Main Event (August 2010)

Issue 42 August 2010 £4.75

Call to avoidpanic overstampedeBy Christina Eccles

THE stampede at the Love Parade inGermany which killed 21 people andleft hundreds injured should not pro-voke a knee jerk reaction from theUK events industry, it has beenclaimed.

Tragedy struck when panic brokeout in a tunnel – the sole entrance tothe event – causing a stampede fromfestivalgoers struggling to move.

The incident is currently underinvestigation but organisers areexpected to come under fire in thereport as it is understood up to 1.4mpeople attended the event, whichhad a maximum capacity of 250,000.

But although what happened atLove Parade has sent shockwavesthrough the industry, experts haveurged the UK industry not to panicand clamp down on events held here.

TAO Productions’ Andy Cotton hasworked on major events all over theworld and he told The Main Eventthat although lessons can always belearned when an incident occurs,organisers in the UK should alreadyknow to take planning and riskassessment seriously at their events.

And he said there is no need formore red tape to be introduced

which could be harmful to the UK’svibrant outdoor events scene.

He said: “I don’t think this will makepeople wary of going to events, butwhere it could have an impact is oncouncils who may see the news cov-erage and clamp down. But theyshouldn’t need to because we shouldbe doing it right anyway.

“We shouldn’t have a knee jerkreaction in the UK but we should dowhat we are supposed to do anyway,which is plan our events properlyand risk assess them – if it’s not safe,then it shouldn’t be done.”

President of the National OutdoorEvents Association Richard Limbadded that the UK is well regardedfor its ability to safely stage majorevents and the current level of legis-lation is sufficient.

He added: “The UK outdoor eventsindustry has a very good reputationwith competent organisations under-taking proper risk assessments, safe-ty plans and also thorough sitedesign plans, which combined wouldensure that any foreseeable problemsare ironed out at the planning stageand do not occur. The legislation andguides currently in place are morethan adequate to control the industryin the UK.”

Glastonbury‘the safestever ...’THIS year’s GlastonburyFestival has been labelled thesafest ever after it achievedthe lowest accident statisticsand best medical records yet.

The event celebrated its40th birthday this year andaccording to those working atthe festival, there was a greatatmosphere among festival-goers and suppliers on site.

TESS has worked onGlastonbury since 2002 – pro-moting a health and safetyculture within the festival andengaging with suppliers toimprove health and safety intheir own specialist areas.

The company’s Tim Robertssaid: “The 40th anniversarywas exceptionally good, wehad great interactions fromstaff and the public wereunfailingly positive.Glastonbury and all the peo-ple involved have alwaysbeen lovely to work with andwork for.”� For more on Glastonbury seeour Festival Round Up starting on5

Singer and Strictly Come Dancing judge AleshaDixon has been named as the first act to performat Blackpool’s Big Switch On celebrations.The weekend of events takes place in Septemberto launch the world famous BlackpoolIlluminations and is expected to attract large numbers of visitors to the town. Picture: BBC

The Main Event is the official magazine of the National Outdoor Events

Association

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EDITORIALGroup EditorAndrew HarrodTel: 01226 [email protected]

Reporters:

Christina Eccles ([email protected])

Emma Spencer ([email protected])

Louise Cordell ([email protected])

Dominic Musgrave ([email protected])

ADVERTISINGGroup Sales Manager:Paul AllottTel: 01226 734484Fax: 01226 734478Mob: 07500 905717Email: [email protected]

Sales Executive:Mandy MellorTel: 01226 734702Email: [email protected]

Sales and Marketing Director:Tony Barry Email: [email protected]

CIRCULATIONKelly TarffTel: 01226 734695email: [email protected]

PRODUCTIONStudio Manager:Stewart Holt ([email protected])Tel: 01226 734414Group Deputy Editor:Judith Halkerston ([email protected])Tel: 01226 734458Graphic designer:Kyle Wilkinson ([email protected])Tel: 01226 734711

CONTACTS

www.themaineventmagazine.co.uk

Don’t miss Part 2 of our 2010 FestivalRound-up featuring events like T in the

Park, Godiva, Lovebox, Wireless,Glastonbury and Rockness

Starting on Page 13

Local authority spotlight Pages 10-11

Lak puts success

down to genuine love

for eventPage 6

Organisers focus on spectacle Page 8

On the crest of a wave Page 9NOEA Page 14Classified 1

By Christina Eccles

LOCAL volunteers stepped in tosave this year’s Cockermouth RockFestival after the site was hit byfreak weather just hours before theevent was due to start.

Strong winds and heavy rain hitthe site in Cumbria which had beenset up ready for the arrival of festi-valgoers the next day.

After receiving a phone call in theearly hours of the morning urginghim to get down to the site, organ-iser Clint Stamper discovered thatall the hard work had beendestroyed.

The damage was so bad that Clint– who runs the festival with his wifeDebbie – was faced with theprospect of having to cancel.

However, a plea on local radio andsocial networking site Facebookresulted in a group of local peoplecoming down to help organisers seteverything back up.

And although they were unable tosalvage one of the stages, the rest ofthe festival went ahead as planned.

Clint explained: “We had finishedsetting up on the Thursday nightabout 1am and three hours later, Igot a phone call saying I had betterget down to the site.

“It was really bad – the site wasflattened. There had been seriouswinds and the session tent had gotcompletely blown over. We had toconcentrate all our man power onsaving the dance tent.

“We put a cry for help out on theradio and on Facebook and people

came up. We managed to get thefestival back to where it was apartfrom the session tent and workshoptent.

“I was really surprised by howmuch support we got from locals. Iam really flattered and over-whelmed by it.

“I thought the weather was goingto destroy us but we patched it upas best we could. I honestly didn’tthink we could do it but everyonehelped us out and we have had lotsof good feedback from festivalgo-ers.”

The weather was mixed for therest of the weekend but did nothingto dampen the spirit of festivalgo-ers at the 5,000 capacity event whoenjoyed performances from thelikes of Dodgy and The King Blues.

Locals rally to help saveweather-battered event

Olympic team looks to Mendip for tipsA TEAM in charge of overseeing the2012 London Olympics has visitedMendip to find out what is involvedin running a big event.

Mendip District Council was chosenbecause of its partnership work onthe Glastonbury Festival and expertsfrom the Joint Local AuthorityRegulatory Service visited the councilto meet with the team involved inmonitoring Europe’s biggest music

and dance festival.They focused on the successful

work the council does with the festi-val organisers, police, emergencyservices and other organisationswhich have made Glastonbury one ofthe safest events of its kind.

The team of six from the LondonBorough of Newham, where the heartof the Olympics will take place,praised the valuable information they

gained from the Mendip visit.Local district councillor for Pilton

coun Nigel Hewitt-Cooper said: “Forthe past several years, the festival hasgot safer and safer and is recognisedas one of the best run events in theworld. It’s great that we now have theopportunity to share some of ourknowledge and expertise, especiallywith an event as high profile as theOlympics.”

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By Christina Eccles

A SPECTACULAR event brought the joy ofChristmas to central London – despite it tak-ing place in the middle of summer.

The Christmas in July event – organised byBlonstein and Associates – provided thechance for supermarket brand Sainsburys toshowcase its festive products to the media intime for journalists to report on them inupcoming features.

The project involved organiser SaraBlonstein and her team replicating famous London Landmark BurlingtonArcade within the atrium of Sainsbury’shead office.

The pop up arcade had a particular focuson food – with guests being able to wanderthough shops including a bakery, butchersand fishmongers to admire the Christmasfood products which Sainsbury’s will be sell-ing during the holiday period.

The whole thing was built off site beforebeing transported piece by piece into thevenue and followed on from the previoustwo years’ events where the company had

built a life size doll’s house and an indoorforest.

