BA (HONOURS) Festival and Entertainment Management at Sheffield Hallam University

• Deliver great experiences within the entertainment industry.
• Gain real-world skills in practical classes, live projects and work experience.
• Work at leading events like the Latitude and Leeds Festivals.
• Collaborate with real festival and entertainment managers on consultancy projects.
• Gain industry-recognised qualifications in Health and Safety (IOSH) and licensing (BIIAB).

The festival and entertainment industries offer diverse roles for graduates. On this course, you’ll learn how to deliver exceptional events, and build important industry contacts. You’ll gain the experience, skills and qualifications you need to start an exciting career in anything from music and arts festivals to casinos, theme parks and nightclubs.

You will develop your skills through a combination of lectures, seminars, workshops, and projects.

Field trips, site visits and work with external organisations enhance your understanding the festival and entertainment industry and its unique challenges.

This course includes two externally accredited and industry recognised qualifications — the BIIAB Level 2 Award for Personal License Holders and the IOSH Managing Events Safely award. Both enhance your employability and are included as part of the course fee.

You learn through

• delivering your own festivals and entertainment experiences
• guest speakers from industry
• problem solving exercises using real-world challenges
• case studies from industry
• individual and group presentations
• field trips
• site visits
• working with external organisations

Work placements

You will have the opportunity to undertake a year-long work placement in between your second and third years. This gives you real-world experience to prepare you for your future career.

Through our strong relationships with employers we can help you to secure a valuable placement opportunity and support you while you're there. We have a team of staff and tutors who will support you to find the placement that suits your ambitions.

Alternatively, you can complete the Learning in the Workplace semester where you work and study at the same time, with academic lessons carried out remotely during allocated study periods while on placement.

This is recognised by the University as a placement and offers you a quicker way to complete your studies and gain work experience in three rather than four years. By successfully completing this experience, you will be able to obtain 'placement' in your degree title and enter directly into the final year of studies.

We currently have a partnership with Festival Republic, part of the Live Nation Group to provide volunteer and paid staff to both Latitude and Leeds Festival.

The festival and live music sector in the UK is growing and expected to be worth £3.2B by 2023, which means an increased demand for suitably qualified graduates.

Live projects

During the first and second year of the course there will be a live element where you will either deliver your own festival or live entertainment experience. In the final year you will work on consultancy project alongside an external partner.

Field trips

There will be an opportunity to join field trips and site visits during the course that enhance your learning and given a practical application to knowledge gained in the classroom.

Networking opportunities

Through the event management HUB, students on this degree will be able to participate in the various networking events that we host throughout the year to support students in making industry contacts.

Future careers

This course prepares you for a career in

• festival or entertainment entrepreneurship
• festival management
• festival operations
• tour management
• artiste management and liaison
• venue management (music, arts and culture)
• entertainment venue management (cinema, theme parks etc)
• entertainment operations management