The story so far...

I'm sitting in the campsite listening to the sound of tents flapping in the wind and water bottles being squeezed. This time yesterday we arrived at Latitude Festival with over 70 students and staff, with the intention of learning, entertaining and, most importantly, laughing! 

It's been a busy lead up to Latitude Festival for me, with a Leeds Met open day last Friday and Faculty of Arts & Society graduations on Monday. I talked to prospective students about our festival volunteering opportunities and used these as an example of how Leeds Met offers more than just a degree. I then congratulated and interviewed graduates who have already taken up these opportunities.

Yesterday I was on one of the two coach loads of volunteers from Leeds to Latitude. Everyone was eager and excited, and I brought them fresh British strawberries as a welcome to the festival season. After getting settled in, which involved me helping to set up lots of tents, we had a BBQ round the campfire. This morning I took the stage crew, film crew and BBC runners on a tour of the site, and after lunch I observed the Flamboyant HATs workshop. Their ideas included performing everything from an imaginary swimming pool to a human fruit machine, spontaneous mass crowd drumming and tea leaf reading. 

Tomorrow evening, after three days with the Leeds Met crew, I start my work as Woods Zone Manager for Festival Republic. I look forward to seeing the popular pink t-shirted Leeds Met volunteers all around the festival.

Gavin Freeborn

Cultural Partnerships Officer

Countdown...

I've been working for the last few months to help coordinate the partnership with Festival Republic after I was given the fab opportunity by Rebekka and Caroline who seemed to think my endless experiences of running around in a muddy field with 3 day old make- up and a radio manically glued to my ear might be worth something...I certainly hope so! I've worked for lots of festivals before, from helping out with my parent's mega hippy 'One World' festival since being a wee tot to helping run the U.K.'s student festival 'Beach Break Live' since it started in 2005 (a challenging year this year if you read any of the press...moving a festival for 10, 000 excitable students all the way from Cornwall to Kent in a week. Google it! Festival history!)
I joined the team working to take over 200 students to Latitude and Leeds festivals about 4 months ago and have been doing all sorts ever since. I particularly loved meeting all the students (yes you!) at our recruitment interviews where it really was an eye- opener to hear all the amazing things that students at LeedsMet get up to at University and in their various projects. Definitely not just sitting around and getting pissed...no-one should underestimate the potential of students to make a huge success of a whole range of interesting projects that make a real contribution to their own development and to communities and organisations aswell (if we're going to get into that one!). Unfortuantely, in my experience lots of people still have a rather negative view. Projects such as this one with Festival Republic are an example of students working really hard for a large organisation and making a genuine positive difference to the event. We'll have a few drinks too but who says you can't work hard and have fun?! Shifts with hangovers, yes please. I've worked on various projects to involve young volunteers in relevant and genuine opportunities with established organisations and this is DEFO one of the best I've seen. I've learnt so much about how to make a success of partnerships and volunteer involvement that I'll be taking on to future jobs and have already passed on to other people I work with.
Anyway, enough of the gushing...the last few weeks I've been prepping for Latitude and organised a big knees up for our volunteers and people associated with the partnership last week. You can read about that below but it was nice to see everyone together and to throw around a few quiz prizes to the brainiacs amongst us!
We leave for Latitude tomorrow and I'll be helping manage the volunteers with the lovely Patsy, particularly concentrating on the The Lake Stage that's overseen by Radio 1's Huw Stephens. Mega excited about that one...
Well I'm off out to buy balloons, batteries and a pink feather duster. Good times. Look out for updates from the site after tomorrow!

Isla Brown
PG Dip International Events Management

Tomorrow: Latitude

There's only one day left until we head off for our first festival of the summer. 70 volunteers from Leeds Met will be all over the Latitude Festival site - stage managing, filming, entertaining the kids, running for the BBC, and helping people out in a flamboyant way. This blog will be the hub for stories and pictures about our adventures and will be updated directly on-site as all the fun happens. Do check back and join in with us over the next week, and if you're actually at Latitude then look out for lots of pink and black, and come and say hello.

DJ extraordinaire

Jamie Withington, originally uploaded by Leeds Met Festival Volunteers.

One of our DJs at the party - Jamie is part of Haus DJs, who regularly put on nights and DJ at various venues around Leeds

Quiz winners

Quiz winners, originally uploaded by Leeds Met Festival Volunteers.

We were so impressed by everyone's musical and local knowledge at our pre-fest party. This team took 2nd place and won a festival survival kit - a goodie bag filled with all sorts of helpful things to use in a field.

It's party time...

We're having a party tonight for all our Latitude and Leeds volunteers. It's a chance to meet up, have a drink and get to know each other. We'll also be testing everyone's music and festival knowledge with our quiz. It's at the SU bar on Headingley Campus, 7.30-11pm. Friends/housemates/partners are all very welcome.

More about Latitude Festival

The first festival our volunteers will be working at this summer is Latitude. As well as three music stages, Latitude Festival features comedy, cabaret, theatre, literature, poetry, art, film and dance tents. It is set in beautiful surroundings around a lake and woods in Henham Park, in the middle of the Suffolk countryside.

One of the best things about Latitude is the variety and creativity of it all. You never know what you might see next. There are painted sheep, all sorts of happenings in the woods, live radio broadcasts from the BBC, a Pimms Island, book club, human music box...and even some bands...

Now in it's fourth year, Latitude has really established itself among the cream of UK festivals. With a massive children's arena and family campsite too it's great for kids and has such a lovely atmosphere.

Hopefully you can tell by now that we can't wait to be there!

So how do you get involved?

Our volunteers are a mixture of students, staff and alumni from Leeds Met. We also collaborate with external performers and playworkers, and take volunteers from our partner colleges.

The recruitment process all started in March, when we advertised our available positions. Since then, we've been reading application forms, meeting potential volunteers, and working hard to fit the right people into the right roles. A festival volunteering experience with Leeds Met is a great chance for our students, staff and alumni to use the skills gained in their studies and/or work, and build on these in a real world festival setting. Plus they get to meet new people, watch some bands and generally have a lovely time.

Leeds Met has been working in partnership with Festival Republic since 2007. The University has partnerships and links with a number of cultural organisations in Leeds and beyond, providing lots of opportunities to broaden students' horizons and enhance their university experience.

Our Playwork Project is up on the Latitude website!

15 days and counting...

We're getting ready to leave for Latitude Festival on 14 July - only 15 days away now...

The coaches are booked, the hoodies, t-shirts and wellies have been ordered and lots of pink props are arriving in the office for our Flamboyant Helpful Arena Teams. We're also looking forward to our pre-festival social next Tuesday at the SU bar on our Headingley Campus. This is for all our Latitude and Leeds volunteers to meet up, get to know each other and have a bit of a boogie.