Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Students get real-life experience with Live at Leeds
A total of 175 Leeds Met students of music, events management, entertainment management and broadcast media will be involved in a variety of roles across the full weekend of events, including: running the wristband exchange; creating video footage of performances; managing stages and live sound; and organising and running the 'Unconference', the Unconference launch party and a charity football tournament.
The Unconference, now in its fifth year, will take place on Friday 2 May at Leeds College of Music and is a relaxed yet professional conference curated by Leeds Met lecturer Samuel Nicholls, also known as ¡Forward, Russia! guitarist Whiskas, and supported by Leeds Met and Leeds Inspired. This year's main guest will be Jen Long, BBC Radio 1 and BBC Three presenter.
Samuel commented: "The Unconference is a great event that brings a large degree of music industry knowledge to Leeds and allows our students and the public to engage with professionals in an informal setting. The opportunity for events management students to work on a real life event, in collaboration with the team at Leeds College of Music, is invaluable."
Senior Lecturer in Events Management. Simon Bell, added: "It has been eight years now since we set up the partnership with Live at Leeds and every year we have offered more and more opportunities to our students. This year we have four groups of events management students running different aspects of Live at Leeds, both as part of their 'Professional Events Solutions' module assessment for their degree and as volunteering, to gain valuable experience alongside the students from other courses."
The Unconference, and its launch party, which is hosted alongside the Association of Independent Music (AIM) and takes place on Wednesday 9 April at the Brudenell Social Club, have been organised by events management students at Leeds Met and will be live-streamed by a team of broadcast media students as part of their studio management course module.
Further teams of broadcast media students will be working at the main Live at Leeds event on Saturday 3 May, which sees Samuel's band ¡Forward, Russia! headline the Town Hall venue, to broadcast live performances. Meanwhile, music students will be running the Leeds Met Stage 2 venue, liaising with artists and providing sound production; and events management students will be running the Live at Leeds wristband exchange.
In a new event this year, Leeds Met is working with East Leeds FM and Leeds Inspired to host the Unconference Extra at the Goals Soccer Centre in Leeds on Monday 5 May. The event, which aims to provide young musicians aged 19 and under with practical knowledge of the local and national music scene to help them to progress as artists, includes a talk from international touring artist Jon Gomm and his manager, Nathasha Koczy. In the afternoon, events management students are helping to run the fourth annual Live at Leeds football tournament at the same venue.
The tournament will see 32 teams made up of bands, promoters, venues and Leeds Met lecturers compete for the coveted Live at Leeds trophy, with money being raised for Martin House Hospice.