Sara said the biggest challenge faced withthis event was working within budget and toensure costs didn’t spiral, the team had toget creative.

She explained: “Budget is always an issueand we had to make decisions about the fin-ish of the shops. What we did was beautifulbut a mini version of what we wanted to do.We would have liked to have more shopsand made them shinier.

“We also decided not to put any glass inthe windows. You have to maximise whatyou have got and work with it.”

The company also built a 3D card model ofthe arcade so that the client could take it tomeetings and get a feel of what the finishedarticle was going to look like. And Saraadded this ended up working well.

“Having the model was really useful andfeedback about the whole event was great. Itis an unusual match as we usually work inareas such as fashion but Sainsbury’s is alovely client and it is a really enjoyable eventto work on.”

Bringing Christmasto London in July

The setting before, above, and after, below

Soaring 30°C tempera-tures set the scene forSimply Red’s concert atNewbury Racecourse.Visitor numbers rocketedby 90 per cent comparedto the equivalent Party inthe Paddock Friday in2009, as eager race goerstook an evening out toenjoy the races and tocatch a glimpse of theband performing for thevery last time at thevenue.

Cards could be start tomove to cashless eventsA NEW scheme was piloted at thisyear’s WOMAD Festival whichreplaced paper-based crew meal tick-ets with electronic cards.

Festival organisers worked withEtherlive to introduce the cards,which were based on radio frequencyidentification (RFID) technology.

Each crew member working on thefestival was provided with a smartcard, allowing them to collect foodfrom the canteen once the card wasplaced on a special reader.

And organisers claim this may bethe start of a move to cashless tech-nology at events.

Festival director Chris Smithexplained: “WOMAD is an excitingtest case for the deployment of RFIDat festivals, and I believe it couldsoon be rolled out in other ways.

“This is the first step in the journeytowards cashless events where festi-valgoers use their wristbands to payfor their drinks, goods and food.”

Etherlive’s managing director ChrisGreen added that the scheme is auseful way for organisers to keeptrack of how many staff have claimedmeals and who they are to bettermanage their costs.

Sell-out event was the strongest yetACTS including MarthaWainwright, Jools Holland andNewton Faulkner joined 4,000 fansto celebrate the Larmer TreeFestival’s 20th anniversary.

The event sold out this year andorganisers are already looking for-ward to how they can make the fes-tival even better in 2011.

Festival founder and co-director

James Shepard said: “We areabsolutely delighted with this year’sfestival and it was definitely a fit-ting tribute to our 20th year.

“The line-up of musicians andcomedians was the strongest it hasever been and the team surpassedthemselves in creating an eventwhich truly had something foreveryone to enjoy.”

Crowd management company AP Securityhas completed its busiest weekend of theyear – deploying over 2,000 crew membersto seven different sites across the UK.Events which the company worked onincluded Latitude, Lovebox and JLS’ con-cert for the Forestry Commission nearBristol.Northern operations manager Simon Millerworked with southern operations manager

Chris Hollands to coordinate the week-end’s workload.Simon said: “The logistics of looking aftermultiple sites and over 2,000 crew areimmense. Just one event such as Latitudetakes a lot of pre planning, but when youhave seven events of more of less equalmagnitude with crowds capacities rangingfrom 15,000 at Escot Park to 35,000 atLatitude, detailed management is the key.”

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Lak puts successdown to genuinelove for eventA FESTIVAL organiser has revealedhow seeing the same old thing atother events inspired him to start hisown.

Lak Mitchell organises theBoomtown Fair in Buckinghamshire –a festival which began about fouryears ago when he spotted a gap inthe market for a new event.

Lak enlisted the help of friends andfamily to put on the first festival andhas never looked back.

He said: “I was bored of seeing thesame line up at every festival and noatmosphere so thought let’s put onour own.”

According to Lak, the key to successhas been that everyone involved hasa genuine love for what they do and isnot out to make a large profit fromthe festival.

He added: “The people who comeknow we will put in the maximumamount of effort and not expect any-thing out of it. We have never made apenny out of it and for us it’s all aboutmaking sure that people have anamazing time.”

The festival has moved sites thisyear – relocating from the South Westup to Buckinghamshire.

And Lak told The Main Event thatthe new location is more central forfestivalgoers to get to as well as beingbig enough for the event to expand in

future years.This year’s event will also have a

greater focus on families with a dedi-cated kids’ area and family camping.

“For the last three years we havehad to stop ticket sales because wehave run out of space.

“If we can stay at this site it will be ablessing because we have massiveplans for it.”

Almost 20,000 people lined the streets of Skegness to watch a spectacular outdoor eventwhich formed part of this year’s SO Festival. The resort was turned into an aquatic won-derland for the performance of Perle – with amazing sea creatures up to 25m in lengthtelling the story of a pearl that needed to be returned to its oyster.

AN emergency heatwave plan waskicked in to action at this year'sGlastonbury Festival – the first timein its 40-year history.

As temperatures soared over the fes-tival site in Pilton, Mendip DistrictCouncil pulled together organisers,health teams and emergency servicesto come up with a two-stage festivalheatwave plan.

The plan looked at a first stage ofprevention – warning revellers aboutthe dangers of the excessive heat andsun exposure – and a second stage todeal with the potential treatment of

those caught out by the tempera-tures.

The council’s public protectionmanager Claire Malcolmson said:“The great partnership work that weundertook as soon as health profes-sionals raised concerns about the hotweather certainly paid off and meantwe were able to control the amountof people seeking medical attentionfor weather-related illness.

“These numbers were kept undercontrol and revellers continued toenjoy the festival in the unusuallygood weather.”

Heatwave plan rolled out

Jamie’s team servesCornbury festival-goersJAMIE Oliver’s Fabulous Feasts cater-ing team made its debut into the fes-tival food market at this year’sCornbury Festival.

The Fabulous Feasts menu,designed specifically to suit the fami-ly-oriented audience, was freshly pre-pared on site from a newly-builtbespoke temporary catering facility.

And while the Cornbury crowdsenjoyed the festival menu inOxfordshire, the corporate cateringteam catered for over 200 guests inthe hospitality area of a high-profileannual sporting event, and continuedpreparations to feed 2,200 peopleover three days at a business confer-ence in London.

This flexibility in food offer is one ofthe keys to Fabulous Feasts’ success,according to managing director GlenChadwick, pictured below.

He said: “Having three separatebranches of Fabulous Feasts allows usto deliver a great range of food to aclient such as Cornbury Festival. Ourpublic concession offer brings quick-ly prepared, simple, high quality foodto the masses at a reasonable price,and is a great alternative to tradition-al festival catering.

“Our corporate and private offersare equally unwavering on quality,but offer a completely different typeof food suited to the requirements ofVIP catering.”

IN early 2010, The Amazing TentCompany was selected to supply tentstructures for a nine-date, nine-venue roadshow, currently appearingin major cities across the UK to coin-cide with the BBC’s high-voltage sci-ence programme, Bang Goes theTheory.

Now in its second year, the projecthas increased in size due to its popu-larity – in addition to providing a sad-dle span structure, for 2010, the teamat Amazing are also installing a brandnew ARCO 100 structure.

Director Steve Haddrell said: “Wecontinually grow and develop ourrange – sourcing, customising andsupplying complementary structuresthat work both as stand-alone prod-ucts, or as part of a much bigger pro-duction package.”

The structure houses a side-by-side

stage show as well as an interactiveexhibition and both are anchoredwith a special ballast system.

A custom-made solution wasrequired due to a tight logisticalschedule and hard-standing sites ineach city centre.

