Students working at the award-winning radio station Demon FM are getting an incredible opportunity to curate their own stage and air live broadcasts of the bands at a three day music festival.
Handmade 2016 kicks off this Friday, taking over the multi-venue O2 Academy in Leicester, and runs throughout the Bank Holiday weekend.
Demon FM, which is run by De Montfort University Students’ Union (DSU) is running one of the stages on Friday night and will get involved in scheduling the bands, interviewing acts and broadcasting the music live to the city. The student TV station Demon TV will also be recording events.
Billed as “three days of the finest music, comedy, art, film, performance and photography”, Handmade 2016 is run by Leicester’s independent venues and promoters, and over the last four years has built a reputation for being a platform for some of the UK’s hottest new artists.
This year’s bill includes acts such as Deaf Havana, We Are Scientists, Lonely The Brave and 65 Days of Static. There will also be art exhibitions, poetry, comedy, cinema and food stalls.
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Lauren Barrow, a second year Media Production student at DMU, is Head of Music at Demon FM.
She said: “This is such a great opportunity for our team to get involved in a great festival and get hands-on experience of putting out live broadcasts of the best music and interviews.
“We have a small team working over the weekend but everyone is really passionate about what they are doing.
“We worked on the festival last year and there was so much enthusiasm from our team to making the best shows possible with really great content.
“I am really proud to be a student at DMU. The amount of opportunities we get to take part in things like this is brilliant and I would never contemplate going to another uni.
“We get so much support from our tutors and the university to do things like this.”
Other students taking part in the festival are Mike Slack, Dan Wildman, Lydia George, Rhian Tintor and Ethan Taylor.
Lauren was approached to curate a stage on Friday night by one of the festival organisers John Helps, a former DMU student and member of the band Maybeshewill, after she had covered previous festivals with Demon Media.
DMU revealed last month that it is one of the main sponsors of Handmade 2016 and the work of students will be evident throughout the three days with the Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities heavily involved.
Placements have been offered to DMU students to work as Arts Assistants, Photography Assistants and Marketing Assistants. Current DMU Fine Art and Video & Photography students have had paid opportunities to produce a display of work which will be projected within the venues for festival-goers to see, while DMU Fine Art and Photography & Video graduates have been able to apply for bursaries to create work for the festival.
Organisers at Handmade 2016 are offering a special discount for students coming to the festival with almost 40 per cent off a weekend ticket. DMU students will be able to buy a weekend ticket for £25 instead of £40.
To take advantage of the offer, follow this link http://www.gigantic.com/handmade-2015-tickets-student which will take you to the student discount booking page.
You will need to show student ID on the door.
Posted on Wednesday 27 April 2016