National No Gazebo Day

On the 29th September 2014, during the inaugural #URYOnTour at an OB in Alcuin, URY's gazebo began to leak directly onto the rhino due to heavy rainfall. To prevent catastrophic damage, the desk was covered with an Asda shop for life bag (other plastic bags are available) and a box. Harry Whittaker and Michael Wallbank, who were presenting at the time, periodically had to lift up the box to reach the controls to continue presenting, whilst avoiding letting water in. As rainfall continued to rise, an emergency early pack down was initiated and the broadcast was stopped. In its ruined, unsuitable for use state, the gazebo was later discarded.

In the 2015/2016 academic year, a new, incredible spacious gazebo was purchased for the URY101 Charity Broadcast and general station use. The gazebo was much loved by all involved with URY101 and lasted the five days without difficulty. A happy future for the new gazebo was deemed irrevocably certain.

However, on the 29th September 2016, disaster struck. On the sixth day of #URYOnTour2016, URY were broadcasting in Derwent and using the gazebo. With the broadcast in full swing and no current technical requirements, the only engineers present at the OB, Marco Bolt and Stephen Clarke, left to conduct work in the station. Only the presenter on air, two music team members and the Programme Controller and ASM, Naomi Gildert, remained behind. The gazebo required 6 people to disassemble.

Over the course of 30 minutes several gusts of wind blew that were strong enough to inflate the gazebo with air and lift it off the ground. In one of these instances, the base for one of the legs - a heavy duty container that is filled with water to weight the gazebo down - lifted high enough into the air and knocked the OB pc monitor clean off the desk. Stephen Clarke was radioed to return to the setup. In a panic, desperate to keep the broadcast live, the four URY members present attempted to take the gazebo down with the help of some Derwent freshers. Whilst battling rain, increasingly strong winds and struggling to coordinate movement over the sound of the wind and music, one gazebo leg became stuck half collapsed. This was the demise of the second gazebo on the 29th September. Steve returned to the setup and tried desperately to properly collapse the leg, but too much force had been exerted and it was sadly unsalvageable. To this day, shouting at each other over a broken gazebo is the only argument Stephen Clarke and Naomi Gildert have ever had.

URY was now gazeboless, with no plans of replacement, and the curse was surely broken.

Nope! On the 29th September 2017, URY borrowed YSTV's gazebo to broadcast by the lake in James as part of #URYOnTour2017. A far less premium gazebo than those previously owned by URY: the weight of the rain collecting on the awning caused it to buckle within hours of set up. The Assistant Station Manager on site, Will Matlock, keen to prevent war between the two media societies, rushed the gazebo back to the station to fix it. With the help of Richard Millar and Neave Spikings, the poles were bent back into shape with screw drivers. The gazebo was packed back up and returned to YSTV.

The only conclusion that can be drawn from this cautionary tale is: if its the 29th September: don't f****ng put a gazebo up.