In addition to designing anchorage,Amazing Tents designed and retro-fit-ted side panels to the ARCO thatwould fit with the ‘Bang banners’ andprovide clear routes in and out of thestructure.

Technical director Dan Hyde added:“We relish the challenge to come upwith new and innovative systems thatgive our customers a real differentia-tor.

“I am sure this is the first of manynew designs which we look forwardto rolling out over the comingmonths.”

Company continually growsand develops its range

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‘High and dry’festival nowback on trackBy Christina Eccles

THE organisers of the BrownstockFestival have told how they turned aseries of challenges to their advan-tage when planning this year’s event.

The festival was forced to movefrom its planned date in July to thefirst weekend in September afterworking for four months with poten-tial partners who then withdrew theirsupport.

According to organiser AdamBrown, this left them ‘high and dry’and unsure whether to go ahead withthis year’s event.

But after re-thinking their plans,they decided to stage an event andAdam said plans are now back ontrack.

He said: “It was extremely frustrat-ing. We had the line-up booked andthe website ready to launch. It wastempting to say that we couldn’t do itbut we agreed that we would go for it.But it has been hard work.”

Adam told The Main Event that newacts are now in place and thatbecause the revised date is towardsthe end of the festival season, theycan benefit from lower prices for sup-pliers.

He added: “Quotes were coming ina lot cheaper for September becausesuppliers aren’t so busy at this timeso it has helped us to keep our outgo-ings down. We also moved becausewe had been left short of time but thenew date fits in with the farming cal-endar better as before we struggled toget the crops out in time.”

Adam also said that despite theissues they have had to face this year,things are looking positive for theEssex-based festival – with ticketsales up and good working relation-ships emerging with the local author-ity and suppliers, which includeSygma Safety and Event SecuritySolutions.

“Last year was all about getting thelicence through but now the LocalAuthority is really happy with things.Our relationship with Sygma has gotstronger each year and this year wehave also introduced a new securitycompany which is also helping us outwith logistics and site layout.”

� The Main Event will be visitingBrownstock to see how everythingwent. Look out for our event reviewin the October issue.

Thousands hit by ticket consMORE than 5,000 fans were scammedlast summer, trying to buy tickets forthe UK’s top music festivals, figureshave revealed.

The statistics were provided by theorganisers of Reading, Leeds, V,Download and Wireless as theyjoined the Office of Fair Trading’s JustTick It campaign to warn consumersabout online fraudulent ticket sites.

The figures are based on complaintslast year by festivalgoers who hadpaid for tickets online and notreceived them, or who bought faketickets and were subsequently turnedaway at the gates.

And the organisers have now joined

the OFT and music stars includingJLS, Craig David and Kate Nash tosupport the campaign which warns music lovers about onlinescams.

Michele Shambrook, operationsmanager for the OFT-managedadvice service Consumer Direct, said:“The Just Tick It campaign is here togive fans practical advice on how tocheck a website is legitimate beforebuying tickets online.

“We hope people will use our sim-ple checklist to ensure they don't getscammed when looking for tickets tothis summer's music and sportingevents.”

THE introduction of new low energylighting has made this year’s forestconcerts more environmentallyfriendly.

The Forestry Commission has beenworking with Pearce Hire on the con-certs, which take place in forest loca-tions up and down the country toreduce the carbon footprint of thegigs.

And this year has seen a significant

change in the lighting design for thestage, with the company utilising i-Pix BB4 LED Washlights instead ofthe Parcans previously used.

This switch halves the power con-sumption of the lighting rig from pre-vious years. Other good practicesinclude using photo-cell light sensorsonto the site lighting fixtures, whichautomatically turn fixtures off duringdaylight hours.

Forest concerts reducetheir carbon footprint

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In a crowded market place, organisers are having to think outside the box to ensure their event stands outfrom the crowd. Christina Eccles spoke to the people tasked with adding that extra sparkle.

FROM creating a great talkingpoint among visitors to successful-ly showcasing a brand, organisersare finding more reasons to addunusual elements to their events.

Festivals, in particular, arebecoming prime spots for brandswho want to get their products andmessages out to consumers – andare looking for ways to keep them-selves one step ahead of the com-petition.

Philip Hughes is managing direc-tor of Ice Box – which specialises increating spectacular ice sculpturesat events.

The company has worked at festi-vals including V, Big Chill, T in thePark and Irish festival ElectricPicnic, working particularly withbrands who want to engage withfestivalgoers.

And he said that using ice sculp-tures is a relatively inexpensive wayto bring something special to anevent.

He explained: “In a festival envi-

ronment where brands are com-peting for attention, ice is useful asit is very tactile and creates a talk-ing point.

“It is an investment by a brand toget some additional coverage anddeliver their brand in an unusualand original way.

“I think it is an under utilised andversatile communications medi-um.”

In the world of product launches,impressive features are the norm –with companies wanting their lat-est offering showcased in the bestpossible way.

Imagination created a dramaticevent for Range Rover’s 40th birth-day at The Orangery, KensingtonPalace, which included the firstsighting of its new Range RoverEvoque.

To reveal the car, it was suspend-ed in mid air, 12m above theground in a Perspex box.

The box was then lowered to theground with a light and music

show in front of 200 VIPs includingcreative design executive, VictoriaBeckham.

Imagination’s client servicesdirector Ross Wheeler added: “Anevent of this importance demandsmore than a ribbon cutting. Wewanted to come up with somethingthat represented the excitement ofthe brand and the moment itself.”

New Substance’s PatrickO’Mahony has delivered manyvisual spectaculars at events –including the highest ever bungeejump within a show and a flyingmechanical falcon.

And he said that organisers whoare prepared to be brave and offersomething different at their eventscan reap the rewards.

He explained: “It’s all about beingwilling to push the boundaries andput your trust in the show design-

ers. We are seeing the market startto recover and people are wantingto come back with a bang andmake a big impression.

“If you are brave enough to gothat bit further, you can create amoment in time.”

Patrick added that the latest trendamong organisers is to involvetheir audience more in perform-ances. Instead of just watchingsomething on a stage, performersare becoming integrated withincrowds – allowing for a more inter-active experience.

He said that festivals would be a great market to try this out inand is currently working with organisers to discuss how different performers and genrescould work together to merge their ideas and create somethingspecial.

Organisers have tofocus on a spectacle

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By Christina Eccles

WAKESTOCK is now in its 11th yearand attracts about 15,000 visitors tothe site in Abersoch, North Wales.

What makes the event unique isthat combination of wakeboardingand music, which can’t be found atany other UK festival.

For this year’s festival, organiserssecured a line up including the TingTings, Maximo Park and N-Dubz aswell as some of the world’s bestwakeboarding competitors.

But Mark revealed that organisingthe event hasn’t always been plainsailing and the team have managedto overcome a number of challengesand issues to get where they aretoday.

He explained: “With no real organi-sational experience, it was a case oftry it and see if it worked. But werealised very quickly that we had towork with the local authorities.

“We try to invest our time wisely.We haven’t applied for any funding

and instead have tried to put all ourtime into the marketing and produc-tion. Marketing through the internetis crucial and you can react veryquickly if you update it yourself. Weget 6.5m unique [website] users eachyear so it is a really powerful tool.”

Mark also said an integral part ofthe event’s success is having the rightteam on board.

He added: “The team has been cru-cial to the event’s growth. Hard workis essential and it was year five when

we first made a profit. But the beliefwas always there that we would get tothe point where it is financiallyviable.

“The mudbath in 2007 was one ofour biggest tests. We had to cancelthe second day of the event and itwas touch and go whether the festi-val could survive. But we came out ofit with our record intact.

“We love music and the spirit of thearea and it is a privilege to host theevent in such a beautiful location.”

