Glastonbury 2019
Students from Solent University were at Glastonbury Festival once more to provide a range of technical and production services to the event organisers.
The relationship with the festival is now in its 15th year and sees students from across the School of Media Arts and Technology demonstrate their skill and gain invaluable work experience. This year saw student work contributed to the BBC, Sky News and Reuters amongst many other media outlets. Students were involved with two outside broadcasts and four documentaries as well as supporting stages and collecting rushes for festival clients. It’s an incredible opportunity for the students to work with such high-profile clients and to showcase their professionalism and craft on the world stage.
Dan Hanko, a first year student from BSc (Hons) Audio Engineering said of the experience “I would like to thank you for your help and support along the whole week. Special thanks for those who made it possible for me to be the part of this fantastic thing. It was a bit different for me as a fresher, as a stranger or a "new face" in the team, so thanks for accepting me.”
Second year BSc (Hons) Television Production Technology student Patrick Hall was a unit manager for the Gully Blues stage, which meant looking after and maintaining the production from a technical and management aspect. He added “My highlight was probably the size of Glastonbury and the number of artists and people who attended!”.
Its not just current staff and students from Media Technology that you can find at Glastonbury though. A large number of our graduates were also working at the festival in a variety of capacities from AV, vison and broadcast to sound and noise control. BSc (Hons) Live Sound Technology graduates Sam Chappell-Winnington and Harry Stevenson ran the Sonic stage in Silver Hayes with Sam on FOH and Harry on monitors. Both were also involved with the design of the audio system.
We cannot overstate the importance of such opportunities to provide context to the students’ studies as well as the phenomenal business networking it affords. We always receive positive feedback on the professional demeanour and skill shown by our students and often the students are offered further work experience by the contractors they meet on sire. Of course, it’s also an awful lot of fun! We’re grateful to Glastonbury Festival for their ongoing support and look forward to returning next year.
Article bannerphoto: Graeme Herwig
