Organisers at this year’s
Leicester Comedy Festival are giving De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) students the chance to manage venues for the event.
The outstanding experience is being offered to those on the Arts and Festival Management course and the opportunity has drawn students from around the world.
It is the result of a unique partnership between DMU and the comedy festival, which is now in its 23rd year.
This partnership goes back to the event’s inception. It was set up in 1994 when a group of Arts Management students studying at DMU decided to host the event as part of their final year practical project.
That first festival was a huge success and after graduating, Geoff Rowe, one of the comedy festival’s original founders, decided to continue the festival and he has led the development of the annual event ever since.
And this year, like many before it, DMU students will be helping to run the show, being given a number of venues to manage, taking care of everything from booking acts to promoting events and ensuring the venue’s health and safety.
Students (L-R) Emma Darling, Maria Lindh and Abigail Taylor
For those studying Arts and Festival Management, the opportunity is as good as they come, something which has drawn students from overseas.
Emma Darling, from the USA, chose to study at DMU because of the chance to get the kind of experience the university’s Arts and Festival Management course offers.
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The 18-year-old, who in her group of classmates will run Peter’s Pizzeria as a comedy venue throughout the festival, said: “For me the most exciting thing is also the most terrifying: you’re running a venue and you don’t want to mess it up.
“These are big name acts and they expect a professional service but this is why I came to DMU – that kind of experience.”
Maria Lindh, 23, has come from Sweden to be on the course.
She said: “I’ll be promoting the acts, so it’ll involve handing out flyers and generating content for social media.”
Tony Graves, subject leader on the Arts and Festival Management course, said the experience would teach the students about working as a team.
He said: “The students will be running the venue, promoting the acts, cashing up, looking after front of house and covering health and safety – the works.
“They’ll be looking after the likes of Sean Kelly and Zoe Lyons and trying to get bums on seats, really.
“This will take organisation and trust. They’ll need to rely on each other and this kind of experience is priceless in understanding how big scale events like this work.”
Posted on Tuesday 27 December 2016