University of Northampton students show their journalistic skills at Alive@Delapre music festival

​Students from the University of Northampton’s School of The Arts had the opportunity to attend the Alive@Delapré music festival at Delapré Abbey as reporters for the Northampton Herald & Post.

The three-day event started on Friday 19 July, with Paul Weller performing, and continued on both Saturday and Sunday evening with The Wanted, James Morrison and the supporting acts.

Jimmy Bowman, who is currently studying for a BA Journalism, and Hannah English, who is a recent BA Media Production graduate, covered Paul Weller’s gig. Josie Copestake and Emily Shears; both graduate BA Journalism students, covered The Wanted set on the Saturday evening, and Josie returned on Sunday night to cover James Morrison’s show.

Each was tasked with taking photos, writing a review, a news story, shooting a video vox-pop and tweeting live.

Steve Scoles, Editor of the Herald & Post, said: “The teams of reporters from the University did a fantastic job and gained great experience and cuttings for their portfolios, while we had staff on the ground getting all the action that we could then upload to our news website very quickly. They were very professional and pleasant and we look forward to working with them all again soon.”

BA Journalism students have to undertake compulsory work placements as part of their degree, but all of the students involved this weekend volunteered to get involved to enhance their careers.

Anyone wishing to offer work placements to journalism students can contact hilary.scott@northampton.ac.uk