Our volunteer and intern roles allow students to come along to the festival and get a real feel for what the work is like backstage and whether it’s the career for them.

Walking around Leeds Fest this weekend we have seen quite a few familiar faces popping up in various roles working at the festival, familiar why? Familiar because they are some of our old volunteers who are now getting paid work from Festival Republic at Leeds Festival as a direct result of their volunteering.

Over the weekend we’ve seen our ex-volunteers working in various teams across the festival as Licensing, Accreditation, Backstage Runner, Artist Liaison on the Lock Up Stage and stage crew for Colour Sound.

Lucy McCann, one of ex-volunteers and Leeds Met Alumnus is now working as Artist Liaison on the Lock Up Stage and also worked as Artist Liaison at Latitude earlier this year.

Mike Blundell who volunteered with us at Hove Festival earlier this year is now working for Colour Sound at Leeds Festival and has some paid work on the Batman Live  tour.

Even our lighting intern who only started with his team on Monday has been offered work next weekend working at a film festival in London.

It’s amazing how many doors this volunteering project can open for students with a real passion for the industry.

Overall we’ve managed to see around 15 of our ex-volunteers just at Leeds Fest now getting paid work from Festival Republic. It really is great to see how our volunteers can succeed and, with the contacts they make, go on to make a career out of the area they volunteer in.

My first task of the day was to interview Adam Castling. Adam is a Business and Management Graduate from Leeds Met and now works for the university. Just before coming to Leeds Fest, Adam was made the Partnership Marketing Officer. Adam’s job at the university involves him looking after the cultural partnerships the university has as well as the sporting partnerships.

Whilst working at Leeds Fest, Adam takes the role of project manager assistant and HATs manager. Last year, Adam actually came to the festival as a HAT so that he could experience the partnership through the eyes of a volunteer.

Adam was also working hard before the festival this year carrying out the organisation, making sure everything was going to arrive and be set up on time, making arrangements for the campsite and sorting the volunteers’ clothing. Adam even volunteered to drive the video-tech van here so the film crew can carry out all their editing.

Since arriving, Adam has spent his time looking after the HATs, interns and other volunteers. On Thursday Adam had to leave us for a while when he had to go and look after even more of his volunteers who were helping out at the Carnegie Challenge Cup at Wembley and check all the marketing there was up to his standards.

Adam enjoys the partnership purely because of his love of events. He gets a genuine buzz out of watching the events come together and knowing that his contributions has helped make it what it is.

I asked Adam what he thought about the partnership between Leeds Fest and Festival Republic and how it can benefit students. The only way to describe it is that he loves it! The festival industry is difficult to get into and this offers students the experience they need to help with their future employability. Whilst Adam has been here he’s had a chance to catch up with Leeds Met Alumni who now work for Festival Republic because of the volunteering they did whilst still at university.

Adam also thinks the partnership is a great role model for other academic areas to start new partnerships and projects so that students can gain work experience in industries that are of an interest to them.

Whilst backstage Joyce meets and greets that artists and helps them settle into their surroundings before going on stage. She makes sure they’re getting fed, watered and have everything they need before performing; she’s like their backstage mum!

Joyce loves being based at the BBC Introducing stage as many of the bands performing have never performed on such a large scale so its great to see them being a given a chance to get heard. And she let me into a little secret- most of the bands bring their parents backstage with them rather than friends and partners.

Joyce is proud of how well the stage crew are doing too. Despite having some equipment problems, they’ve all worked well to resolve the situation quickly and allowed the show to carry on.

The partnership with Leeds Met and Fest Republic actually brought Joyce to her first ever UK festival and she gives it the upmost praise, “You can see how much people progress over the weekend and how they build their confidence.  It’s a great way to give the students a taster into the industry and getting some hands-on experience.”

Whilst at the festival this year, Joyce has also seen past volunteers who now carry out paid work for the festival thanks to their initial volunteering with Leeds Met, proof of how valuable the experience can be.

