Locations

London, Liverpool, Leeds

UCAS code

9292

Start date

15th September 2025

Course length

1 Year

Course Overview

ICMP’s Cert HE Live Event and Festival Management course looks to the future of the live events and festival sector. Developed in consultation with key bodies in the industry, it has the ever-evolving live music ecosystem at its core. Across the one-year course, you’ll develop management, creative and entrepreneurial skills, gain real-world live industry experience and be encouraged to consider the future of the live music industry.

A comprehensive introduction to the live event environment, you’ll study wide-ranging topics including venue management, events marketing, event producing, promoting and more. From day one, you’ll start to become familiar with the language of live events as you explore business jargon and learn how live music professionals communicate with each other. You’ll develop a variety of hands-on project management skills, as you learn what it takes to build a successful business in the live events field.

As part of your study, you’ll work in a live production space, picking up highly practical skills like running soundchecks, setting up basic lighting rigs, understanding the importance and challenges of hosting ‘zero carbon’ events and learning techniques for getting the most out of a live production team.

Successful live music events rely heavily on digital technology, so you’ll learn to build a creative online campaign with cut through, as you explore the principles of content creation and content marketing.

Music event management course london

Designed for a new generation of UK live events and festival professionals, this innovative and unique course has been developed in consultation with a range of industry bodies including the Music Venue Trust.

You’ll study in small, personal learning groups with guidance from established live event tutors. At the end of your year of learning, you’ll have a broad understanding of the skills and knowledge needed to run innovative, inclusive, diverse and environmentally sustainable live music events and festivals across the multi-billion-pound UK live events industry. Or, if you choose to continue your studies, successful completion of this course offers a direct link to ICMP’s BA (Hons) Live Event and Festival Management degree, or the second year of any of our School of Music Business undergraduate degrees.

London live music gig

Fees & Funding

Taking the Cert HE Live Event Management course at ICMP in London or Liverpool is great value as well as great fun, with fees for ICMP music courses similar to those at many other UK universities

Course Fees: UK Students

Student Finance: Please visit our Fees page for information on accessing to Student Loans. UK students eligible for Loans are able to borrow the full course fee.

Programme SpecificationProgramme Handbook

Click to view the full terms and conditions of applying to study at ICMP.

ICMP Music School Logo

Successful completion of the CertHE Live Events and Festival Management course leads to the award of Certificate of Higher Education by The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance.

 

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INDUSTRY DESIGNED
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Designed in collaboration with our industry partners, this course was conceived in 2022 making it one of the most current Live Event Management courses in the UK. 

Key facts

  • Build your knowledge with this cutting-edge course, designed for the new era of the live events and festival industry.
  • Realise your creative and entrepreneurial potential with specialised live event management modules.
  • Study course content designed in collaboration with top UK music industry bodies such as the Music Venue Trust, festival organisers and the nation’s best booking agents.
  • Discover the live music ecosystem, exploring large events companies, the non-profit sector and grassroots organisations and venues.
  • Examine what it takes to manage an events business, with marketing, financial, management and legal support.
  • Make music business connections and gain first-hand real-world events experience.
  • Collaborate with like-minded peers from ICMP’s rich talent pool.
  • Grow your skills in London – a global music city with never-ending creative events opportunities.

UCAS CODES

COURSE DETAILS

Course details

Across your year of study, you’ll gain a holistic understanding of the many areas of the live event industry, as you explore the different roles live music professionals play. You’ll discover the fundamental principles of marketing and entrepreneurship, and learn how to create content that captures attention. By the end of the course, you’ll have formed an impressive understanding of the interconnectedness of the live music ecosystem and will be ready to put your newfound knowledge to use in your live music career of choice.

the music business

You’ll begin your year at ICMP by familiarising yourself with the music business environment and the key roles that make up the live industry. As you analyse a range of music organisations and discover the concepts used to categorise them, you’ll also address the key operations of music copyright and how it affects the main industry sectors of recorded music, live music and publishing. This module will also introduce you to the role of collection societies and other professional organisations.

  • Key roles of the live music industry
  • Interrelationships between the key sectors
  • Music copyright
  • Live music
  • Recorded music
  • Music publishing
  • Collection societies
  • Revenue flow

Introduction to Entrepreneurship & Marketing

Successful entrepreneurs are skilled at recognising business opportunities and knowing how to market them. In this module, you’ll examine the core principles of entrepreneurship and some common characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. You’ll discover how to recognise opportunities and turn them into profitable ventures using customer-driven marketing strategies. You’ll look at brands, brand equity and the difference between a brand and a product, while practising how to communicate with consumers, music artists and organisations. To demonstrate your knowledge first-hand, you’ll develop and present a marketing campaign that covers marketing principles, consumer behaviour and branding.

  • Attributes of successful music brands
  • Entrepreneurship in music
  • Developing a music industry marketing campaign
  • Customer-driven marketing strategies
  • Identifying barriers and overcoming
  • Recognising new business opportunities in music

FUNDAMENTALS OF LIVE PRODUCTION

During this module, you’ll learn the fundamentals of live production in a real-world scenario. You’ll work with industry professionals, shadowing the tech crew behind-the-scenes and front-of-house, onsite in a live performance space. You’ll operate basic lighting and sound equipment, and gain high production values that you can take with you into your professional career. You’ll appreciate the interdependent roles crucial to delivering a successful live show, while learning a host of live production terminology and starting to recognise the subtle nuances required to work cohesively as a live production team.

