I forget what I need to do… a lot. The Freshers’ before last I lost my diary (it turned up in a T-Shirt box) in Halloween week and I honestly felt like my life was back on track again – it’s a busy time of year!”

What’s your favourite thing about your job?

“This is hard – I enjoy loads of bits about my job. I like the fact I get to know a lot of the new freshers every year. A lot of them can be shy, so if you’re there for then and help them settle in then that’s only a good thing. I also really like sorting birthdays out, people get so happy when you sort a table and a bottle of champagne for them. Manners mean everything and they’re so lovely and polite after.

“I think the best bit of all is when you’ve been running around and working all week, and then you walk into Shabang! at like 2am on a Friday, totally shattered, and everyone in there is having a really good time, and you feel OK – this busy week was so totally worth it.”

What’s the hardest part about your job?

“FRESHERS’! Not even Freshers’ Week, but the weeks between Freshers’ and Halloween. You get in the routine of no sleep – it just isn’t cool. There’s so much to do and everyone’s shattered but you’ve just got to keep going, and by the end of of Freshers’ fortnight you’re so happy you’ve done it and it’s like a massive sense of achievement.

“It isn’t just 10pm-2am like most people think. Your sleeping pattern changes to practically no sleep so you’re used to that, after freshers’ there’s a few weeks where there’s slightly less, then your sleeping pattern changes again, then before you know it it’s Halloween week – bar crawls and setting yourself time to wash your hair.

“But I still wouldn’t change this, or anything about it – I love it! There are only five of us full time, so we’re all pretty close which is really nice, especially on super busy weeks when you spend what feels like 24 hours a day with each other.”

“Since I’ve been a Rockstar I’ve changed a lot. I’ve learnt more than anyone could ever imagine. It’s impossible to be friends with everyone. A lot of people think you’re mardy a lot in the morning – nine out of 10 times I’m not, I’m just shattered.”

“I’ve also learnt important things, like how it’s impossible to contour your face and have perfect eyebrows by Friday morning after two or three events already that week – that extra 20 minutes in bed is much more important.”

Have you ever had any weird experiences while working?

People singing my name constantly, as they walk into events and venues, on bar crawls. I seem to high five so many people too, and then people seem to love picking me up and spinning me around. Not that I mind, to be fair – it makes me laugh.

That, or people dressing up as me for Halloween – they had cardboard faces of my selfies, I thought at first it might have been nasty, because obviously Halloween is when you dress up as zombies and horrible stuff. Then I met them, we had drinks and all night they were so lovely – then the masks came off and I knew who they were. If there was an outfit choice that night, I would have SO tried to make them win. Imagine there being seven of me… imagine the Facebook notifications!

What do you do outside of your job?

I think most people think I’m all Rockstar, Rockstar, Rockstar, but actually if you try and message me at a weekend its rare I’ll get back to you until later on Sunday evening.

My weekends are spent either working as a Youth Worker and working with young adults or Hairdressing. I actually do both of these quite a lot as well as working full time for Rockstar.

I’m also working towards a degree – this takes up a lot of time too. If I’m not doing any of this you’ll probably find me in a mosh pit at a gig, playing football or at a skate park skateboarding. I’m either really girly or the biggest tomboy – I guess it depends how well you actually know me.

You can follow Bees on Instagram and Twitter.