This is the  first time Katie has worked at Leeds Fest through Leeds Met and so far she is enjoying every second of it. She applied for the role because it is exactly what she wants to do as a career; look after artists at festivals and concerts. Katie’s role involves meeting and greeting the artists on the BBC Introducing stage, showing them around the backstage area and being a point of contact for anything they need. She loves being able to chat to the bands about how they’re feeling about performing and finding out more about them.

Whilst Katie has been working hard, she’s had the chance to hear artists for the first time and is highly recommending The Young Knives, Rae Morris and Save Your Breath as artists to look out for.

Katie recommends the volunteer and internship partnership to everyone, especially those who want to get involved in the music and festival industry. The experience she is gaining is priceless and giving her the opportunity to make contacts with professionals. The sense of achievement she experiences at the end of each day is the biggest highlight of the festival for Katie, that’s proof  of just how much she’s loving her role.

This year isn’t the first time Mark has been to the festival as a volunteer as he also worked with the Campsite DJs last year assisting them with their sound. This time around he’s the sound intern for Festival Republic and spent yesterday working on the BBC Introducing Stage but when we caught up with him he was lending a hand on the Festival Republic Stage.

Mark’s internship links in really well with his degree and not only allows him to put his skills into practice but also learn and develop more. After the first day, Mark has already had to learn how to use digital decks after normally using analogue ones. The internship also helps him learn more about both live and outdoor music rather than being indoors which is what he is used to doing.

In the past, Mark has helped set up small gigs in community halls but in no way does that compare to what he’s doing here. With different artists having different sound requirements, it’s important to get it all set up in time before they arrive to perform. It’s a role that requires a lot of hard work and skill and Mark is loving every minute of it.

Doing this internship helps Mark to gain experience and meet professionals who can offer their advice on how to break into the industry. It’s highly recommended for people who want to get into the industry to experience being an intern at the festival. Plus it’s also a lot of fun!

Bekki Hocking

If you’ve been to Leeds Fest before then you will have seen the HATs located around the arena, donned in their ‘information’ sashes, ready to assist the public with any enquiries they have.

The HATs have to know pretty much everything about the festival; where everything is located and who is performing on each stage and when.

One HAT, Emma Fawcus volunteers regularly for Festival Republic through Leeds Met and loves the experience of getting involved with the festival. She has also created her own game to play with her team mates; Festival Bingo! The idea is to spot people in certain fancy dresses and those doing something to get them noticed.

To be a HAT you definitely have to be confident and be willing to talk to people no matter how bizarre their questions might be.

HAT volunteer Amanda is a team leader. She’s incharge of making sure the HATs are doing their jobs and her team is running smoothly. Amanda, like myself, is a PR student at Leeds Met and volunteers because she wants to work in the festival and music industry.

Being a HAT was a great opportunity to get out and about in the festival atmosphere and chatting to campers. My favourite campers of the day have to be the couple who got married earlier today and, still in their wedding attire, have come to Leeds Fest for their honeymoon. Maybe not the 5* resort that most brides hope for but I’m sure it’ll be a honeymoon they’ll never forget.

Matty Dyas

Inside the arena, the crew got some great shots of the finishing touched being added to the main stage aswell as the BBC Introducing stage where some of our volunteers are working. Then it was onto the village where the public were eagerly awaiting the opening of the arena. We decided to take the opportunity to interview the members of the public to see what it is they love about Leeds Fest and which acts they mostly wanted to see. This footage is going to be used in the film the film crew are making to portray the Leeds Fest experience.

Throughout the festival the film crew also have interviews lined up with the band ‘Merkage’ and the staff who have helped make the festival so successful.

Whilst chatting to the crew, you can easily see they all have a passion for what they do at the festival and want to make careers out of it.

Hanging out with the film crew has been a great experience and there is no denying these guys have a tough job on their hands. I’m really looking forward to seeing their final masterpiece.

Here’s some interesting facts I gathered from the quiz:

The capacity of Leeds Festival is 70,000.

The festival’s aim is to be the most entertaining and well run festival in the land.

It cost £4 for a return shuttle bus to Tesco.

The Crash Tent is a place for people to stay when they don’t have a tent and it’s situated behind the Welfare Tent.

