Leeds Festival is an August bank holiday tradition for many and is becoming more and more so for Leeds Met volunteers, who have worked at the festival for their third year of the University's unique partnership with event organisers, Festival Republic. Students, staff and alumni are involved in a variety of projects that give them a unique behind-the-scenes festival experience that enhances their work experience and CV and for some also contributes towards their course credits. Alongside working with the biggest stars of the day, they were supporting a lot of home grown, past and present Leeds Met talent as they took to the stages around the arena.

Watch student videos of the weekend's events below.

The University's partnership with Festival Republic provides a range of opportunities for students to gain skills in various areas of festival work. Olivia Sime has just graduated from BA (Hons) Managing Cultural and Major Events and is working for the Reading and Leeds Festivals Production Co-ordinator at Festival Republic's head office in London, through an internship scheme between the organisation and Leeds Met. As part of this scheme other students were also working with sound and lighting companies, backstage and on environment and sustainability issues.

The BBC Introducing Stage, was almost wholly being managed by Leeds Met volunteers. Isla Brown was Stage Supervisor and Gaz Davis was Stage Manager, and between them they managed a team of further volunteers looking after lighting, sound and artist liaison. Isla, who has been working as an intern for the University's dedicated Festival Republic partnership team of Rebekka Kill and Caroline Bonser since February, described how it was going, "It's going really well, it's been really busy, especially at the start of the day when all the bands are arriving, but it calms down a bit by lunchtime. All of the bands are really friendly and nice which helps."

Opening the BBC Introducing Stage on the first day were Wonderswan, a four-piece made up of Leeds Met Disability Support Worker, Ged McGurn, former students Russell Goodinson and Michael Watts, and Sam Shipstone. Following their performance the band were interviewed by film students and in a turning of the tables, Ged was finding it a novelty to be supported by the students rather than supporting them and was 'very impressed' by their performance. Russell and Michael added that, "The Leeds Met volunteers have all been really helpful, especially when we're in quite an alien scenario, it's making us more comfortable to be around friendly student faces."

There was also a production cabin behind the stage where the film crew, made up of a combination of students students were editing footage they took of the bands on stage and in interviews, as well as their fellow volunteers dotted around the massive site. Previous film crews have contributed to press packs for Festival Republic and footage shown at Staff Development Festival. However, this year, for the first time the crew took on the challenge of producing material within a 24 hour turnaround or less, which was being uploaded onto the Festival Republic blog and the Leeds Met website live from the festival.

Another Leeds Met alumnus, James Brown of Pulled Apart by Horses, described his first set of the weekend, "It's very exciting, there were more people than we expected and it was nice and sunny, although we would have preferred rain so more people would have come in the tent. It's amazing to be back home in Leeds, it's been a couple of months since we played here and it's great to see familiar faces in the crowd with some singing along, which is weird!" James was en route to Reading to play there and was returning to Bramham Park to play on Sunday night on the Alternative Stage. While in Reading, the band, described in The Observor as 'The best live act in Britain,' had lots of media interviews lined up as they were going to be 'paraded' around the media tent.

The band were appearing in the Festival Republic Stage where events management student Lucy McCann was assisting with artist liaison. Lucy was employed by Festival Republic after impressing them while volunteering at Latitude Festival earlier this year. Lucy says, "It's a really good experience, and very different from Latitude which is a lot less hectic. You have to be a lot more on the ball here. It's going to be great for my degree and CV and everyone should get involved in these opportunities because they too could end up getting paid work and great experience."

Speaking at the beginning of his 11pm to 6am shift, Campsite DJ Assistant Manager Kev O'Donnell was full of infectious energy about the project which invites campers to have a turn on the decks. He enthused, "It's going fabulous, much better than I expected. The crowds are full of energy and life and are turning up as soon as we start and sticking with us all the way through the night which helps keep us going. As for the DJs they're doing really well, some of them are slightly nervous, particularly around the technology while others just jump straight in and play around. There's some real professional stuff coming out and it's a confidence boost for many. As for me, even though I'm a DJ myself I'm finding it more fun to watch someone else DJ for the first time. Lots of people are interested in where we're from and why we're here and think it's cool that the University is involved with the festival in this way."

Through another incentive, adult health students about to graduate from the University were also on hand to look after the well-being of the crowds at the festival's medical tent. This fulfils a requirement of their studies which allows them to gain acute primary care health practice experience and contributes towards meeting the Nursing & Midwifery Council requirements for registration as a nurse. Speaking on behalf of the 12 students as they were about to complete their final shifts, Fiona Ruddy said, "We're really on the frontline of nursing here, it's much like an A&E setting which is improving our confidence, particularly when dealing with awkward customers. We're working alonside medics and have been well trained and supervised. We've been called out to campsites and were in the pit on the BBC/NME Stage for the Lost Prophets helping with people who had been pulled over the barrier, which was exciting and we've been told we may get a shift on the Main Stage later today."

Earlier in the summer, 70 Leeds Met volunteers went to Latitude Festival in Suffolk, and over 130 were involved in this year's Leeds Festival. You can read more about what they've been doing on our Festival Volunteers blog.