Roz O'Shaughnessy - the Bloom machine

The gardens are sprayed, the flowers are blossoming and there is a buzz of excitement in the air. Bloom 2016 is officially bursting with colour and over 120,000 people are expected to descend on the Phoenix Park over the next five days. So, with all that excitement, there is a very good chance Rosaleen O’Shaughnessy got very little sleep last night.

“Ah, sure you wouldn’t be sleeping the night before opening day,” laughs the lady who has been part of the Bloom team since the start. “It’s like the night before a wedding – you’re buzzing with excitement.”

Rosaleen, or Roz as she is known to pretty much everybody within the agri-food industry, has been part of the Bord Bia team since Bloom was just an idea.

“That first year, I had only started in the job and it was an exciting project but nothing compared to the Bloom machine of today. Back then, ambitions were big but I don’t think anyone really envisaged what it would become.”

The Bloom Machine

Roz, who holds the position of communications manager, says that in year one, five or six agri journalists attended.

“Compare that to last year when we had over 400 members of the press. When you think about it, 10 years ago, the iPhone hadn’t even been launched. Social media wasn’t on our radar. Now we have a dedicated social media team with press coming from as far as Australia and the States.”

The press team trebles in the run-up to Bloom. It’s all hands on deck

Events of this scale don’t just fall together and even though it’s day one of Bloom, for Roz, the Bloom team, the gardeners and vendors, it’s been a long few weeks.

“Bloom typically kicks off in January – planning concepts and ideas. By the time you get to April, things are really ramping up, but once we get to the three-week countdown, everything else takes a back seat and your focus is completely on the flowers.”

While the gardens are starting to be constructed, in the press office they are also sorting the nuts and bolts, issuing long-lead press releases, media accreditation, planning TV shows and photoshoots.

“It’s around this time that I start to take a walk around the office poaching people from other departments,” Roz laughs sneakily. “The press team trebles in the run-up to Bloom. It’s all hands on deck.”

Last-minute preparations

Working weekends is simply par for the course, but Roz says she is never tired when she wakes on the Monday morning of Bloom week.

“You’re just buzzing with excitement. It’s our last day in the office, finishing all the little jobs that really can’t be done from a tent in the middle of the Phoenix Park.”

And it’s a good thing there is that level of enthusiasm because Tuesday is a long day.

From getting a fully functioning press tent in order to making sure the Wi-Fi is working, Roz says she won’t leave the site that day until everything is perfect.

“You just don’t have time to worry about it on Wednesday, so it could be 9pm or 10pm before I’m home. We’re used to those hours during Bloom. In the weeks leading up to it, it’s 12-hour days, but for Bloom week you’re talking the bones of 18 hours. It’s a short burst and you just give it your all.”

Wednesday is judging day as well as media preview, so it’s a busy day.

“It’s also the last day of the site build and it’s really exciting. Everyone is fingers crossed for a good show. The place looks great. You have the guys coming in washing out the trackways, doing the final additions. It’s like the finishing touches of a wedding. You see the garden designers spraying their flowers for the day ahead because, at that stage, the judging is done and they can do nothing more.”

Opening Morning

Now opening morning has arrived, bringing with it a sense of excitement as well as a little apprehension for the days ahead. After all, with a big show like this, things happen and not everything always goes exactly to plan. Roz says the most important thing is to remain calm even if everybody else is losing their cool – but she certainly had her biggest panic of all on the Monday of last year.

“The weather. God, will I ever forget that weather. It wasn’t just rain, it was gale-force winds.

“Every year at Bloom, we have regular meetings with the operations team, the guards, health and safety. But on Monday last year, it was a different ball game. We were meeting every hour on the hour. From 11am, structures had to come down. It was just too dangerous with the wind. By 4pm, the entire site had to be evacuated because we couldn’t take the risk of someone getting injured. It was hugely disappointing, especially as over 20,000 people had arrived that day.

“I remember this moment, standing near the RTÉ music quartet and next thing they started playing Nearer my God to Thee, the song from the Titanic when the ship is sinking. The sides of the RTÉ tent were flapping furiously and I thought: ‘Wow, this is new, this has never happened before.’ Although it’s an entertaining story looking back on it now, it really wasn’t funny at the time.”

Hanging with the President

However, Roz says the bad moments, even those with flapping tents, are quickly erased when you think of the highs. One of her key jobs during the weekend is escorting the President around the site.

“There was one slightly surreal moment in 2014. The President was sick with a chest infection and needed a short break. So I brought him and Mrs Higgins behind one of the show gardens so he could have a glass of water – it was a bit of a pinch-me moment, thinking, ah yeah, here we are, just the three of us, myself, the President and his wife having a little time out. These things don’t happen to everybody and it’s special. It’s times like that when I feel I have a great job and that I’m very lucky that I enjoy it so much and get such a kick out of it.”

While this is a personal moment, Roz says the morning that Bord Bia as a whole had to pinch themselves was back in 2011 when show numbers jumped dramatically.

“The first year at Bloom, we had 40,000 people – great for a new show. This increased gradually to 60,000 by year four and I think at that stage, we thought, have we plateaued? And then we had that Saturday in 2011.”

A Real Scorcher

“From early morning, we knew it was going to be a real scorcher. Reports from the guards showed traffic was already building and by 10am our car parks were filling fast. We realised it was going to be a bumper. How were we going to get people through the turnstiles quick enough? Was the show able to handle these numbers? So, we got complimentary water and sun cream and it was all hands on deck.

“Every staff member, from our chief executive Aidan Cotter to those who were on contracts for the weekend, were out walking beside the queues, giving guests a Bord Bia welcome until we could get them through the entrance. We topped over 90,000 that year – a 50% increase – and I remember doing the debriefs afterwards with big smiles on our faces.”

So, while Roz and the team live and breathe Bloom, what happens to her personal life?

“It’s all Bloom in our house,” she laughs. “My husband Dave works for Goal and they have a garden there. My family visits towards the end of the weekend when things have calmed down a bit.

“I’m from a farm in Wexford and my Dad is very proud that I work in Bord Bia. So it’s nice when they arrive to take half an hour, sit down, soak up the sun and enjoy Bloom, even for just a while. It makes all the hard work worth it.”

Bloom 2016 runs from 2-6 June. Visit www.bloominthepark.com

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