The Wakestock Festival has grown from an event attracting 400 people into Europe’s largest wakeboarding andmusic festival. The Main Event caught up with organiser Mark Durston to find out more ...

Festival on the crest of a wave

Gearhouse South Africa delivered all technical aspects of a spectacular closing ceremony to mark the end of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.The company provided services including rigging, power, sound, lighting and largeformat projection (which was contracted out to French-based ETC) – utilising thedynamics, skills and services of most companies in the Gearhouse Group.The 30 minute show at Soccer City Stadium in Soweto happened just ahead of thefinal match and featured a cast of 740 plus 35 headline artists.

UP to 1m visitors and £16m in rev-enue could be generated for theNorth East when Hartlepool hosts theTall Ships Races.

The event takes place over four daysin August and will be England’sbiggest free event in 2010.

And to maximise the impact ofhosting the event, organisers haveidentified three key objectives.

These are:

� Attract higher visitor spend

� Welcome visitors to the Tees Valley

� Enhance Tees Valley’s profile andchange perceptions by staging amajor event.

� For more on the Tall Ships Races,see next month’s issue of The MainEvent.

Event on course to attract a million

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2 10 LOCAL AUTHORITY SPOTLIGHT

ADELE Poppleton works with a teamto deliver events in Kirklees as part ofher role as arts and creative economydevelopment manager.

Her job also involves aspects suchas working with arts businesses, run-ning music programmes and usingthe arts to tackle issues within com-munities.

She says that one of the biggest rea-sons why the council organisesevents is because of the impact whichthey can have on towns and local res-idents – presenting them in a positiveway and giving people something tobe proud of in their area.

Adele told The Main Event that oneof her biggest challenges is connect-ing with all residents and findingevents which fit well in certain areas.Some places are good at planningtheir own and the council has limitedinvolvement, while others are bene-fiting from more support.

She explained: “About 410,000 peo-ple live in Kirklees but the issuesdon’t spread out across the district.

“When it comes to organising theevents programme, people in ruralareas are more self sufficient. Forexample, the people of Holmfirth areincredibly active and have eventssuch as an arts festival and a festivalof folk. Our only intervention is toprovide a small amount of funding.

“But in the north, around theDewsbury area, it is very rare for peo-ple to do things for themselves and itwill be a long time before they havethe skills to do their own events. Sowe have developed a programmearound Dewsbury to raise aspirations

and confidence in local people.

“We also have a very multi culturalcommunity so it is important for usto find ways to bring different com-munities together.

“We don’t go for mono culturalevents anymore. We prefer to exposepeople to different cultures at anevent.

“We are not just talking about eth-nic diversity but also involving otheraspects of the community who don’talways get exposure in a positive way.

“In town centre events we don’tallow concessions as we want toencourage people to use the facilitiesthat already exist.

“We are also trying to get residentsto travel to other parts of the districtso it is important that our events arequite different and towns find some-thing that is unique to them.

“My approach when working withcommunities is to say, what are youproud of and then take it from there.”

Another challenge is budget anddelivering engaging and valuableevents without breaking the bank.

She added: “The problem withbudgets, particularly with localauthorities, is that they are looking atwhat essential services they have todeliver. When they are being asked tomake such significant cuts, they haveto look carefully at things which aredeemed to be nice to have. But wefeel that events are more than nice tohave. They stimulate investment andbring communities together and Iwould hate it if anything to do withcommunities is not prioritised.”

The area covered by Kirklees Council ranges from ruralvillages to large towns such as Dewsbury andHuddersfield. Christina Eccles paid a visit to see how adetailed events progamme is reaching out to over400,000 people.

How Adele rises tothe challenge ofdelivering events

Fireworks are a popular addition to events in Kirklees as local people like to rememberthe area’s links with the firework industry. Adele added: Fireworks are a really importantpart of our events because Huddersfield used to be the home of the firework industry inthe UK and the town has a long history of firework displays.”� Pictured is the firework display at last year’s Concerts in the Park event.

ADELE also explained how partner-ship working is helping KirkleesCouncil to deliver safe and successfulevents in the district.

She added: “My role is to lead theteam that does the operational deliv-ery of the events while Anne MarieParker leads on communications andhas a strategic approach.

“We contract out the event manage-ment side – a local company TGEvents has won that contract for anumber of years – and their work ismaking sure that all the infrastruc-ture is put in place, put together theevent plans and deal with health andsafety aspects.

“We also have an event co-ordina-tor, Alison Povey, a job which is alsocontracted out, whose responsibili-ties include pulling together the proj-

ect team meetings.“The project team model is working

well for us. In 2006, the Queen cameto Huddersfield and it was decided toput a major event on to celebrate.What was found was that the servicesand agencies didn’t work very welltogether. Since then we have workedon changing that whole culture. Theproject team meet two to three timesthrough the course of an event andwe have a fantastic partnership withWest Yorkshire Police.

“Everyone involved sits on thatproject team and once we have pro-grammed for an event, we call thatteam together and everybody con-tributes. After the event, we will allget together again for a debrief to seehow we can improve for next time –evaluation is really important to us.”

Teamwork pays off for area

ANOTHER popular event is theHuddersfield Carnival – organised bythe Huddersfield African CaribbeanCultural Trust (HACCT) with supportfrom Kirklees Council.

The HACCT has been organising theevent for over 25 years but a partner-ship with the council has helped it toevolve even further.

This year’s event was different asthe main part of the carnival is usual-ly held in Greenhead Park. But as thepark is currently being renovated, itwas held instead in the town centre.

Adele said although it was challeng-ing to move the event, it worked outwell because it reached people whowouldn’t normally go if it was held inthe park. She added that the event is

popular in Huddersfield because itsuccessfully manages to be both acelebration of the African Caribbeancommunity but also embraces othercultures and age groups who alsoenjoy attending.

“This is the only event we do whichcould be deemed as being mono cul-tural but we feel it is really importantto recognise the contribution whichthe African Caribbean communitymake in Huddersfield.

“The event is really successful atworking with other parts of the com-munity which some other eventsdon’t manage to do and attracts avery diverse audience. It was a beau-tiful day and the town centre felt real-ly vibrant and exciting.”

Carnival in successful move to town centre

10 30/7/10 10:55 Page 1

LOCAL AUTHORITY SPOTLIGHT 11

Popular festivalsallow people toreclaim the streets ...THE Festival of Light started in 2004as a way to make the HuddersfieldContemporary Music Festival moreaccessible to the public.

It has now grown into an eventattracting thousands of people everyyear who enjoy witnessing spectacu-lar art performances which theyaren’t used to seeing in the area.

Past projects have included giantinflatable fish parading through thestreets and acrobats suspended inthe air using cranes.

And Adele said the appetite fromlocal people to see this kind of workis growing every year.

She added: “Sometimes we get crit-icised because we are not program-ming local work but it is a realdilemma for us.

“Although we want to support localartists, there is also the demand tosee international work. We were thefirst ones in Yorkshire to programmethis kind of work.

“That’s why we are attracting audi-ences in who don’t get to see it any-where else in the region.

“We also have a real problem nowhaving to please 15-17,000 people.

So our challenge is finding showswhere we can reduce the audience.This year, we are having two nightsto split the audience in half. But itdoes mean that we are faced withbudgeting problems as we haven’tgot twice the budget to put twoshows on, so we have to look atcheaper ones.”

Out of the success of Festival ofLight came Spirit – a similar eventwhich is held in Dewsbury.

This year’s Spirit included firebreathing dragons wanderingthrough the streets and Adele said the great thing about the eventis that it allows people to see familiar spaces in different ways and appreciate the towns they livein.

She added: “With events such asSpirit, we tend to shut the streetsdown in the middle of town whichallows people to reclaim them.

