Ant Thompson, who graduated with a degree in music from Newcastle College University Centre in 2018, has since set up his own events and music promotion company and is busy promoting his first ever music festival.
A Stone’s Throw Festival 2022 is a coastal music trail taking place across 11 venues in Tynemouth and North Shields. Each venue will play host to a vast range of bands and artists including slacker popster Lauran Hibberd, rising songwriter Sam Tompkins, BBC Sound of 2021 alumni BERWYN, and alt. rockers Pave the Jungle.
Ant explains how he got here: “Straight from school I attended Newcastle College to study music. It was here where I began learning music business and I toyed with the idea of promoting shows as part of my music business module.
“Following my college years, I worked hard promoting shows, played in bands and worked a bar job but decided to go back to the college when I was 24 to continue my studies with a degree in Music. I graduated with a first and ended up working at a larger music promoter and six months ago launched Notion Live Events & Shin Gigs.”
Ant says that a lot of his success is down to the opportunities he had while studying here: “There are great facilities and I strongly suggest people take full advantage of them. But mostly, enjoy the process and use it as an opportunity to take your time and experiment when it comes to honing skills, networking and achieving your goals.”
Head of Music and Performance, Jack Redpath adds: “It’s brilliant to see our former students following their dreams and creating successful careers for themselves. Our aim is to give all of our students skills in enterprise so they can forge successes like this, so it’s fantastic to see it happening for Ant.”
If you’re interested in following a similar path to Ant, check out our music courses