Access All Areas

Learn how to stage live events in Wakefield on our award winning course for young people  

Go behind the scenes at Long Division, get creative, run events, have fun.

Make things happen!

Whether you want to run something small or large, from intimate gigs to a big festival like Long Division, whether you want to showcase other people’s work; or your own, this programme will help you.
Go to live gigs, take on a creative challenge, meet industry professionals, test your leadership skills, and make new connections in your city.

By the end of our award-winning, Guardian-featured Access All Areas programme, you’ll be well equipped to create your own culture!

Find out about Long Division and Wakefield Culture!

On Access All Areas, you  get to do a bit of everything. And you get to access behind the scenes of Long Division. You’ll go to Wakefield Museum, Wakefield College, Wakefield Music Centre, The Art House and more; learn screen printing and music making, share playlists, do a venue tour, and more. Oh, and you’ll meet team LD and be helping out at the LD events too of course!

Pick out vinyls!

As a group, you’ll go to Wah Wah Records and pick out vinyls you each think are influential. You will exhibit them to the public with some text that very same day. One day done, one music exhibition, done. 

You’ll be doing a group exhibition where each vinyl is one piece of the whole, so be prepared to back up your thoughts!

Go to gigs!

Over the following weeks you’ll get the chance to attend live events; from museum exhibitions to theatre performances, to festivals celebrating food and drink, and poetry readings. And of course – plenty of music gigs – all of these events spring from the set of skills you’ll be developing here, and from this wide range there’ll be things you can study that’ll be valuable going forward – how did they do this, how did they do that? What parts would I want to replicate or leave out with an event of my own?

Get creative!

For the creative challenge, you’ll explore outside your current skillset, and present this new work to an audience.

For many people this can mean exploring another aspect of music they’re unfamiliar with – like mixing, song-writing, or playing a certain instrument – but it could equally be something like compiling an exhibit, designing an album cover, or photographing a new band. It doesn’t even have to be music related. 

Work with professionals!

Throughout AAA  you will meet a range of professional creatives, get insight into the range of roles available in creative industries and how people find careers there. In past years we’ve had textile designers, creative producers, the head of a PR company, record label bosses, educators, theatre producers, photographers, marketing managers, music students and more.
These people will form your new network of contacts, you’ll take their details away, and can get in touch with them after programme.

Stage your own event!

For the leadership challenge you’ll be planning, and running your own unique live event – think of running a workshop, or an auction, setting up a charity event or managing a gig; you’ll be in a leadership role, liaising with people in order to get things done. You’ll learn how to make bookings, budget, promote, coordinate and problem solve. You can be innovative and creative. You’ll present your challenge to the public at Long Division Festival and Wakefield Live!