“There is no worry about trafficand you can walk around freely.People all comment about how safethey feel and how proud they are tohave realised what a beautiful placethey live in.”

ONE of the council’s most recentsuccesses was Festival in the Park,which took place at Crow Nest Parkin Dewsbury.

The festival was made up of twoparts – Concerts in the Park and AWorld Together – which had beenpreviously held as separate events.

With savings having to be madewherever possible, Adele and theteam realised they couldn’t deliverboth events to the level that wasexpected – so combined the twotogether.

She said: “The event used to beheld in Huddersfield butGreenhead Park is currently being renovated so for the last two yearswe have taken it to Dewsbury.

“On the Saturday, we usually dosomething which appeals to anolder audience. But we knew clas-sical music wouldn’t appeal toaudiences there, so last year wehad Beyond the Barricades, whichis material from West End shows,and this year we had the Magic ofMotown.”

The Sunday was a combination ofConcerts in the Park and A WorldTogether which included a popconcert – with performances fromacts including Roll Deep andGabriella Cilmi.

Another addition to the line upwas Northern Irish band Ignitionwho actually paid the council toperform at the event in order togain exposure. The extra moneygenerated from this was then usedto pay for rising star Eliza Doolittleto also come and play.

Adele added: “The first time weput the concert on, we were heavily

criticised for not having localbands so for the past two years wehave done a battle of the bandscompetition. Four local bands fromthat now play at the festival.

“Around the other parts of thepark were the World Together activ-ities. Our aim with this was to cre-ate more of a festival atmosphere,almost a ‘mini Glastonbury’ as a lotof local people could never affordto go to Glastonbury.

“We also created a childrens’ zonefor children under 12 where theycould take part in activities such ascircus skills, story telling, mosaicmaking and henna painting.

“Saturday night tends to appealto the 35 plus age group and therewas nothing really for teenagers sowe aimed the programme at thatage group. But we also wanted tomake the event as family friendlyas possible. We wanted to promotethe fact that was a good event forpeople of all ages but one wheretrouble was not welcome.”

Other areas at the festival includ-ed an activity zone for older chil-dren and the Bizarre Bazaar wherelocal crafts people could displaytheir goods.

And Adele added that the councilhas received really positive com-ments from the people whoattended.

“We have had really good feed-back from people, particularly fam-ilies. With money being so tight,they really appreciated somethingthat was free and gave them fullday out. It was great that we man-aged to reach so many people whocan’t afford to go to a commerciallyrun event.”

Festival winspraise forAdele‘s team

11 30/7/10 10:59 Page 1

2 12

Air show aiming forrecycling targetBy Christina EcclesTHE world’s largest military airshow has launched a campaignto encourage visitors and sup-pliers to recycle 40 per cent ofall waste from this year’s show.

The Royal International AirTattoo (RIAT) is urging every-one involved in the show to dotheir bit to ensure that thisyear’s event is the greenest yet.

Sponsorship managerFrancesca Heap said: “In 2009we recycled 14 per cent of ourwaste so a 40 per cent target for2010 is a big increase. Reachingthis target is dependent upon

success in two distinct areas;the co-operation of the 160,000visitors; and hard work by allthe suppliers, contractors,caterers, volunteers and staffwho work behind the scenes.For the public we have createdrecycling hubs around theshowground with big 7m arch-ways that you cannot miss. Thisis supported by promotion ofthe recycling message via asmany on-site channels as possi-ble – radio, billboards, the pro-gramme and website.

“To reach the ‘back of house’teams we have been a bit morecreative enticing staff and vol-

unteers with a competition toencourage their engagementand support. When you areworking flat out to stage anevent, recycling often getspushed down the list of priori-ties.

“We have tried to create anemotional connection with ourback of house teams by build-ing an awareness campaignentitled the “14:40 Challenge”.This puts the focus firmly onsupporting us and helping ourevent to achieve somethinggreat rather than the big gener-ic title of recycling.”

A giant peacock, a mechanical tiger and awinged horse were justsome of the unusual objectswhich appeared for a day inManchester city centreThey formed part of thefirst ever Manchester DayParade, featuring more than1700 participants and manylocal community groups.Thousands of people linedthe streets to watch theparade, which was designedby Walk the Plank.

LEEDS Metropolitan Universityjoined forces with Festival Republicin 2007 to give students access to vol-unteering and work experience rolesat the company’s Latitude and Leedsfestivals.

Roles can range from team mem-bers – which assist festivalgoers withdirections and information – to morespecific jobs such as artist liaison andstage crew, working alongside theprofessionals at the events.

After completing the placements,some students have even gone on tosecure full time jobs with FestivalRepublic.

According to project manager PatsyRobertshaw and project co-ordinatorCaroline Bonser, the success of theprogramme comes down to severalfactors.

One of the most crucial is the effortput in to match students to the rightroles.

Although event management stu-dents are the obvious choice to takeon placements at major events, stu-dents from courses as diverse asmanagement and PR have also founda role which suits their skills – settingthem up with valuable work experi-ence and giving them contacts in the

industry.Patsy explained: “About 200 stu-

dents a year take part and we try tofind opportunities that fit with othertypes of courses to fit in as manygroups of students as possible. Theproject is always popular and wehave a large number of enquiries.”

Each year the partnership kicks offwith a big advertising campaignincluding leafleting around campusand a dedicated website.

Students wanting to take part fill inan application form before numbersare narrowed down for the interviewstage.

Successful students then meet sev-eral times before their event to get toknow each other and be briefed onwhat their job will involve.

Caroline added: “From the inter-view stage we do the scene setting.We talk through the roles and havebriefing sessions so they can learnmore about the role they have got.There is a really clear pyramid struc-ture so every role is supported. Wealso take them on site a couple ofdays before the festival begins so theycan get used to it.”

Since Festival Republic has beenworking with the university, they

have also started working with theUniversity of Suffolk on Latitude andare considering linking up with aLondon university for the Readingfestival.

And Patsy claims this is somethingwhich other organisers could alsobenefit from getting involved in.

She added: “This is something moreorganisers should do. A lot of stu-dents volunteer in general but with

schemes like this, they get to applyfor roles which they want to do in thefuture. It takes time to set it up andyou have to have a dedicated team ofpeople. But it is definitely beneficialfor students and something good tolink in with their courses.

“The students say they work hardbut get so much out of it. They thenwant to come back because theyhave had such a good experience.”

A partnership between a Yorkshire university and one of the biggest names in the industry is giving students theopportunity to learn new skills at festivals. Christina Eccles found out more ...

Partnership gives students thechance to work at festivals ...

SCOTTISH-based firm21cc Fireworks hasscooped a prestigiousaward. The company wasnamed ProfessionalFireworks Display Com-pany of the year by MediaToday Online for its serv-ices to the corporate andwedding markets.

Director Geoff Crowsaid: “I am absolutelydelighted. This really isgreat news. We celebrateour 10-year anniversarythis year and what betterway to celebrate than tobe given an award. Wework very hard behindthe scenes to ensure thatwe constantly deliver ourproducts and services ina fully professional, flexi-ble and competent man-ner. If we’ve not exceededour client’s expectations,then we’ve not done ourjob. We love what we doand we’re passionateabout delivering all thatwe promise. Winning thisaward is testimony to the

hard work and commit-ment of our whole team.I also need to thank ourexisting clients who haverecognised the quality ofour services and I hopethat this award goessome way to confirmingto prospective clientsthat they are in safehands.”

The company managesprofessional fireworkcontracts for localauthorities, festivals,groups and corporateclients and recent proj-ects have included pre-senting a spectacular dis-play in front of the Kingof Spain. Geoff added: “Itis a tremendous privilegeto be asked to manageand fire a show to such aspecial audience. Wecarefully scripted theshow using our own in-house software and firedthe show simultaneouslyover seven firing sites. Itwas incredible.”

