The Roseland Ballroom in New York City played host to the taping of the sixth annual mtvU Woodie Awards on Wednesday, November 16th, bringing out college students and a large number of teenage boys and girls hoping to catch a glimpse of their favorite celebrity.
The line was wrapped around the building, even after doors had already opened. The audience was told to get there before 7:45 p.m., when doors would be shut to get the taping started. But that didn’t stop some curious kids from running over to the makeshift ‘red carpet’ near the main entrance, that was held in what seemed to be a tent only a couple of sidewalk pieces long.
DJs were on hand to play some of the year’s bigger hits as the crowd waited for the event to begin at its 8 p.m. start time. The venue that is a popular destination to most of the mid-sized tours that come through the area was decked out in a completely new fashion ‘- with two stages and only a small amount of room for the audience. People were scattered throughout the venue, but were held off in only certain areas to make way for all of the rooms the V.I.P. had. The celebrities had access to an open bar in the back filled with beer pong tables and an ongoing tournament ‘- and each nominee had their own table with full catering and a keg at the end.
Each performer was allotted enough time to play two to three songs. Matt & Kim started off the show with a performance that made you want to get naked. But you didn’t have to ‘- their backup singers decided to strip to their undies as they jammed through their breakthrough hit, ‘Lessons Learned.’ Definitely a wise way to start off an awards show.
Death Cab for Cutie and Passion Pit followed with their respective sets ‘- and played outstandingly. It left you wishing you were at a real concert, not just hearing three songs to only tease you.
A couple of other artists performed ‘- but it felt like the crowd was more into the beginning of the show rather than the end. Some artists left you asking ‘- ‘who was that?’
There were a slew of celebs to present awards, from Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, 30!3 and beauty queen Zooey Deschanel.
Tapings of awards shows are kind of awkward and weird. There were only a small number of presenters and awards given out in the first place ‘- so in between those and the few performances, there was a lot of waiting around and small-talk with your neighbors. It was a little interesting to see how the tapings are done ‘- with monitors blown up that the presenters often read off of. There was also a large number of people on-staff working the event, constantly running around.
Perhaps the hilarious part of the evening was watching the amount of tween ‘- and even adult girls- try to get past security by batting their eyelashes and waving their sparkly dresses to make up for not having a VIP bracelet. Few succeeded.
The event went on a little past the 10 o’clock hour, but people weren’t shoved out right away. It was time for a little schmoozing with the stars ‘- and preparing for a night of after parties. Unfortunately this article isn’t going to tell you about the big winners ‘- you’ll have to see for yourself when it airs on mtvU on Friday, December 4th at 10 P.M.
