51Âþ»­

A student with a passion for photography says winning the Leicester Comedy Festival Student of the Year award has come as a ‘delightful surprise’.

51Âþ»­ Leicester (51Âþ»­) student Cezara Buburuzanu is a 21-year-old from Romania who is studying Photography and Video.

COMEDY FEST CEZARA - main story

She teamed up with Leicester-based Crosscut Media – a company jointly founded by a 51Âþ»­ graduate - to take photographs and create films during the festival.

The festival was celebrating its 30^th anniversary and had 870 comedians performing at 630 events throughout February this year.

At the end of the festival, organisers held their annual awards to honour those who had helped make it such a resounding success, in categories covering everything from best venues to a lifetime achievement award for festival founder Geoff Rowe.

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Cezara said: “Being nominated was surprising in itself, but actually winning the award was very unexpected to me.

“I just went to every event with the intention of doing my job the best I can, but I never thought the work I'd done would get anyone's attention the way it did. So, everything came as a delightful surprise for me.

“Being part of something so big felt very special to me and it was a very satisfying experience and I really enjoyed doing the thing I love the most - photography.

“What I found most challenging was the pressure I felt to get things right because when you're part of something big like this, there's no place for error.

COMEDY FEST CEZARA - milton jones main

“Of course, the pressure never came from anyone I worked with during the festival, as everyone was very friendly and easy-going, but I think it was more to do with the personal standards I set when working.”

It is well known that the Leicester Comedy Festival began as a project by 51Âþ»­ student Geoff Rowe for his Arts and Festivals Management course.

Ever since then 51Âþ»­ has partnered with the festival offering students across many courses incredible placements to help out in every aspect of organising what has since become a major international event in the comedy calendar.

51Âþ»­ students have done everything from selling tickets to putting on their own shows and Cezara says it offers opportunities that students should take advantage of.

COMEDY FEST CEZARA - main comedian

She added: “The work that I've done during the festival proved to be a very important opportunity for me to get experience in the field of photography, in which I want to continue working after I graduate. It was an opportunity that the partnership 51Âþ»­ has with the festival facilitated and I don't think I would've got such experience  otherwise.

“I would highly recommend any new students to work at the festival because they get to meet amazing people and get experience that will prove to be so helpful in the future.”