One of the most powerful people in the music industry, a leading designer and a highly respected journalist are coming to De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) to take part in a major festival organised by students.
The student team behind Cultural Exchanges 2017
MOBO awards founder Kanya King, Red or Dead founder Wayne Hemingway and former BBC war reporter, MP and author Martin Bell are just some of the big names lined up for the annual Cultural Exchanges Festival.
There are a total of 40 events being staged throughout Cultural Exchanges – many of them free - which also stars best-selling novelist Nina Stibbe, US investigative journalist Greg Palast and, in collaboration with Leicester Print Workshop, a talk by international artist and Royal Academy member Emma Stibbon.
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There is also a celebration of 50 years since the Summer of Love which features a live Q&A with Jenny Spires, the former girlfriend of legendary Pink Floyd founder member Syd Barratt. The ‘Tonite Let’s All Make Love in Leicester’ event will also include a special screening of subversive film-maker Peter Whitehead’s wild documentary ‘Tonite Let’s All Make Love in London’ to mark DMU recently acquiring Whitehead’s archive.
The festival, which runs from Monday 27 February to Friday 3 March and is open to the public, has been organised by eight DMU students studying their final year of Arts and Festivals Management, which was named as a top five course in the UK for graduate employment in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2016. It was also ranked fourth best course of its kind in The Guardian University Guide
The students have done everything from booking the events, to designing the brochure and website, as well as organising ticket sales.
Nina Stibbe is giving a talk
Student Stacey Brown, the Marketing, PR and Promotions Officer for Cultural Exchanges, said: “We are incredibly excited about the festival. It has been an amazing learning experience for all of us and a superb way of putting everything we have studied over the last three years into practice.
Top designer Wayne Hemmingway
“We hope as many people from Leicestershire and further afield can come along and support what is going to be an amazing celebration of people’s creativity.”
Kanya King will be a big draw at the festival
Tony Graves, Subject Leader for Arts and Festivals Management, said: “Cultural Exchanges is a highlight in the arts calendar not just for DMU but the whole of Leicestershire. I am incredibly proud of our students and the huge amount of work they put in to make the festival happen. At DMU we understand how important it is that our students have the chance to put their studies into practice and Cultural Exchanges is a challenging but enjoyable way for our final year Arts and Festivals Management students to do this.”
Respected war correspondent and former MP Martin Bell
Students from the course are also involved in organising events for this year’s Leicester Comedy Festival which is supported by DMU.
For the full line-up of 40-plus events visit the Cultural Exchanges website HERE
Posted on Wednesday 1 February 2017