Wow. All this knowledge. All I need now is a way to disseminate it to the paying festival goers. Well, luckily for me I have a shift as a HAT later tonight.

Check back here to see if the information came in useful…

Matty Dyas

After the first night and a site walk at Leeds Emma has already started to notice some differences compared with Latitude.

The camping area here is a lot bigger than at Latitude and, thankfully, the Arena and Toilets are much closer to us – very handy when you need to dash to the loo at 4am in the pouring rain! Despite the downfalls last night the weather has perked up and the sun has come out to play again, already an improvement on the wet weather at Latitude!

There are a lot of friendly and familiar faces here at Leeds as a lot of the Latitude volunteers have, like Emma, decided to come and volunteer at Leeds as well so its nice for everyone to see each other again. Emma’s team is full of all new people so thereare still lots more opportunities for her to make new friends.

This volunteering experience for Emma is more than just a good time in the summer though as it links in very well with her course, Art Events Performance. The volunteering has helped her with her course by gaining an insight into the different areas and things that take place backstage at festivals. It also allows her to see the other volunteering roles such as campsite DJs and stage crew.

I hope the sun stays out so that Emma can continue enjoying her festival volunteering experience!

Laura Crimmons

The next challenge for me was pitching my tent. Normally I leave the boys to pitch the tent whilst I sit back and sunbathe. Not this time though, it was down to me. I’d love to say it went well but I’d be lying. I am the only person in the world who can struggle with a pop-up tent!

Finally, after all my messing around, we got our wristbands.

I’d arrived at Leeds Fest on my own so I knew it was important to make friends whilst I was here. I was introduced to Matty who is the other half of my PR team, who then introduced me to a big group of HATs. After a few drinks and some rather questionable BBQ food we were off out exploring. Straight through the arena thanks to a quick flash of our staff wristbands and then to the fun-fair with all the early-bird campers.

At 2:30am, I finally crawled into my tent, and thanks to the wind and rain I was prepared for a bad (yet very much needed) nights sleep.

But soon as I arrived and I pitched my tent with the efficiency and finesse of Ray Mears, my fears were put at bay.

It turns out that the Leeds Met Volunteers are a friendly bunch and after helping a few people put their tents up I was soon sat around in the sunshine enjoying a refreshing beverage with my newly acquired comrades.

Later that evening we sat around the campfire playing games and eating barely cooked BBQ food. What more could you want? And although the rain showers may have soaked our clothing, it certainly didn’t dampen our spirits. An all round great start to the festival.

Matty Dyas

This year I’m returning as Media Officer after having a great time as a researcher last year and I cant wait. Not only is it my first festival of the year but I’m also interested to see what this role has install for me. Hopefully lots of blogging, social media, photographs, videos and maybe even podcasts so make sure you watch this space.

I love the atmosphere of the festival. There’s always a buzz and for the whole time there is always something going on, whether it’s backstage at the BBC Introducing Stage or at the camping area.

One of the highlights of last year was meeting loads of new people and I made some great friends so hopefully that will be replicated this year.

Music wise, Mariachi El Bronx are always good to see along with Little Comets and Heart Ships. Oh and not forgetting The Strokes.

Bring on Wednesday…

Summer has arrived, the bumble bees are buzzing, the trees are displaying their lush tresses alongside a majestic array of fabulous floras, and the Sun makes her lazy descent so late in the day that it’s almost not worth going to bed at all. Such an atmosphere can only mean one thing: it’s festival time.

Summer festivals offer a temporary escape from the outside world, a cider-fuelled Elysium. As I scan the internet for the festivals out there, I find myself day dreaming about the prospect of long, lazy hours under the sun, drinking cider, mooching around arts and crafts stalls, and watching bands I’ve never heard of whilst standing amongst a crowd of wellie-wearing fans. Normally the prospect of greasy hair, an unwashed-body, and grassed-stained jeans would not sound appealing, but in the context of a festival it all amounts to summer euphoria!

