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room. Truck drivers, roadies, lighting and sound tech crew,
production staff, and band members were sitting around tables
shooting-the-breeze or plotting the day over coffee and
breakfast. For the rest of the day my job would be to make sure
food was where it needed to be when it needed to be there, and
to see that everything stayed stocked, clean, and organized.
Ryan would spend a good part of the day, setting up dressing
rooms as per instructions in the tour rider. Riders are tour
instructions and lists of things required in the dressing room
for the different performers.
Throughout the day, the chefs prepared delicious
gourmet(blackened tilapia on greens)fare and not-so-gourmet
(canyon smoked French fries in honor of the fires)fare for the
150 people working so hard to make sure Jason Mraz and his
opening acts walked onstage happy and ready for the show.
On tour, 8:00 p.m. is the magic hour in the dining room.
That’s the official time food service is over. We dish any
remaining food into to-go containers, start breaking down
dinner service, and begin the process of packing the dining
room back into flight cases. Packing up in the evening is not as
precise an event as unpacking. Variables like plates and