
FESTIVAL & CARNIVAL LAB 2025
EVENT PRODUCERS COURSE
GLOBAL CARNIVALZ / CONTINENTAL DRIFTS & LONDON VENUE PRESENT:
FESTIVAL & CARNIVAL LAB EVENT PRODUCERS COURSE
AN OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUNG CREATIVES
Are you aged 18-35, from a Black Heritage background*? Are you interested in learning how to produce events? Do you want to help produce some of the best and biggest events in the UK?
Festival & Carnival Lab is back in 2025, after 2 successful years in the running!
With our collective experience producing events over 30 years in the Festivals and Live Events Industry, we observed that the representation of people from Black Heritage communities in senior production was alarmingly low across the board in major festivals such as Glastonbury & our UK Carnivals; Notting Hill, St Paul’s and Hackney.
This course will offer 10 people the chance to develop their knowledge & skills in various aspects of delivering and producing live events
The course will run for 10 weeks at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and other venues in London (exact addresses to be confirmed nearer the time). Once you have completed the course in full; you will be offered paid work experience at festivals and events (local and across the UK) - last year’s opportunities included: Glastonbury Festival, Download Festival, Boomtown Fair, Wilderness Festival, Notting Hill Carnival, Hackney Carnival, Secret Garden Party, Shambala, Great Get Together
We have selected an exciting team of well-experienced professionals, from all areas of the event industry to provide you with the skills needed to prepare you for work onsite; where you will have the opportunity to put into practice your ‘new knowledge’. Tutors will be from organisations including Continental Drifts, Glastonbury Festival, Global Carnivalz, Notting Hill Carnival & more!
The aim of the course and placements is for you to secure enough event experience on your CV, by the end of summer, to enable you to confidently approach production companies and carnivals for work.
You will have full support from all the partners presenting the course, guiding you through the whole process. They will act as mentors to give you the best chances of getting a good job in the event industry.
The course is completely free.
You will receive expenses at the event(s) you work at.
If you are excited about events and love solving problems, working hard, working as a team and want to get involved at a senior level in production - this is the course for YOU!
FULL COURSE SCHEDULE:
WEEK 1: INTRODUCTION
Tuesday 18th March 2025
WEEK 2: EVENT PRODUCTION
Tuesday 25th March 2025
WEEK 3: CARNIVAL MANAGEMENT & CROWD CONTROL
Tuesday 1st April 2025
WEEK 4: FESTIVAL PRODUCTION & GLASTONBURY
Tuesday 8th April 2025
BREAK WEEK - Tuesday 15th April 2025
WEEK 5: PUBLIC AUTHORITIES & REQUIREMENTS
Tuesday 22nd April 2025
WEEK 6: VENUE & FESTIVAL PROGRAMMING
Tuesday 29th April 2025
WEEK 7: EVENT MANAGEMENT
Tuesday 6th May 2025
WEEK 8: FUNDING
Tuesday 13th May 2025
WEEK 9: SUMMER PLANNING
Tuesday 20th May 2025
WEEK 10: FUTURE PLANNING & NETWORKING
October 2025 (date to be confirmed)
BONUS WEEK: TECHNICAL PRODUCTION & ARTIST LIAISON (HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE AT A LONDON VENUE)
This will be an additional session between March and May, the exact date will be confirmed closer to the start of the course
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As with all events, the schedule is subject to slightly change and sessions might be moved around
Applications for the course open on 10th February 2025 and will close on Thursday 6th March 2025.
We will review all applications and get back to the successful candidates from Monday 10th March 2025
BEFORE YOU APPLY, CONSIDER THAT:
You must attend the full course schedule, running every Thursday from 20th March to 15th May 2025 (with a break on 17th May), starting from 6.30pm to 9.30pm in person at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (exact address to be confirmed nearer the time) and more venues in London + a debrief session with 1-to-1 discussions in October 2025 (exact date to be confirmed after the summer).
You need to have worked or volunteered at events (or any other type of production work) before, showing that you have a good understanding of how an event or production runs.
A lot of our events are located in the countryside/ in nature - you will likely be required to camp for some of them.
Be between 18 and 35 years old of Black Heritage*
You must be available to work at one or more events during the summer (from the end of May to September, and other possible opportunities).
You must fully engage with the process and will be asked to fill in a few data surveys throughout to help us monitor the course and keep improving it year after year.
*Black Heritage includes African, Caribbean, Black British-African, Black British-Caribbean, Other Black Backgrounds, Black Mixed
TO APPLY
To apply, please complete this form by 23:59 on 6th March and do get in touch with us at festivallabcourse@gmail.com if you have any questions
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