A budding music industry professional has spent his ARIA Award night doing favours for people after he financed his ticket to the event through crowd sourcing. Accepting donations of up to $50, he was offering initiatives such as 'getting your drinks' and 'cleaning vomit and/or blood from your person'.
Speaking to SPA Confidential the professional, Tim Boon said, “I really wanted to go – I've only ever been to small-to-midsized listening parties previously. I lost all my money betting on the J Award though, so I needed to be creative if I was going to get there.”
Boon's day started by handing out business cards on the red carpet for an artist who hoped to hook up with Taylor Swift fans later that night.
“That was pretty easy. 200 cards in ten minutes. I just said that the guy on the card needed extras for a video clip he was shooting with Taylor at 4am the next morning.”
The pre-ceremony drinks were spent stealing trays of canapés from waiters, and delivering them to a group of four who'd pooled money to but a $50 initiative.
“After a while I realised that the punter to food ratio wasn't as I'd hoped with dinner coming later and all. So I starting putting the duck wraps in my pocket and had the salmon in my sock to stockpile.”
Once the awards were underway Boon tended to the needs of three separate donators, who luckily were all located within 50 metres of one another.
“Mostly it was about getting drinks for people, but I really wanted to offer a bit more so I can build a good reputation. On a number of occasions I held cups while my sponsors relieved themselves into them, so as not to miss Guy Sebastian and Lupe Fiasco's performance. Another person wanted a bit of buzz around him, so I went and asked everyone in his row if they knew him or not – regardless if someone did.”
Boon's duties didn't stop there though, his greatest challenge was trying to distract security so a sponsor could sneak into the Universal after-party.
“I grabbed a plant from the lobby and threw it at the guy doing the doorlist. I got thrown out but in the madness my man snuck in with his bag of demos.”
Finally, Boon provided wet wipes and valium as party revellers left after parties around the city.
“It was a long night, but I got to the ARIAs,” he said. “It wasn't nearly as tough as what I will have to do for my Tamworth tickets.”
