The Guardian recently published an eye-opening article about women working in live and technical events. This really got us thinking about our fantastic female students, staff and visitors who crew live events – and do an incredible job of it, despite the industry being pretty saturated with male professionals.
There’s no denying that this is a male-dominated industry – in the article, sound engineer Kim Watson explains at times people didn’t believe she was part of a team – “I’ve been literally pushed out of the way for a guy to jump on the desk.”
Recently there have been some more encouraging statistics published, however – according to a study by UK Music, the number of women working in the music industry alone rose from 45.3% in 2016 to 49.1% in 2018 – and among this is some of the talented graduates emerging from Confetti! Let’s take a look at some of the events our students have been involved in during their time here…
Splendour
At Splendour each year, we have a handful of female students helping with all elements of live events – whether it’s working on audio quality for a performance, helping with visuals or coordinating lighting displays. Some of our students have gone onto working as stage managers, tour managers, sound and lighting engineers and many other exciting positions in live and tech events thanks to the experience they’ve gained at Splendour.
Ceri Wade at Industry Week
Famous for her involvement with Arcadia Group – creator of the Glastonbury ‘spider’ – Ceri Wade is a well-known industry name in live and technical events. She visited during Industry Week 2019 to talk to students about her experiences of the events sphere and how she got to where she is today; despite fierce competition, often from men in the industry.
We’re always thrilled to see women at the top of their game in their chosen creative industry, and the talk certainly proved inspiring for students and staff alike!
Radfest
Level 3 Live and Technical Events student Holly worked at Nottingham festival Radfest, helping with audio and lighting across a number of acts at the festival. When we asked about being a female in the live and technical events industry, she said:
“For Radfest I worked on FOH with two other students and I really enjoyed it. I was aware when starting the course that there are not many women in the live events industry and I know that Confetti are keen to get more women interested in live and tech events. I feel very supported in terms of my studying on the course and have tutors who give great advice about how to get to where I want to be in terms of my future career. I don’t feel that I am treated differently to the boys in my class on the course and I hope that I am treated just as equally outside college when I do eventually start my career.”
TV Workshop at Metronome
Earlier this year, some of our Live and Technical Events students helped out at the TV Workshop’s production of Wendy and Peter Pan at Metronome. They worked on everything involved in the successful showing of the production, including lighting, audio and video technology, ensuring the production went smoothly.
Check out the Guardian article for yourself for a great and inspiring read. Here at Confetti, we are committed to offering a great starting point for anybody – whatever their age or gender – wanting to get into the world of live and technical events.
Want to study at Confetti and work in a fast-paced live and technical events role? Check out our Live and Technical Events courses at college and degree level, and book your place on an upcoming open day.
