Sustainable Festival Management BA(Hons)

The first year is all about developing a knowledge of the nature, scope and scale of the festival industry. Leading towards delivering your first collaborative event, you’ll explore all aspects of attendee experience, learn to understand the importance of wellbeing within the industry, design promotional communications, and investigate the complexities and contradictions that surround sustainable development.  

Modules

The Festival Industry

In your first module, you’ll explore the diversity of both the mainstream and niche sectors within the industry. You’ll investigate the key impacts of festivals and the importance of sustainable practice, as well as discovering the wide range of job roles that exist, and the skills required to succeed in them. 

The Attendee Experience

In this module, you’ll explore the motivations and key considerations of attendees. This will include the online experience, functional physical environment, attendee and staff interaction, use of digital technology and venue design. You will also consider how post-experience communication can impact attendee perceptions.  

Live Production Management

Engaging with a production of a live showcase on campus, you’ll have the opportunity to apply a range of skills, techniques and processes that contribute towards a well-organised and effectively delivered event. 

Wellbeing

Looking at how wellbeing is connected to experience management and wider aspects of customer satisfaction, you’ll explore ways to develop wellbeing as a customer offer while addressing its importance within an organisation. Crucially, you’ll reflect upon the value of wellbeing for your own personal and professional development. 

Exploring Sustainability

You'll examine contemporary practices and positive responses across a range of sustainability topics including responsible consumption, production and economic development. You’ll also explore potential criticisms of the concept of sustainable development and ask whether it is truly the most appropriate way forward. 

Promotional Communications

You’ll create a promotional communications campaign that is designed to respond to the needs of an identified client. Through the development of the campaign, you’ll explore concepts such as positioning and messaging, and focus on achieving high impact communications. 

In year two, you’ll develop a more specialist, operational knowledge of sustainable festival management. You’ll apply research methods and gain further critical analysis and reflection skills across a range of modules supported by tutors, with a growing emphasis on independence and collaborative working.

You’ll also devise and deliver a live festival event and continue to develop skills in professionalism and communication. 

Modules

Festival Design

In this module, you’ll develop an understanding and application of legal aspects of festival management. This includes contracting, licensing, insurance and performance management processes. You’ll also continue to enhance your ability to develop a cohesive festival programme that relates and responds to key creative and thematic decisions.  

Project Management

You’ll learn a range of project management processes, including scope definition, objective setting, time planning, and evaluation methods. You’ll also examine alternative approaches to project management, including both waterfall and agile methodology, and learn how to apply these approaches to a variety of contexts. 

Research Methods

In this module, you’ll undertake a research project using ethically sound primary and secondary research methods. You’ll then present your project in the form of a poster presentation which will detail your methodology and findings. 

Festival Operations

In this module, you’ll engage with multiple elements of festival operations. You’ll explore volunteer management, stakeholder management, inclusivity and accessibility, waste management, traffic management and power considerations. You’ll also develop a greater understanding of festival technology, artist liaison and health and safety. 

Financial Management

Developing an understanding of different financial concepts and processes, you’ll learn to analyse financial statements, engage in financial planning and explore sources of finance. You’ll then create a grant funding bid proposal that outlines a proposed project including financial statements and projections. 

Collaborative Working

In this module, you’ll learn about the concept of ‘design thinking’. In multi-skilled teams you’ll work on a live brief and deliver a practical project, which you’ll then evaluate through a team performance review. 

You can choose to take an optional professional placement after your second year on a three-year programme, or after your third year if you’re studying for a degree with an Integrated Foundation Year. 

You’ll be responsible for finding your own placement, with support from the Employability team. 

Choosing this option will enhance your industry experience and skills while studying. 

How you’ll study during your professional placement

You’ll spend time working in a professional context, as part of a business or organisation. This can be in one role, or up to three, and must be for a minimum of 24 weeks. 

You’ll develop in-demand workplace skills, deepen your insight into industry and grow your network of contacts, all of which could help you get ahead in your career after graduation. 

Throughout this year, you’ll develop a portfolio of work that includes critical self-reflection on what has been learned from the experience. You’ll be required to evidence your experiences, the skills you’ve learned and your professional growth. 

In the final year, you’ll work towards delivering a final live event project while preparing for your future career in industry.

You’ll continue to develop a range of practical skills including crisis management and ethical and creative leadership. You’ll also enhance your specialist knowledge by applying advanced research skills. 

Modules

Crisis Management

In this module, you’ll develop your management capability to deal with complex crisis situations before being immersed in a live crisis scenario to test your skills. You’ll be assessed on your ability to respond to and evaluate this crisis scenario within a realistic multidisciplinary team situation. 

Festival Development

With sustainable practice, inclusivity and accessibility front of mind, you’ll explore a range of festival concepts that reflect your aspirations and showcase your industry knowledge and insights. 

Professional Development

Reflecting on your own professional development, you’ll build a portfolio that documents your skills and experience gained throughout this degree. Through this exercise, you’ll learn the value of using reflective practice to inform your own personal and professional development. 

Festival Management

This is your chance to put your festival management skills into practice, representing a cutting edge, industry-leading approach to professional sustainable practice, including inclusive and accessible festival design.  

Futures Research

In the form of a research project, you’ll address the important aspects of a topic of your choice. Supported by a research supervision team, you’ll have the opportunity to contribute to the theoretical and applied landscape within your field of interest. 

Leadership

You’ll review a range of leadership models, styles and frameworks, building on your understanding of leadership practice and its impact on organisations. You’ll then complete a leadership self-assessment, engaging in a comprehensive reflection and development process. 

Complementing lectures, seminars and workshops, we champion opportunities for our students to learn in real world environments and through industry connections. You’ll have the opportunity to take part in field trips, work on live collaborative projects and learn from guest speakers – who’ll bring their own industry experience into your learning journey. 

At Falmouth, we use a 'digitally enhanced learning & teaching' approach. Your experience will always be predominantly in-person, including seminars, tutorials and studio teaching, with some, more targeted elements, being online either live (synchronous) or pre-recorded (asynchronous). You can read more here.

100% of your assessment will be coursework. 

Assessment methods

• Practical assessments include crisis management simulation, digital and industry presentations, and the development of your own festival events 
• Coursework assignments that reflect real world outputs, including a portfolio of promotional communications, a grant funding bid and project initiation document (PID) 
• Two research projects will give you the opportunity to explore areas that you are passionate about 
• Continuous assessment through visual, verbal and written assignments