Cool CATs and Fantastic HATs

Arriving at Leeds Festival on Thursday morning, car fully loaded, I will admit to both excitement and trepidation. Camping is something I have not done since Girl Guides but I thought that this was the weekend to give it a go. This was going to be the best bit of my holiday!

With 80,000 people expected, the journey there was surprisingly quick and the CATs (Campsite Arena Team) were extremely cool and welcoming; (did one of the helpers really look like that Rob guy from Twilight or was it just my daughter's friends' imagination?) Their help in carrying all my stuff and then setting up my tent was just amazing. This was very different to the camping I remember!

Equally impressive is the planning and organisation that goes into this festival weekend and being there really brought the sheer scale and complexity to life. No wonder why so many of our students wanted to help out as volunteers. Meeting some of the 130 students in action on a tour of the site provided by Gavin was brilliant. The HATs (Helpful Arena Team) were terrific, students from business, cultural studies, events management and music technology were working on the BBC Introducing Stage with one of our graduates as Stage Manager, as Artist Liaison and on production. All were enthusiastic and valued the opportunity to develop their skills and experience as well as the chance to see the music festival first hand. I missed out the campsite DJ team whose shift ran from 11pm till 5am but I know, from the distant music and cheering I could hear as I sat in my tent later that evening, that they were doing a terrific job.

The partnership with Festival Republic has gone from strength to strength with outputs including internships and employment for our students and crime reduction on site. A great team - talented students, dedicated staff (well done Rebekka, Gavin and Caroline), a fantastic Festival team and terrific partnership.

Now 4am on day 1 and off to fix my tent pegs to stop my tent rising up and blowing away - (the cool CATs did say that they weren't experts at setting up tents!).

Barbara Colledge
Dean of Innovation North
Leeds Met