HANGING out backstage with Sean Paul and Groove Armada – it's got to beat a gold star.

As a reward for an impressive project on Oxford tourism, these City of Oxford College students were handed VIP tickets to this year's Common People festival in the city.

Caitlin McDonagh and Olivia Gooding, both 18, and 16-year-olds Claudia Fifield and Tom Harvey were presented with their prize by festival organiser Ben Turner.

The festival teamed up with Oxford City Council and the college to run the tourism project and get teenagers inspired about making the city great.

Claudia said: "I am very excited for the prize and attending the Common People – it was more than I could have asked for."

Olivia said the 'unique' project had provided experience other module could not and Caitlin said it shown just how tough the business world could be.

The three-month coursework last term challenged Business and Travel and Tourism students to improve the experiences of visitors to the city.

They were tasked with designing a new tourist attraction in Oxford city centre, before presenting their proposals to senior staff at the council.

The project aimed to give the students real-life business skills and an edge in a competitive jobs market, improving their future job prospects.

About 100 students entered the competition, and the team pictured here, all students from the Level 3 Diploma in Business, were crowned the winners.

They came up with a concept for a loyalty card which would help promote local independent businesses by providing customers with exclusive discounts.

They had to pitch their idea to tourism officers from Oxford City Council who judged the winners.

Happy enough just to have come first, the students were even more excited to discover they had won VIP tickets for Oxford's newest festival.

Presenting their prizes on Thursday, Mr Turner, part of the festival team, congratulated them on their business, teamwork and problem-solving skills.

The former Oxford College student said: "Common People is designed in part to put Oxford’s creative music and arts community on the national map, and so we were excited to collaborate with Activate Learning on this competition based around promoting tourism in the city.

"The winning idea really resonated with us, and it was incredible to see such young visionary ideas from the college students."

Olivia said: "I would repeat the project 10 times over because it was exciting and it gave me an insight into the business world. The prize was unexpected and greatly appreciated, making everything more than worthwhile."

This year's Common People takes place in South Park on May 27 and 28, and will be headlined by Sean Paul, Groove Armada, Pete Tong and Rag 'n' Bone Man.

The festival, which has a sister event in Southampton, was brought to Oxford last year by dance music DJ and promoter Rob da Bank.