Oi oi, festivals are back and our students and graduates are involved
Summer well and truly is here and we are oh-so excited. With the music industry recovering from the impact of Covid and the events industry following suit, this year’s festival season is stacked. At BIMM, we offer our students many unique opportunities to gain experience at festivals by working or playing at them. This year is no different.
We’ve already been doing the most at The Great Escape, 2000Trees, Brighton Music Conference, Glastonbury, Black Deer, Love Supreme, Electric Woodlands, Liverpool Sound City, Cornbury Festival, NASS, Truck Festival, BST Hyde Park, Brighton Festival, Brighton Fringe and Bad Pond Festival with loads more to head to throughout the year.
Other festivals at which BIMM students will gain valuable experience include Camp Bliss, ArcTanGent, Boardmasters, Bingley Weekender, Lost Village and Victorious Festival.
Here’s a round-up of our favourites so far:
The Great Escape
Loads of students and graduates performed in Brighton across The Great Escape weekend. Lime Garden played Amazon’s New Music Stage, one of the biggest stages at the whole festival, Working Men’s Club played a late-night show at Chalk and Phoebe Green was at the seafront’s Coalition. Brighton natives Kaisha and Kymara played Platform B’s packed Jubilee Square stage and Birmingham’s SIPHO. rocked The Brighthelm Centre.
Other acts booked throughout the weekend included DITZ, Edie Bens, Orchards, Penelope Isles, The Elephant Trees, The Hara, Thumper and many more. Some of our session players were out in force during the weekend too. BIMM Music Institute London guitar graduate Aaron Forbes played alongside the festival headliner Tems, at the iconic Brighton Dome, as part of her impressive live show.
We even had our own stage at Brighton’s iconic Hope & Ruin, which saw ARXX, Bicurious, Phoenix Laoutaris, Mantra, The Nu and Freddie Lewis take the stage.
There were also 150 students across all BIMM campuses volunteering at The Great Escape in roles including delegate registration, stage managing, venue assisting, event control, wristband exchange, live sound, and lots more.
2000Trees was another really busy one. We had over 70 students from all our colleges working in various roles, including site build, decor and breakdown, artist liaison, artist and customer accreditation, rider management, backstage runner, trader liaison, stage crew, lighting and sound engineer, stewarding and more. Giving our students tons of opportunities in loads of areas allows them to gain valuable experience and network with industry professionals and fellow students alike.
We ran two stages, The Word Stage and the Forest Sessions Stage. Students were solely in charge of the stages, with a couple of professionals on standby in case they needed anything.
Not only that but some of our excellent students and graduates were also billed for the festival, including CLT DRP, DITZ, Witch Fever, The Hara, Orchards, The Wytches, Tigercub, and headliners IDLES.
Not to mention the students who performed on our stages, including BUKKY, GIYA, Vernon Jane, Martha Eve, Fifi Robo, Freddie Lewis, Welly, Miss Kill, Hutch and loads more.
Glastonbury Festival is always one of THE stand-out events in the global music calendar and this year was no different, with over 200,000 people in attendance.
Once again, we were lucky enough to put on acts at the bandstand of the legendary Croissant Neuf field, with students and graduates performing and working. We saw sets from Freddie Lewis, Body Water, Isaac Hughes-Dennis, Welly and GIYA. Four students were working across the area and provided integral input into the smooth running of the stages.
Alongside the acts on our own stage, the larger stages were packed full of BIMM talent as well.
A massive performance from BIMM Music Institute Dublin graduates Fontaines D.C. on The Other Stage, secret sets from George Ezra and IDLES on the John Peel Stage and the BBC Introducing Stage, respectively. Not to mention the host of graduate and lecturer session musicians that made their mark on the festival: BIMM Music Institute London guitar graduate Isabel Torres played with Declan McKenna on Glastonbury’s The Other Stage; BIMM Music Institute Manchester drumming graduate Emanuel J Burton appeared as part of Little Simz’ fantastic band as a headliner on the West Holts Stage.
London’s Head of Bass Andrew McKinney and Drum lecturer Adam Betts made an appearance playing with the enigmatic Jarvis Cocker as part of his performance on The Park Stage, and BIMM Birmingham Drum tutor Collette Williams and Vocals lecturer Suzi Dian performed alongside their band, Blossoms.
Emanuel J Burton says:
“Glastonbury was definitely an interesting experience! It’s nice to share your talents and energy with any crowd, no matter where in the world, but on such a platform, it’s special to be a part of it. Shout out to Little Simz and the team for working this hard to get to this stage!”
Would you like to work at these festivals and gain valuable industry experience? You can – just apply through clearing.