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Sophie Cassidy from Drogheda Senior Branch and a core member of the Orbit 2025 Staff Team led the Special Events team at Camp this August. In this behind-the-scenes blog post, she shares her experience designing magical, sustainable, and theatrical events that made Orbit 2025 unforgettable.
Blending theatre and Guiding
I was very excited to take on the challenge of leading the Special Events Team for Orbit 2025! Outside of Guiding, I work as a lighting designer and theatre maker, so I got the chance to really blend my two worlds together in designing and creating the events.
Together with my team – Orla, Lily, Milly, and Grace – we put our all into making something that we hope will become magical memories for everyone who came to Camp. From the beginning, we had a clear goal for our evening programme: we wanted everything we did to be as sustainable and theatrical as possible, while staying true to the overarching theme of space!
Sustainability at the heart of Orbit
Sustainability is one of the core pillars of Orbit 2025, and it is something I try to prioritise in all the work I do. If we can’t create it ethically, we shouldn’t be creating it at all!
Once we had finalised the themes of our events, we focused on creating an aesthetic to match. We wanted to bring the cartoon-like joy found in many popular depictions of space to the Orbit Stage.
To design the set, we teamed up with the amazing Ardagh Guides, who helped bring our vision to life. We pitched our ideas to them, and they went away and created the incredible planets you saw hanging onstage. The planets weren’t just looking great, they were also thoughtfully made using materials that would otherwise have headed for the bin! The girls repurposed material from an old tent to create the base shapes and then painted them in bold, vibrant colours to really pop on stage.
We were so impressed by the resourcefulness and creativity they showed.
We also worked with Ste Bourke from Restaging, an amazing Irish company that works to reduce waste in the performing arts by promoting repurposing, collaboration, and community connection. Together, we designed and created the moon that became the centrepiece of our week.
“Some of my best memories from being a Guide were made on an international camp, Camp 101, so being part of the team creating those memories for this generation of Guides has felt really special.”
Setting the tone with the Opening Ceremony
When it came to planning the Opening Ceremony, we really wanted to set the tone for what would be a great week! We knew this would be one of the first the first impressions everyone would get of what Camp would be like, so we really wanted to capture the explosion of excitement all of us on the team were feeling!
One of the first ideas we had was to form a band that would play during the opening and closing ceremonies, inspired by performances we would seen at other international Camps like Roverway. We put out a call and gathered a talented group of Senior Branchers from across the country, seven different Units from four different Regions!
We met online to brainstorm song choices, then gathered for a rehearsal at the National Training Centre in Dublin the week before camp. We were nervous that there wouldn’t be enough time to nail the songs before camp, but the band gelled really well from the get-go, they sound class and we can’t wait to see them shine on stage this week!
Every Girl is a Star
The theme of our Opening Ceremony was inspired by the idea that every girl on Camp is a star, and that each of us has the power to shape our future and make our communities better.
To capture this idea, we wanted to link up with a Guide group to create a short performance. We got in touch with Convoy Guides from the North West Region, and they were excited to be involved!
An opening ceremony wouldn’t be complete without a bit of dancing, and that’s where Duleek Guides come in! The girls worked with their young Leaders, Soracha and Lauren, to put together a performance that really captures the exuberance and joy we’re all feeling about Camp finally being here!
We sent them a short script we had written, and were thrilled by the creative ways they made it their own. We even got a sneak peek before Camp, we can’t wait to see it on the Orbit Stage!
A surprise finale
Just a few days before camp kicks off, we realised the Opening Ceremony was still missing one final moment, so we have put our heads together to create something that will end it with a bang!
I was thrilled to be able to collaborate with my own Unit, Drogheda Senior Branch, in creating this moment, and grateful for how quickly they have jumped on board with my last-minute idea.
I think it is the perfect way to wrap up the ceremony: it brings everything together in a final explosion of joy that the Camp truly deserves. We are keeping our fingers crossed that it all goes off as smoothly as we are imagining it!
To see what the opening ceremony looked like!
By Sophie Cassidy, Drogheda Senior Branch, and Orbit 2025 Staff Team