Student volunteers gearing up for festival season

Working with Festival Republic, which runs Latitude Festival (in Suffolk) and Leeds Festival, Leeds Beckett has offered 250 of its students the chance to gain experience in fields relevant to their programmes of study, including PR, film, licensing, artist liaison, sound and lighting.

This year marks the 10^th year of the unique festival experiences for Leeds Beckett students.

Leeds Beckett students undertake 28 different roles at the festivals; six of the student volunteers with very specialist skills, including health & safety and licensing, are on site for five weeks, and students fully manage stages at both festivals – the Lake Stage at Latitude and the BBC Introducing Stage at Leeds.

Deborah Green, Director of Marketing at Leeds Beckett University, said: “We are proud to be the only University working with Festival Republic in this way and, through this partnership, our students have opportunities to gain relevant, practical and enjoyable work-based learning in a real environment. As well as providing an insight into the organisation and set up of a large-scale event, these opportunities build employability skills such as team work, communication and problem solving.”

A production from our student film team at Latitude last year

Fifteen performance students will perform ‘Borrowed Shoes’ at Latitude Festival: a vibrant, evocative storytelling theatre performance that invites the audience to experience an encounter. The University’s performance students have performed at festivals around the world including Edinburgh Fringe, Sibiu International Festival of Theatre, Dionysus Festival Croatia, ACT Festival Bilbao, GIFT (Gateshead), and FLARE (Manchester).

Leeds Beckett students will also run the DJ sites at Leeds Festival and will produce films on-site which will be shown on screens at the events.

A number of Leeds Beckett students have gone on to secure full time roles with Festival Republic, after being successful volunteers through the partnership.

Laura Thompson graduated from Leeds Beckett in 2013 after completing her BSc (Hons) Event Management and is now a Licensing Co-ordinator at Festival Republic. She said: “I gained an opportunity whilst studying to work at Latitude and did lots of other volunteering at festivals from a young age. The experience was great; I learnt a lot, met some great people and got to enjoy the festival too. By working at the festivals and gaining contacts, I was ultimately able to get a full time job at Festival Republic after graduating.”

Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic, said: “We’re delighted to be celebrating 10 years of working with Leeds Beckett University and I’m personally pleased to be supporting the up and coming talent of the future in the festival and events industry. We see a high calibre of students coming through each year and it’s great for them and us when we’re able to offer them a career within Festival Republic after they have graduated.”

Other films produced by our student film team at Latitude last year