Youngsters get the X factor to put on club night

The Project X Team visiting an under 18’s club night in Warrington in preparation for their event

Young people from across Rochdale, Middleton and Heywood have come together to work on an exciting new community project funded by Connexions, called 'Project X'.

A team of young people aged between 16 and 19 meet with Pride Media Association in Middleton two days a week, where they have the chance to plan, promote and manage their very own nightclub event for under 18’s in the centre of Rochdale.

Project X has given young people an opportunity to gain skills, experience and even a nationally recognised qualification in events management which they can then use to enter further training, education or employment. The project focuses on practicing key skills such as budgeting, promotion, security, sales and DJ'ing.

As part of the project the young people visited a successful under 18’s club night at Warrington’s “Halo” club. The visit gave them the chance to shadow professional DJ’s, security and box office staff and gave them a real insight into the kind of hard work it takes to put on such a large event.

Over the course of eight weeks the young people have worked together to plan their very own event.

The Project X under 18’s club night will be taking place at 'Honeys nightclub in Rochdale on the 31 March, 7-10pm. The event is open to all young people in Rochdale between the ages of 13 and 17. Tickets will cost £6 and are available to buy on the evening.

Advanced discount tickets are also available for youth groups, and organised groups.

Jonathan Burns, Managing Director, said: “Project X is a fantastic opportunity for young people to gain practical skills in planning and co-ordinating an event for other young people in the town. The Project X team have worked extremely hard in putting the Under 18's night together, which promises to be a fun filled yet safe event for local young people.”

Emma Howarth, one of the young people taking part, said: “I think that it is good that we have the opportunity to do something like this in Rochdale as there are limited opportunities for young people in the borough to come together. This gives us a great chance to gain even more experience. The event itself will be a huge success because there are very few under 18 nights for kids to attend.”

The opportunity to earn a percentage of the profits from the club night provides a further motivation for the Project X team, with additional income raised going towards a youth enterprise initiative devised by the project participants. The young people have their fingers crossed that their event is a success so that they can continue to work to work together as a social enterprise to manage further events.

For further information about the project, or for tickets to the club night then please contact Jo at Pride Media Association on 0161 643 6266 or email projectx@pridemedia.co.uk