As student projects go, it's on a slightly bigger scale than most.

A group of 47 teenagers have been given one night's use of a 900-year-old, grade-I-listed icon of the Norwich skyline to help with their travel and tourism course: Norwich Castle.

The project, which will see the students at City College Norwich organise a 'Night at the Museum' event in June, got underway this week when a panel of judges selected the theme for the event.

After listening to a series of presentations from groups of youngsters on the course, they chose a combination of two proposals - Dark Tales, to be held in the castle keep, and a Mad Hatter's Tea Party in the rotunda.

In previous years, the project has used the college's Debut restaurant as a venue for an 80-person event. This year, they are using the castle for a three-hour event for up to 180 guests.

Tom Macleod, 17, whose team put forward the Dark Tales idea, said: 'It feels quite special. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It's only going to happen once. If people come they are going to witness something amazing.'

Course lecturer Tim Greyson said the students will have to provide entertainment, activities, food and drink, and will only have two-and-a-half hours to set up the venue, as the castle will only close its doors at the usual 4.30pm on the day.

He said: 'They will do a lot of preparation at the college. Certainly food will be prepared there and transported. It would be a big enough job for professionals to transport the food.'

The activity should help develop students' skills in team working, communication, working to deadlines and delegating.

Mr Greyson added: 'It will get them ready for when they leave college and go out into the workplace.'

Callie Nind, 19, whose group put forward the Mad Hatter idea to link with the tea pots on show at the castle museum, said: 'We thought everything would link in with what we were trying to do. We thought the costumes we were going to do would not look out of place in this venue. In a modern venue, it would have looked out of place.'

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