  • First-hand industry experience
  • An understanding of live production roles
  • Live production jargon and terminology
  • Getting the best from a live production team
  • How to load in, run a soundcheck and focus stage lighting
  • Participating in a full performance set up

THE LIVE MUSIC ECOSYSTEM

If there’s one constant in the live music ecosystem, it’s that it’s forever changing. In this highly relevant and dynamic module, you’ll learn about the new frontier and the fundamentals of today’s live music environment. As you explore the live industry in more detail, you’ll recognise how all interrelated roles rely on each other and link to the recorded music sector – syncing with label release campaigns, artists’ calendars and other promotional activities.

You’ll learn about revenue generation and flow, and explore the non-profit sector and its dependence on subsidies. You’ll also look at traditional and up-and-coming market leaders as you gain a truly global perspective by exploring a range of non-Western approaches.

  • How the live music industry interconnects
  • Not-for-profit enterprises and subsidies
  • Live music revenue generation
  • Developed with the Music Venue Trust

VENUES AND HOSPITALITY

A huge number of skills are required to run a live music venue and you’ll get to explore them all in this module. Developed in association with the Music Venue Trust, you’ll become familiar with everything including licensing and legal responsibilities, revenue streams, artist and agent liaisons, staff wages, health and safety, building maintenance, community engagement and more. As you speak with grassroots venue professionals, including general managers, fundraising managers, in-house bookers and marketing and communication teams, you’ll explore their roles and the ways they collaborate with both internal and external teams. You’ll host events at small and large-capacity venues, prioritising concepts such as inclusivity, accessibility and environmental sustainability.

  • How to run a successful grassroots music venue
  • Providing accessible live events for a diverse audience
  • Live venue revenue streams
  • Live venue licensing
  • How to liaise with local authorities
  • How to run zero-carbon events
  • The live industry’s contribution to the night-time economy

CONTENT CREATION AND ONLINE PRESENCE

In this fast-changing digital age, it’s vital for music industry professionals to develop impactful creative campaigns. In this module, you’ll explore the principles of content marketing and content creation, as you explore practical and artistic techniques to help you stand out across a range of digital platforms. You’ll produce marketing strategies and creative assets in a variety of formats for real-world content using core content creation platforms and software, and image and video editing programmes.

  • Digital marketing
  • Creating a successful online presences
  • Social media content and formats
  • Content creation techniques
  • Using image and photo editing software
  • Video editing techniques

TEACHING, LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT

Across the one-year CertHE Live Event Management course, you’ll learn at our campuses in London’s Kilburn and nearby Queen's Park. While you're a student at ICMP, you'll have access to these facilities outside of class time to study and, if you're also a musician, you're welcome to rehearse and record your music here, too.

Students will primarily experience an onsite, face-to-face learning experience, with some non-practical classes delivered online. Lessons will take place predominantly at our Kilburn campus, where you’ll also have access to an extensive range of music equipment, instruments and room facilities. 

For support and advice concerning welfare, finance, personal development and safeguarding, you’ll have access to the Student Services Department. For bespoke music industry careers advice and access to unique music business opportunities, our Professional Development team ‘The Hub' will provide regular guidance.

TEACHING AND LEARNING

On the CertHE Live Event Management programme, you’ll be taught using a variety of teaching and learning methods, such as lectures, small tutorial groups, workshops, hands-on technology laboratory tutorials, group work and student-led classes and presentations.

When not attending lectures, seminars or other timetabled sessions, you'll be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. This will typically involve reading books and articles, undertaking research in the library, working on individual and group projects, and preparing coursework assignments. Your independent learning is supported by a range of excellent facilities, including our Learning Resource Centre, well-equipped tech suites and many practice and performance rooms.

You'll be in timetabled teaching activities such as lectures, seminars, and workshops for typically 9-10 hours a week, you’ll also have personalised one-to-one tutorials scheduled throughout the year.

ASSESSMENT

Assessment activities will include a variety of student presentations, individual and group projects, portfolios, case studies, written examination papers, aural examinations, coursework, reflective journals, group problem solving, and self and peer assessments.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Applicants will typically have A levels, BTEC Diploma or Extended Diploma, International Baccalaureate equivalent to 48 UCAS points, or an ICMP Higher Diploma.

In addition, you should hold a GCSE Grade C (or 4) or above in English, or suitable equivalent, such as Level 2 Key Skills, Functional Skills or Adult Literacy/Numeracy.

We welcome applications from mature applicants who may have no formal qualifications but can demonstrate their suitability for study through appropriate skills and experience. All applicants will be invited to attend an interview.

Please note: International students, who require a visa to study in the UK, are not eligible to study on this course. Instead, we encourage you to apply for our BA (Hons) Live Event and Festival Management degree.

UCAS code 9292Uni code i25

HOW TO APPLY

Please apply via the "APPLY NOW" link below.

At any time during the application process if you need help or further advice just contact our Admissions team who will be happy to assist you. 



By phone:
020 7328 0222

By email:
enquiries@icmp.ac.uk

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