Work experience in the creative industries doesn’t get much better than running your own stage at a national festival.

Seven students from the Production Arts – Live Event Production diploma at Truro College spent a week working backstage at Shambala, a music, theatre and arts festival in Northamptonshire.

The students ran all elements of the lighting for The Playhouse theatre stage, covering everything from rigging to operating, in partnership with Fineline Lighting and Sideways Arts.

The group were responsible for assembling trussing, hanging and patching lights, focusing, programming and even calling some shows, as well as managing an efficient ‘get out’. They worked with a wide variety of touring acts during the festival, including Akala – the Hip Hop Shakespeare Company, Shlomo, Svalbard and Little Angel Theatre.

The team also managed to find time to rig lighting for the Kamikaze dance tent and the Shambala mainstage, working alongside Truro College alumni Ben Desousa, who has recently joined Fineline Lighting.

The Production Arts diploma is perfect for anyone who has ever envied the sound engineer, found themselves gazing at the lighting rig, or wondered what is going on backstage, as it develops the technical and creative skills required for a broad range of backstage, production arts and live events roles.

Falmouth Packet:

Katie Rutson (Newquay) and Sam Oatey (St Austell) programming the lighting for the Kamikaze stage.