Sizzling success for 21cc

12 30/7/10 11:01 Page 1

13

IN a previous life I was a teacher anda sports coach and it became veryapparent from the onset that knowl-edge was the key to building a suc-cessful sports team, besides all thehard training.

This knowledge was about knowingwhat we were trying to achieve andhow we are going to go about achiev-ing this goal without team injuries.

I believe the same principles applyin our industry, especially on site asthis is where all the hours, days and

months of preparation that havebeen put in by the production com-pany come to fruition. The last thinganyone wants on site is different peo-ple working to different objectives.Not only is this inefficient, it compro-mises health and safety.

Overcoming this is not rocket sci-ence. Quite simply, creating a unifiedgoal-orientated team working safelyon site requires the proper integra-tion of the production team and out-side contractors.

But before proper integration canbe reached, I believe there are threekey steps that need to be taken atevery event.

First, introduce outside contractorsto all personnel and decision makerson site. This can save time during thejob, since contractors will knowexactly who to speak to when some-thing unexpected happens or theyneed advice.

Secondly, contractors shouldreceive a good briefing. This mayseem obvious, but how can the con-tractors possibly appreciate what theclient is trying to achieve withoutknowledge? A short, detailed briefingmeans that contractors know exactlywhat is expected of them and whatthe deadlines are. The most impor-tant factor in this briefing should beinformation on what has alreadybeen carried out on site.

This will help contractors avoid anyrisks by making them fully aware of

health and safety hazards.The third factor that can be very

valuable is a familiarization walkthrough of the venue. This will alsohighlight such things as potentialhealth and safety dangers. And,remember many contractors will beable suggest alternative plans since itis very likely that they have worked atthis venue before and have foundsafer, better and more efficient meth-ods.

None of this costs anything, and infact may even save money byempowering contractors to be moreefficient. Neither is it anything wedon’t already know. Unfortunately, itis just something that slips by thewayside when we are pressurised anddeadlines are looming.

But for efficiency, better health andsafety, and greater cost-effectiveness,I believe that it is time our industrytook a step back and seriously lookedat how it manages its on-site teams.

These days everyone in our industry islooking at costs. But what if there were away to save money without compromisinghealth and safety? Heath Freeman,managing director of Pinnacle Crew,believes there is ...

Time for our industry to take a step back?

WHEN looking at event sustainability, thethree R’s to be thought about are reduce;reuse and recycle. There are many sustain-ability experts coming into the entertainmentindustry at many levels on a daily basis as it isvery much the buzz word and maybe, and Isay this cynically, a way to make money.

I have no idea who the ‘ozone layer’ is, orwho is responsible for this tragic action but Ido know that sustainable events are the wayforward.

I also know there is a worldwide recessionand clients are looking at budget and profitlines, therefore, the introduction of sustain-ability to most events has to be cost effectivein the current climate.

Practical and cost effective ideas to make anevent sustainable can be implementedthroughout the life cycle of any event, startingwith the planning and licensing.

Paperwork can be produced and distributedelectronically, not only saving paper and inkbut also reducing event administrative costs.

Some meetings for event planning, especial-ly on international events, can be undertakenvia VOIP (voice over IP) Skype, video confer-encing or telephone, reducing carbon emis-sions from air travel and the budgetary costsinvolved in planning an event.

One of the most important parts of theevent life cycle to organisers is ‘bums onseats’. Marketing can also be undertakenusing email drops, websites and the electron-ic medium, however this needs to suit theaudience demographic. There is not a lot ofpoint computer marketing to an older audi-ence that may not have daily access to com-puters – my mum (67) loves Tom Jones butcan’t even use a mobile phone to text, blessher!

When marketing events, it costs an organis-er very little to promote safe car sharing, pub-lic transport or supplying map links to show

pedestrian routes to a venue. There is a goodchance that fewer vehicles on site will save incar parking and traffic management costswhilst reducing the event’s carbon emissions– audience travel will be by far the highestcarbon emissions of any travel related part ofan event in your own country.

Other things to consider include:� Low energy LED lighting rigs� Waste management and recycling� Safe drinking water taps on festival sites asopposed to bottled water� Local produce from your caterers� Fairtrade and organic products� Alternative power such as solar, wind orbio-diesel.

Event sustainability does not have to costexcesses on budget and will help make theplanet better, even if it cannot be guaranteedto save it.

In our ever competitive industry, the adop-tion of sustainability policies and procedurescan enhance business and open doors forexpansion of a company – therefore let’s alldownload the PDF version of the newBS8901:2009 and tender for the 2012Olympics.

Sustainability is one area which all organisers must take seriously,according to Andy Cotton. In this month’s column he explains why.

Andy Cotton

Event sustainabilitydoes not have to bea burden on budget

50,000 people have attended a spectacular free event, which took placeon Liverpool’s famous waterfront.Culture Liverpool worked with Walk the Plank to deliver On theWaterfront – an event which included light,fire, pyrotechnics and musicto delight the crowds.� For more on the event see the September issue of The Main Eventwhere we will be chatting to its organisers.

Latitude organisers putcar alternatives in placeLATITUDE’S organisersmade it as easy as possiblefor festivalgoers to leavetheir cars at home by putting in place a numberof public transport options.

Festival Republicarranged a network ofcoaches, trains and shuttlebuses to help visitors to getright to the heart of the fes-tival without having to

bring their cars. Those whowere determined to travelby car were urged to dotheir bit by travelling at offpeak times and transport-ing as many people as pos-sible. Festival-goers werealso encouraged to travelby bike – with bike racksprovided on site for cyclistswho chose to arrive thatway.

Record numbers at festivalLOUNGE on the Farm cele-brated its fifth birthday witha record number of visitorsto the festival.

Over 200 bands playedacross six stages with the7,000 strong crowd alsobeing treated to a full come-dy and theatre line up.

Promoter Matt Gough said:“We’re now well and trulymaking our mark as one ofthe south-east's biggest andbestest summer events, andwe’re ready to keep bringingthe best music, best food andbest farm animals to thiscorner of Kent for a goodwhile yet.”

13 30/7/10 11:03 Page 1

2 14 NOEA

Diary Dates

Northern Ireland Conference 30 September –October 1, BelfastTHE Northern Ireland NOEA conferencewill take place in Belfast on ThursdaySeptember 30 and Friday October 1.There is a wide variety of speakersattending from the police, and theambulance services. Also speakers fromthe Emergency planning College and theBelfast Metropolitan University. Some ofthe topics to be discussed will be licens-ing, PRS and training as well as theYoung Professionals Initiate. There willbe opportunities for exhibiting as well asattending.

September 21 – 22 Event UK NECSeptember 30 – October 1 Northern IrelandConferenceOctober 20 – 21 Showman’s Show, NewburyMid November Scottish Conference (venuetbc)November 26 Regional Conference and AGM(venue tbc)

Contact details: Susan Tanner PO Box 4495,Wells. BA5 9AS. (T) 01749 674 531

(E) [email protected]

Dear AuntieI have heard that all pubs andrestaurants have to give customersfree water. How does this affectthings like beer tents at outdoorevents?

Joe, Maidenhead

Dear JoeI have asked lovely NOEA lawyerPhil and this is what he said:-“The new regulation is that from6th April 2010, the ‘responsible per-son’ at ‘relevant premises’ has toensure that free tap water is provid-ed on request to customers whereis is reasonably available.

This seems pretty straightforwardbut unfortunately, it isn't.Relevant premises for this purposemeans anywhere that is licensed tosell alcohol, either under a premis-es licence, club premises certificateor temporary event notice (TEN).That would include a Beer tent.

