Beach Break Live: The student festival

True festival connoisseurs know that a good festival is all about getting the vibe right, and that is exactly what the founders of Beach Break Live – the biggest student music festival in the UK – are all about.

“Our aim was to create a new type of festival which was purely for students, but one that brings together everything we love about festivals and also has a strong sense of community,” says Celia Norowzian, who together with her boyfriend, Ian Forshew, founded the festival that is now in its second year.

How it all started

The pair came up with the idea of a student festival while they were studying in Birmingham. “Ian used to organise end-of-year trips where hundreds of students would end up going travelling together, while I started a local music and cultural festival for students,” Norowzian explains. “Then these two ideas kind of merged: the end-of-year trip that everyone can look forward to as well as quality music and that ‘those were the days’ feeling, something you can remember for the rest of your life.”

Funding the festival

The first festival was not easy to set up; Norowzian and Forshew used their student loans to fund it. Despite some financial setbacks the festival was a success, but it made them realise that they would need a lot more cash than the Student Loans Company could ever provide for this year’s festival.

To try and secure some funding they went on BBC’s Dragons’ Den and asked for £50,000. With the exception of Duncan Bannatyne, all the Dragons were happy to invest. “Going on Dragons’ Den was a real confidence boost for us,” says Norowzian. Despite being offered the cash they soon realised it wasn’t going to be enough and decided to ditch the Dragons' offer and join forces with Outgoing Travel, the events company that organises the legendary Snowbombing festival in the Alps. Norowzian and Forshew now work full-time organising Beach Break Live and have relocated to Cornwall, where the festival is being held. “After uni both of us had regular jobs: I worked for an events company and Ian as a business consultant. We both prefer this and it’s brilliant being able to run your own project. But we both picked up lots of skills from our previous jobs so it was worth doing that for a bit as well,” says Norowzian.

2008's line-up

The line-up for this year’s festival was pretty impressive and included acts such as The Enemy, The Wombats, The Crib, Does it Offend You Yeah?, Mr Scruff and Plump DJs; There were loads of other activities going on as well, including rock climbing, cave swimming and surfing. And because Beach Break Live is right by the beach it is unlike most other UK festivals. “The location is amazing, and the fact that you can wake up feeling horrendously hungover, walk down to the beach for a swim and sunbathe creates a really nice vibe,” says Norowzian. “It also stops it from turning grotty like some other festivals where you can have a wicked time but end up feeling rather grimy by the end of it!”.

The future

For you early birds there are already tickets for the 2009 festival on sale and you read all about this years festival on their website. The Independent Student Team will be at next year's festival as well, so come and say hello!

• Visit www.beachbreaklive.com for more information

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