Live Event and Festival Management

This ground-breaking programme has the ever-changing live music ecosystem at its heart. Developed in consultation with key bodies of the live events industry, this highly practical course will connect you to the cutting-edge of the fast-moving and constantly evolving live events sector. You’ll be encouraged to look to the future to see what’s possible, as you collaborate on real-world projects and build impressive creative, management and innovation skills.

Designed for the next generation of entrepreneurs and professionals in the multi-billion-pound UK live events industry, you’ll develop a host of practical, theoretical and creative skills in live production, event management and arts curation. Immersing you at the heart of the industry, you’ll gain the knowledge and abilities you need to run creative live music events across your professional career.

From the outset, you’ll become fluent in the language of the live events sector, learning a range of hands-on business, marketing and project management skills. With autonomy across all three years to focus on your areas of interest, you could potentially be running your own live events from your first year onwards.

You’ll explore the extensive logistics involved in running live events and festivals, as you learn many practical industry tips such as how to run a soundcheck, how to set up a basic lighting rig, how to host a ‘zero carbon’ and ‘leave no trace’ event, and even what to do if your festival site is rained upon.

You’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of the strategic demands of planning and managing a festival. Deep diving into site management, covering everything from planning, safety, licensing, vendor relations, through to crowd control. With festival goers becoming increasingly conscious of the environmental footprints of large gatherings, you’ll consider sustainability in detail and be challenged to envision even more sustainable features and solutions.

You’ll also take inspiration from non-Western event and touring approaches, while you study more recent forms of immersive multimedia activities, such as live streaming, virtual reality opportunities and holographic performances. You’ll also gain knowledge of the financial and economic side of live event and festival management as you apply to funding bodies like national arts councils to help you bring your creative ideas to fruition.

Your three years of course modules will take you on a highly curated journey. As well as covering the fundamentals of live event management, the specialisation of this programme will enable you to demystify the live music, festival and events sector, encouraging both your creativity and entrepreneurial spirit.

By exploring the live events scene in its entirety, you’ll experience the full breadth of industry models and approaches – from being part of a collaborative network at the grassroots level, to discovering the realities of the field’s larger commercial sector. While these industry areas operate in fundamentally different ways, the foundational knowledge you’ll gain will see you transition smoothly from non-for-profit to commercial projects.

The inspiring Live Project module in your final year is your chance to showcase your talents to an exceptional level, collaborating with your peers to bring an ambitious creative project to life. Alongside this, you have the option to complete your final year with an industry experience module, allowing you to work in an industry organisation while gaining academic credits. This may be at a venue, events management company, booking agency or onsite at festivals throughout the country.

Whether your plan is to work in venue management or events marketing, or establish a career as an agent, promoter, event producer, fundraiser or something else entirely, this degree will raise your expectations of what’s creatively possible, while teaching you the core practical skills to turn your elaborate plans into reality.