Responsible person means theholder of the licence, club certifi-cate or person who gave the TEN,the DPS and anyone over 18 who isauthorised to sell or supply alcoholat the premises i.e. just abouteveryone.

The catch is that it doesn't explainwhat ‘tap water’ is.

I assume that what they mean iswater from a tap connected to themains but that's not what theysaid, nor did they say ‘drinkingwater’.

So suppose that you have some

water for washing your handsthat's in a water butt.

The butt has a tap on it so doesthat make it tap water? What if thebutt is filled with nice sustainablerain water – does it become tapwater when it comes out of the tapat the bottom of the butt? Andwhat is reasonable when it comesto being available? How far are weexpected to go and when? Shouldwe have filled a few barrels fromthe tap before we left home andbrought them with us and besides,what do we mean by a customer? Ifsomeone walks in and doesn't buy

anything but asks for a cup of tapwater, does that make them a cus-tomer or not?

What if he wants a beer and shewants free water and is the answerdifferent if he asks for a beer forhimself and free water for her?

I don’t know but I do know thatfalling foul of this could cost a fineof up to £20,000 and six months inprison so better give anyone whoasks for it water if you possiblycan.”

Damn, I should have known bet-ter than ask a lawyer ...

Happy flows, Auntie NOEA

Auntie NOEA Can you help with this month’s plea and please do take on board Phil's lengthyresponse to the tap water conundrum – this could catch many of us out! Send yourletters, pleas or pics to [email protected]

AT the last NOEA convention, the ballwas set in motion for NOEA tolaunch a Young Professional division.

This innovative division will be thefirst of its kind to support youngevent professionals making NOEAmore relevant and inclusive to youngpeople and students from all walks of the events industry and invitethem to get involved with the associ-ation.

This idea was first discussed at theNOEA Annual Conference with EmilyBurrows from Plaster CreativeCommunications stepping forward tosuggest finding younger membersand help find members and spreadthe word in its first year.

The concept is to offer a place foryoung people to network with othersin similar circumstances and attendevents with relevant content forthem.

For students it will also provideconnections into the industry andthe chance to find employment aftergraduation or work experience to getthat valuable first step on the careerladder.

To further support the needs of stu-dents, Sheila Russell, event manage-ment and PR lecturer at theUniversity of Derby Buxton, is explor-ing an idea with NOEA which will usethe NOEA website to link up studentplacement and employment oppor-

tunities that NOEA members mayhave with students who are lookingfor a placement or employment upongraduation.

It is hoped that this will be benefi-cial to both parties and help makestudents more attractive to futureemployers.

Working more closely with NOEAmembers will help students gain anunderstanding of what it is like towork in the events industry and willprovide NOEA members with aunique opportunity to meet tomor-row’s event professionals, accessing awealth of new talent and ideas thatmay help their business.

The NOEA annual conference will

be attended by all members of allages with a dedicated seminar roomduring the day with a new YouthSeminar programme.

This will attract young people tocarry on the legacy that the associa-tion has developed and raise profileof NOEA as an influential body with-in the industry as the only associa-tion reaching out to encourage legacywithin the events industry.

Emily is currently in the process offinding other young professionals toget this process started so anyoneinterested should get in touch witheither Susan at NOEA 01749 674 531or Emily on 0117 953 0320 or email:[email protected]

The launch of NOEA Young Professionals

NOEA Stand at Event UK September 21-22NEC Birmingham FOLLOWING the success of last year’sshow, this is the largest exhibition forthe events market outside London.Event UK offers a diverse visitor base:around 4,000 industry professionals cre-ated new business contacts right acrossthe country last year.

NOEA will be exhibiting at the showand members are invited to attend aspart of the NOEA area. There will be apod system and for £1,400 ex vat youcan have a presence on the stand. Thisfee will cover the stand fee and allgraphics, you provide your literature. Ifyou would like to join NOEA’s standplease contact Susan Tanner on (01749)674 531.

Venue sought nearChichester ...Joanne has written to me asking for asuitable venue near Chichester whereshe can host a fundraising event for theBritish Red Cross.

It would be perfect if there was roomfor parking, a woodland area for thetreasure hunt, a fairly large picnic areaand space for camping.

This event is scheduled for mid-lateOctober. Please email your suggestionsto [email protected] and Iwill forward them to Joanne.

Event Risk, Safety and Security Conference September 20 - 23 2010Olympia Conference Centre, LondonNOEA is supporting this event andmembers who wish to attend will beentitled to a 15 per cent discount.The Effective Strategies to ManageEvent Risk, Safety and SecurityConference (ERSS) 2010 is a uniqueplatform for sharing best practiceand effective strategies to managecritical issues of risk, safety and secu-rity which apply to every public orparticipant event, large or small.

ERSS 2010 will bring together 250senior event risk, safety and securitydecision makers, event professionalsand key influencers for two days ofintense debate and discussions. This

leading edge conference will providea wealth of practical information,management solutions and casestudies from a variety of events, alldelivered by industry experts, toensure you have the opportunity tolearn and share best practice withindustry leaders, peers and col-leagues. The conference is a uniqueplatform for sharing best practiceand effective strategies to managecritical issues of risk, safety and secu-rity which apply to every public orparticipant event, large or small. Forfurther information please contactChris Trainor. T: +971 4 3365161 F:+971 4 3364021 [email protected] www.even-trisksafetyandsecurity.com

PRS ConsultationPRS, Performing Right Society, arenow out for public consultation on areview of their LP tariff. This is theone that affects festivals and events ofall kinds, where music is involved.

Currently the licence charge is threeper cent of box office takings, lessbooking fees, commissions etc. Theproposal is to increase this and bringit more inline with many otherEuropean countries. The consultationis open until early September – pleaseclick on the PRS web site so that youtoo can contribute and comment.

http://www.prsformusic.com/users/businessesandliveevents/musicfor-businesses/customerconsultation/Pages/default.aspx

14 30/7/10 11:04 Page 1

SOME of the UK’s most popularfestivals have signed up to a pro-gramme which will see each eventcut its carbon footprint by 10 percent this year.

The events have joined forceswith 10:10 – a carbon reductioncampaign which also works withbusinesses including hospitals,councils and schools – to min-imise their impact on the environ-ment.

As part of the scheme, organiserswill also be assisted by Julie’sBicycle to help them identify andreduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Festivals taking part includeLatitude, Lovebox, T in the Park,Bestival and The Big Chill andunder the 10:10 festival pro-gramme, event organisers will seekto reduce carbon emissions fromonsite energy use, waste and waterconsumption.

Events will be encouraged to lookat things such as: � Using solar power and biofuel� Using energy efficient lighting� Onsite waste separation andrecycling� Introducing biodegradable orrecycling cups

� Composting toiletsDirector of Julie’s Bicycle Alison

Tickell said: “Music festivals in theUK have been making huge effortsto reduce their environmentalimpacts and Julie's Bicycle is reallypleased to provide practical sup-port which will help them fulfilltheir 10 per cent reduction ambi-tions.

“10:10 is an ideal campaign forfestivalgoers to sign up to, and wehope there will be plenty moresummer pledges.”

10:10 and Julie’s Bicycle are alsosupporting festivals in promoting

transport alternatives such as liftsharing and the use of publictransport to get to and fromevents.

Director of 10:10 Eugenie Harveyadded: “British summertimewouldn’t be the same withoutmusic festivals and we feel privi-leged to be working with some ofthe very best this year.” � What should organisers andsuppliers be doing to make theirevents more environmentallyfriendly? Email your views [email protected] or contact our edito-rial team on 01226 734463.