Glastonbury, Leeds, Reading and the rest of the big’uns are all renowned for their amazing atmospheres, top-class line-ups, and not to mention pricey tickets. However, I’ve been checking out the remaining festivals this country has to offer, those that are a little more understated, but equally, if not more, quirky than the usual big festival names.

Studentbeans.com offers a great alternative festival guide, click here to see. Tickets from these events range from as little as £65, a real bargain in my opinion. My friends and I are trying to decide which one is right for us…looks like I’m going to need some new wellies!

Pretty predictable and bland really isn’t it. I’m a Leeds goer and have been for a fair few years now. My personal music tastes swing me across all of the stages to the point that if I really endulge myself, I don’t even have time to squelch over to an overpriced van for an undercooked burger. This year, I’m sure I’ll be doing the same (even if I am working the festival) only with a slight difference. Last year, I tread across a baking warm site (Leeds was gloriously sunny) trying to pick between bands. This year it seems I’ll just be searching for a band I’ll enjoy that won’t have the wave of over alcoholled Pendulum fans going to see them.

The following questions have arisen in my hour or so staring at this poster. I’d appreciate it if anyone could figure out some answers for me.
Are MCR headlining with 30stm second because FR lost out on Green Day and simply couldn’t find another “rock” headliner?
Are Festival Republic going to keep up their “sub-headliners are a reformed British band from about 10 years ago” trend after the “success” of the Libertines last year?
Who the hell let Liam Gallagher on the bill, never mind let Beady Eye headline the NME/R1 on one awful album?
What on earth is going on with the third day’s organisation of bands?

Hopefully, I’ll have some answers to these and MANY more soon. In the mean time, I have found some really good points!

Death From Above 1979, Madness, Seasick Steve and Jane’s Addiction are bands I would all consider quite hard to get at a festival like RnL. They’re also great bands to have on a lineup because of how brilliant and diverse they all are. Jane’s Addiction will provide an excellent alternative to The Strokes, should the New Yorkers think that their latest album requires playing lots.

The Streets will most probably be playing their last ever UK festival slots at RnL, making for what I’m hoping will be a huge and emotional farewell for Skinner and co. I’d be very happy with them headlining the stage and letting 2manydjs playing into the night to end Reading in style. This said, Elbow‘s majesty and Muse‘s exclusive and huge live shows are not something to overlook.

And finally, may I be the first to suggest. Special Guests…… Foo Fighters secret show?

I’ll keep you posted.

Thursday

Most of this day was mainly spent drinking a good amount of alcohol, then there was exploring different types of stalls that sold things such as food, clothes, novelty hats and masks and even drug paraphernalia. During the evening a few of us went to Rebel Bingo. It’s pretty much an unconventional way of playing bingo, played by calling out a large mix of expletives along the way when announcing the balls. (Click the image for larger size.)

Rebel Bingo

Shortly after this, we went to some rave tent and it just so happened we were near a small mosh pit oddly enough, in which at least 5+ people fell over We quickly got out of there after the track finished playing and headed off into Yellow campsite, where the song below was playing. Damn it’s an annoying song, but I suppose that could be forgiven as we were all drunk at that point and started bouncing around with the crowd anyway.

Friday

One word to sum up this day, lazy. The reason why is because we hardly went to see any bands, purely because we couldn’t be arsed and some of us were still feeling the effects of the previous night. Look at all these people! (Click the image for larger size.)

Hell of a load of tents

The first band of the day was The Gaslight Anthem. Wasn’t a very good experience as my contacts were messing up and almost 1 week later, I’ve still got semi-blurry vision in my right eye. Nonetheless the music was very enjoyable. Next we planned to see Zebrahead and Cancer Bats, but surprise surprise, most of us couldn’t be arsed moving back into the arena from the campsite.

Enter Shikari was next on the list, which involved me watching the first half of the band, and being approached by some dude who will be named ‘The Doughnut Guy’ from now forth, whom offered us the rest of his doughnuts. I didn’t eat any. I then had to hurry back to the campsite so I could meet people to go see Bad Religion.

