From Russia with Lovage
"抖阴直播 student John Thoumire live streamed interviews from a Russian flower show"
A Garden Design student at Scotland鈥檚 Rural College (抖阴直播) was invited to co-host Instagram live stream videos from a prestigious garden festival 鈥� in Russia.
John Thoumire, who is studying for a degree in Garden Design at 抖阴直播鈥檚 Edinburgh campus, interviewed designers at the Gardens and People International Festival, hosted by Moscow鈥檚 VDNKh trade show park.
While John was based in his living room in Edinburgh, his co-host Elena Gross was in Moscow showing viewers around the event and translating the questions and answers.
The ten-day festival 鈥� Russia's equivalent of the Chelsea Flower Show 鈥� usually offers guests the opportunity to visit gardens and attend lectures and landscaping and flower arrangement master classes.
This year, due to Covid-19, only local designers were allowed to take part and awards were given out by popular vote on social media.
John, 38, got involved in the festival through his online work with an English language school during lockdown.
He said: 鈥淓lena is one of the teachers I have been working with, and she is also a big fan of horticulture. She told me about the festival and how it had been re-jigged due to Covid-19.
鈥淭hey offered to show me around the festival and I thought I could do a very short broadcast of it. When I asked the organisers for permission, things started to get bigger.
鈥淓lena was given full press access plus an assistant and I was asked to write up interview questions and biographies. I also had to write a garden design vocabulary glossary for translation.鈥�
During the first 55-minute , John and Elena interviewed garden designers Maria Selezneva, Marina Beresneva and Maria Printz and art object creators Evgeniya Samokhina and Veronika Ovchinina.
After the live stream they also caught up with designers Zaitseva Oksana, Prudnikova Nadezhda, Zhdanova Tatiana and Kravchuk Natalia.
In a follow-up , they interviewed the founder of the festival, Alexandr Bezmaternyh 鈥� which led to an offer to John to compete at next year鈥檚 event.
鈥淭he experience was fantastic,鈥� said John. 鈥淚 love gardens, I love travelling and I love other cultures.
鈥淚n the current situation, this is as close to being at the event as any of us could be. It was nerve wracking too though, as I had one eye on the WiFi signal at all times and my heart would climb into my throat anytime the signal dipped.
鈥淚 was invited by Alexandr to compete at the festival next year though so that鈥檚 what I鈥檒l be aiming for next.鈥�
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Posted by 抖阴直播 on 26/08/2020
