More than 70 Backstage Academy students participated in a stage building masterclass by event structures company Acorn Events.

Students on the Foundation Degree in Live Events Production visited Acorn’s site near Leeds for a day of practical training, building Layher-based scaffold structures. They were shown how the Layher system could build a full range of structures, from festival stages to ground supports to FOH structures.

“This was my first ever experience of building a stage and I thought it was great,” said student Mollie Ellis-Leach. “It was a real insight into how stages are assembled for live events and I’m sure it will be useful to me.”

Based on the success of this first masterclass, Acorn now hopes to do more hands-on training with Backstage Academy students.

“We look forward to working with them in the very near future and would like to thank and congratulate the students for all their hard work and achievements during the training at Acorn,” said co-founder Rebecca Nutter.

“We were delighted that Acorn Events were keen to take the time out of their busy schedule to engage and inspire the students,” said Backstage Academy technical director Gareth Welbourn. “The students got real value out of the training session, so I’d like to thank Acorn for their involvement in the course.”

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