It was a long walk to the Lock Up stage from the campsite, plus it was so cold I was definitely regretting taking a hoody to keep me from what seemed like sub arctic temperatures. I was in jeans and a small T-shirt We arrived just as they started playing their intro. Damn it was a good one! The others decided to leave to go to see Pendulum, I didn’t mind, I said I’d stay for a bit to catch most of Bad Religion anyway. I sat down and was shortly accompanied by a girl who said she lost her friends, and a man who kept telling us how he lost his wife of 5 years. I stayed for a bit, loosely engaging in small talk with the two. Now here’s the song that definitely made the night:

Saturday

We had time to walk around, went to check out a band called Thrice, was pretty chilled sat on the grass sat near the main stage. After that we topped up on alcohol and wandered round to see someone random as we didn’t have anyone else to see anytime soon. The next band that was up on the main stage was All Time Low. Fucking hell we tried to get as far as humanely possible from the sound of what seemed like smashed up shit coming from the so called ‘band’. Soon after arriving at the Dance Stage the band Holy Fuck was playing, and holy fuck were they shit aswell!

Then, an act we wanted to see, Chiddy Bang. He was amazing, at one instance he was asking the crowd what he should freestyle about and had people shouting out various topics or a word. It was decided that he had to rap about Twitter, Yorkshire, Tea, Cake, half a bra and virgins. On the way back from Chiddy Bang we caught the one and only song that’s well known by Limp Bizkit. Rollin’. Now throw your hands up in the air!

Next we headed back to campsite for clothes as it was getting rather nippy. We returned to see the legendary Cypress Hill. I guess it’s some sort of tradition that one or a few of the band members take a bong hit while on stage. They played a few of their well known songs, in addition to a cover of House of Pain – Jump Around, damn it was good. Cypress Hill living up to their name eh!

It was then a choice between Sub Focus and Weezer. I decided to see Weezer, which were brilliant and very entertaining with their cover of Wheatus – Teenage Dirtbag, and MGMT – Kids mixed with Lady Gaga – Poker Face. Up next was Paramore. Fuck Paramore, I went to the campsite to originally get some rest, but that didn’t go down well as my tent was hijacked by my friends! So we all just ended up chillin’ n’ drinkin’. I also discovered a message left by a friend written in dry shampoo. (Click the image for larger size.)

Tent graffiti

Headline act: Blink 182. They absolutely stole the show, they were just awesome. The crowd was singing along to almost every song, the atmosphere was immense. They played a lot of well known songs and topped it all off with a drum solo by Travis and the last song of the evening, Family Reunion. I was in the toilets at this point, which still didn’t stop me from singing along . Song of the night:

Sunday

Technically the last day of the festival, but for the majority, they stay till Monday morning because they can’t be arsed packing their shit up in the dark, I’m guessing.

First band of the day was Billy Talent, I think someone in the crowd booed when they said they came all the way from Canada to play haha. Once they finished we only caught the first few songs by NOFX, then wandered off to see The Midnight Beast. It was a bad decision as I only know one of their songs, I wish I had stayed to watch NOFX instead.

Two Door Cinema Club was up next and damn, were they shit. It was beginning to be unbearable after about the third song, I had no choice but to leave the NME tent and wander off back to catch the rest of NOFX. Me and a friend were discussing how we’d prefer certain things happen to us than stay in the tent continuing listening to them. One of the suggestions were having a chainsaw forced up ones rectum.

The next band lined up on the main stage was Lost Prophets. They put up a good show and got the crowd going. The band after was Biffy Clyro. My first impressions was, ‘Shit! I never knew Santa was a rockstar!’ Midway through a song, one of the amps failed, so what did he do? He threw it off the stage and everyone cheered. Santa’s a badass. (Click the image for larger size.)

