THIS Gig: Young People Volunteering Within the Music Industry

Objective:

• For learners to gain real world experience of enterprise by organising, promoting and managing a real music event.

Introduction :

THIS Project is a North Wales based social enterprise, promoting arts and culture through a wide range of services and activities, including exhibitions, concerts, training and events, the management of pop-up and semi-permanent gallery / event spaces, and providing studio spaces for professional artists. Based in Wrexham, it serves North Wales and wider region, and has a close relationship with the region’s key education and arts organisations.

In May 2014, a group of FE Students (from Coleg Cambria in North East Wales) all aged in between 16 and 17, approached THIS Project, keen to understand more about how the organisation promotes and runs the music events conducted from ‘Undegun’, it’s premier Wrexham-based music venue.

With the help and guidance of THIS Project’s staff, the students took responsibly for organising a gig of their own, managing all aspects of its delivery. The project was branded as ‘THIS Gig’.

The experience ultimately inspired and equipped the students to set up their own music promotions company.

Activity:

Guided by the THIS Project team, through regular meetings, shadowing opportunities, advice and mentoring, the group of students took responsibility for a number of the key elements of delivering their own music event.

• The first stage was artist engagement. This involved identifying and booking artists the students were keen to have perform, and approaching artists and managers to discuss details such as fees, technical specifications, and itineraries for the event.
• Once times and dates had been confirmed, the students developed a marketing plan. They identified 14 – 20 year olds as their target audience, and devised and implemented a strategy for reaching this group. This was inclusive of social media marketing (via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram), the design, production and dissemination of event posters and flyers, and the production of a promotional video for the event. THIS Project offered additional marketing support to the students, utilising its networks to provide them with a promotional slot on local radio station Calon FM and drafting a press release with the students which was disseminated to local newspapers and music bloggers
• In the run up to the show, THIS Project Staff offered mentoring to the students on live music venue management, and the students shadowed staff at a range of live music events to build confidence and experience.
• One the evening of the show, the students assigned themselves the roles of ‘Artist Liaison, Stage Manager’ and ‘Venue Manager’ each with its own set of responsibilities and, with the support of THIS Project staff, oversaw the running of the event.

There was approximately 5 months in between the students first approaching THIS Project, and the delivery of the event itself. During this period, the students received approximately 100 hours of staff support from the THIS Project team.

Impact:

The project as a whole, and the music event itself were extremely successful. Key achievements included;

• The sell-out of all pre-sale event tickets.
• The venue reaching capacity on the night of the event.
• Positive feedback from audience members.
• Positive feedback from staff / performers.

Figure 1: Local Press Coverage of THIS Gig

After the event, the students met with THIS Project staff to de-brief, review the project and event, and identify ways in which the students could look to develop their skills further in the future.

The conclusions to this discussion were;

• To sell tickets online, via and digital service such as ‘EventBrite’ to make the selling of advance tickets less complicated.
• To offer further designated job roles to the group (in addition to the artist liaison, stage manager and venue manager roles undertaken here), allowing for broader experience and skill development.
• To have more experience of financial management of events such as this.

For THIS Project as an organisation, the motivation for supporting THIS GIG was to give an opportunity towards a group of eager young people that wanted to be more active within their community by providing events by people their age for people their age. To this end it was a huge success.

Following THIS Gig, the students involved were so inspired by their experience, that they formed their own music productions company, and have gone on to develop their new business, running music events a number of venues and organisations.

Learner outcomes:

THIS Gig was a large and ambitious project, with a wide range of outcomes achieved by the learners involved.

Some of the skills developed by learners through the project included;

• Organisation and time management.
• Managing finances and keeping to budgets.
• Marketing (Including design and promotion, in many media).
• Interpersonal skills (Liaising with customers, artists, managers and THIS Project Staff).
• Event management.
• Team work.

Resources:

Essential to the project’s success, was the ability of THIS Project to offer its time, facilities and expertise to the students involved.

References:

• THIS Project Website > www.thisproject.co.uk
• An interview with the students involved in THIS Gig > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uiqUjZCwwk