ICMP student event TOGETHER celebrates female and LGBTQIA+ talent

ICMP student event TOGETHER took place to celebrate female and LGBTQIA+ talent and challenge issues surrounding music industry under-representation. 

Hosted by students on the BA Live Event and Festival Management course, the event was conceptualised to tackle this within both the performance and business sides of the music industry. 

TOGETHER was inspired by events like Colours Festival and featured a female event production team (including those working as artist liaison, stage manager, sound tech) with support from peers across the Live Events Module. 

Commenting, the TOGETHER team said: "Our TOGETHER panel brought some excellent external guests, Linett Kamala (Notting Hill Carnival organiser, Founder of LinKam Art) and Amy Albinson (Features Editor at Line of Best Fit) together with Sophie Daniels (F-List Ambassador, Head of Songwriting for ICMP) to tackle the harsh realities and positive futures of the female experience in the music industry." 

"The final piece was the TOGETHER showcase, a brilliant collection of female and LGBTQIA+ talent that included a range of acts of all genres, including members of the ICMP community (Gabrielle Lacerda, Geo Aghinea, Afraid of the Dark) and special guests Junodef!"

We were super thrilled with the running of the show and the amazing response from our audience. We hope this to be the first of many events that continue to push the boundaries of experiences and representation!" 

Jamie Johnston, Programme Leader for the BA in Live Event Management, said: "The intention with TOGETHER was inspired by Colours Festival at De Le Warr Pavilion in the summer which had a 100 percent female/LGBTQIA+/non-male bill."  

"Students didn’t announce this, promote or market this. They just did it and waited to see if anyone would notice as an alternative action for increased billing share. We wanted to make sure our stage management and ticketing management was not run by male students too and used BA Live Event Management students for all the roles. Well done to the team on putting this great event together."