Simon Neil, guitarist of Biffy Clyro

The long awaited Queens of the Stone Age were up next, they were pretty good, but we didn’t stay for the whole show as we were heading home. During our walk tot he pickup point we could still hear them play, which was still pretty cool. We ended up int he wrong place, and had to walk all the way back where we left off and towards the other end of the campsite. What a farce. If we didn’t end up going at that time, I think I would have gone to see Alkaline Trio. We missed the headline act, which was Guns N’ Roses. No regrets at all, we had no intention to see them. Song of the night:

Afterthoughts

Overall it was a pretty amazing experience seeing as though it was my first time attending Leeds Festival. One thing that’s always annoying when camping is the extreme temperature ranges, at night it was freezing, but in the morning it was mighty hot. This meant waking up at times that are abnormal to me, I do quite enjoy sleeping in a lot I also feel that it was a fair compromise in return for the experience you’re getting, by seeing the bands you really want to see live.

The prices were quite extortionate, but is expected from a music festival where the nearest shop or supermarket is a few miles away. A bottle of coke or water was £2. A full sausage with chips, £5.

My right eye is still a bit hazy at times, yet still I refuse to seek medical attention. It feels like it is clearing up and will be restored very soon, so I don’t feel that there is much point.

Roll on for Leeds Fest 2011!

Back to school on Friday.

Why Friday? Make it Monday and I’d get an extra three days before being shoved back on the assembly line.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand why I need to do school. But I don’t like it. I understand when I make myself think it through, but I don’t feel it.

Yeh, okay, there are some good teachers. Some. There’s also teachers who are in the wrong job, or think they’re better than me, or just can’t be bothered.

And we’ve got this new guy for maths. Well at least he can’t be any worse than last year. Like the someone says on Facebook: “You’re here to work.”, “Yeh and you’re here to teach, but it don’t happen do it?”. Or something like that.

Oh yeh, Leeds Fest was incredible. I will be going again, and next year Jess’ll have to come too. Some rain, and a bit windy yesterday, obviously. This is northern England in August lol. When I say ‘a bit windy’ a mean my tent blew away, but it was cheap and already fairly trashed. Particularly enjoyed Pendulum and Marina and the Diamonds, though Marina def has it on looks The way she did I am not a robot was awesome. Have to be careful how I tell Jess that.

I went to a David Hockney exbibition, that’s classed as work I guess, considering I intend on writing about him in my exbition.. but to be honest, i’ve just been enjoying being able to earn a bit of money, and then relax when I get home. Don’t we all?

However, I do intend on cracking down soon, i’m going to Cumbria, which means I get to take some nice pictures of the Lakes Going to be a fun week, not as fun as Leeds would have been though. Ah well, hopefully next year for my 21st! Any offers?

montoire‘s music was sent to me via this julien vallee video. this very video being popular in the blogosphere, it has also gained its attention in the real world. it has been selected to be shown in different music festivals in europe over the summer like leeds and reading fest, v fest, isle of wight, etc. the band made it explicit to me that they are often mistaken for being a parisian stroke of creativity, when in fact they are from montreal and want people to know it! actually it is currently 2:22am, and there couldnt be better music to listen to right now.

 However, being the open minded being that I am I decided to give it a chance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdQioZHYpvQ

It is a far cry from the usual material produced by Bloc Party. Despite sounding similar to various other songs with simialr sounding mixes. But it is definitely worth a listen and I for one can see it being played in beer gardens everywhere this summer! Although I can also envisage pubs playing it so much that we all get fed up of it and never want to hear it again! But hey that is just the beauty of catchy pop tunes!

Take a look at this dirty gurner...

It’s been ages since my last post on here and for that I apologise. I’m sure you have been waiting on tender hooks for something to go up (yeah right).

So what have I latched on to now I hear you say… another band wagon perhaps? Correctomondo.

I’ve been listening to some pure filth in the form of Dubstep. Great, I can hear you groaning from here: “Fucking band wagon jumper onner”.

I invite you to shut the fuck up, cocktail some drugs, get your gurn on, sweat like a Jew in a German shower and listen to these gems (they’re filthier than poo girl after her swim in the chocolate pit at Leeds Fest):

Bar 9 – Rapture

N-Type – Dark Matter

Cookie Monster – Bliss

Emalkay – When I Look At You

Anyone else feel the need to burn their skin off with acid ‘cos they feel so filthy after listening to those?

D