Festivals back shrinkingfootprint campaign

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216

T IN THE PARK

Campaign looked toeducating the kids ...ENCOURAGING festivalgoers tolook after themselves and eachother was another vital part of the campaign, according to Colin.

He added: “It is all about educating the kids so they areaware of how they behave andremember that festivals can present risks so to stick with their friends and look after eachother.

“It is important that peopleremember that.

“The problems which occur ineveryday life don’t stop when people come to T in the Park so Citizen T is all about makingpeople more aware about looking after themselves and

their neighbours.

“We have also been engagingwith police, stewards and camp-site staff and encouraging festival-goers to see them as people whoare there to make their weekendthe best possible.

“We also set up a Citizen T camp-site to try and put people with alike minded approach in the samearea.

“Even at the end of the festival, inthat campsite, they had clean toi-lets and it was a litter free, tentfree area.

“If we can get people in the rightmindset, then we can give themthe best possible camping experi-ence at a festival.”

AS PART of Citizen T, organisers arealso hoping to tackle the number oftents left behind at the festival.

Colin added: “We know we have aproblem with tents as people arebuying them so cheap.

“So we wanted to highlight that atent is for life, not just for T and thatthey can re-use it.

“We are trying to get away from the psychology of buying a cheaptent.”

‘A tent is for life, not just for T’

THE MRL Safety team (Julian Bentley,Judy Jackson and John King) travelledto T In The Park with a new role thisyear.

Not only was the company there tomanage the JOCC (Joint OperationsControl Centre) but for the first time,to assist with live footage and imagesfrom the MRL Eye.

T in the Park was one of the MRLEye's first official jobs and pilot, JohnKing, was looking forward to captur-ing images of the arena, campsitesand car parks for DF Concerts, whowere very pleased with the results.MRL was also highly successful inbroadcasting live images from theMRL Eye direct into the JOCC whichproved to be very beneficial to every-

one there, this was made possible byworking in conjunction with ChrisBurke, from the event’s CCTVprovider, IFCV.

For several years MRL Safety haveensured that T in the Park's JOCC ismanaged and run efficiently 24 hoursper day, throughout the event.

Judy Jackson, one of MRL Safety’sdirectors said: “I take my role ofbeing the JOCC manager very seri-ously and recognise it is necessarythat information is passed through tothe correct team at the right time.Once again T in the Park turned outto be a good event with the usualtypes of incidents but nothing thatthe JOCC team couldn't handle byworking together.”

MRL Eye oversees T

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17

T IN THE PARK

By Christina Eccles

A NEW five-year plan was used at thisyear’s T in the Park to encourage fes-tivalgoers to look after themselvesand each other.

Citizen T was created by organisersin order to make sure everyone onsite had a safe and enjoyable experi-ence at the festival.

The plan was broken down into dif-ferent areas which organisers wantedto tackle and they came up with funand quirky ways to engage with festi-valgoers – particularly on areas wherethey had previously had problems.

As part of Citizen T, visitors wereasked to clean up after themselvesand not to drop litter on the floor andevent manager Colin Rodgers toldThe Main Event this was one thingthey were keen to improve on at thisyear’s festival.

He said: “From a site perspective,we had a disappointing time with lit-

ter in 2009 so we refocused our atten-tion on how we would tackle that.

“Environmental issues are veryimportant to us and we try to beleaders and ambassadors so this alsofitted in with that. We set up a wholemanagement plan which we workedthrough with contractors.

“One of the key factors of Citizen Twas putting litter in the bin and wehave been able to see a remarkabledifference in terms of the amount oflitter on the ground. We made surethe bins were getting emptied regu-larly. We knew that if we could keepour end of the bargain by emptyingthe bins, it would encourage peopleto use them and the idea would work. “We also had some more quirkythings. We set up a stage which wassurrounded by bins and had per-formers on it. If people put litter inthe bins, they got to see somethingback from one of the performers.

“It’s something we definitely want

Pictured from left, clockwise, Kasabian, Muse, Paolo Nutini and Eminem.

to expand on – if something is mademore fun then people will do it.”

Bags for waste and recycling werealso handed out to campers who wereencouraged to leave them outsidetheir tents for collection the same asthey would do with their rubbish athome and Colin added that this ideaalso worked really well.

“I’m not yet satisfied 100 per centbut it is certainly an improvement. Ido believe that if you improve theenvironment, then the whole eventwill improve in general.”

T in the Park focuses onimproving litter record

Healthy food goes down a treatA CONSISTENTLY popular area at Tin the Park is Healthy T where festi-valgoers can choose from an exten-sive range of festival food and drink.

And Colin said that the area –which was also introduced into thecampsite this year – is going fromstrength to strength because cus-tomers like having that level ofchoice.

“We would like to see the wholeindustry change so that healthy foodis as common at festivals as burgers

and chips.

“We have noticed that in theHealthy T area, it is as much aboutthe environment. It works because itis a nice area to sit down in.

“But at the end of the day, after theheadline act when people want tograb something on the way back totheir tent, the burger vans have aplace as well.

“So it is all about striking the rightbalance.”

COLIN also revealed why T in thePark’s lasting success is down to theteam of people who work on the fes-tival.

He added: “The week before theevent, we were reminded how vulner-able this industry can be to theweather and we had to go in to a fullbad weather plan.

“It shows how important it is thatwe have staff who are experiencedand who have the knowledge and theconfidence to use it.

“We have planning meetings regu-

larly and do table top exercises so weare very thorough.

“If there was a theme that ranthrough the event this year, it washow good the team are.

“We are 18 months ahead in termsof the planning.

“After the event we have a thoroughdebrief and we are now sharing infor-mation with other festivals.

“I am a big fan of having a levelplaying field and I am always openminded to listen to other people’sexperiences.”

T’s success down to team

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T IN THE PARK

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T IN THE PARK

IN association with commercial andvisual solutions supplier ScreenActivation, Mediatec UK deliveredand supported five LED screens atthis year’s T in the Park.

The products used were four 20sqm

modular screens on each side ofstages one and two, along with a56sqm truck mounted screen forreplay purposes.

Director of Screen Activation DavidLlewellyn said: “Screen Activationwas given the opportunity to supplyscreens, cameras and ancillary equip-ment for this year’s T in the Park festi-val for the first time. We were con-scious that the organisers were dedi-cated to reproducing what had been

a successful formula in previousyears.

“With that in mind, our first choiceas supplier of screens was alwaysgoing to be Mediatec UK. Their trackrecord at the festival was exemplaryand yet again the team did not disap-point either Screen Activation or thefestival organisers.

“Conditions on site were difficultthis year with adverse weather condi-tions and Mediatec UK coped withthis in a way that minimised any dis-ruption to the bands on stage, thefestival organisers or the paying pub-lic. We were proved right to appointMediatec UK for this year and lookforward to using them again.”

‘The decision to appointMediatec was the right one’

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T IN THE PARK

A popular area at the festival was KingTut’s Wah Wah Tent where festivalgoerswatched performances from acts includingEllie Goulding, Diana Vickers and DavidGuetta.The ADLIB Audio team, this year crewchiefed by Hassane Es Siahi, was contracted to work in the tent – designing and installing the PA

system.Hassane said: “Everything went verysmoothly from our perspective.“It's one of our favourite festivals – theschedule is completely full on, the line upexciting and varied and everyone on site ishelpful and friendly.“It's such a well run festival and we arealways really happy to be there.”

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21

GODIVA

ContractorsMain Stage – WangosMusic Tents – Albion Woods Show TentsOther Tents – Kingsmead MarqueesPA Systems – Stage Audio Services,Blackford Production ServicesPA Towers – Star EventsStage Lighting and Risers – LightCoDesignSite Power – GoferTrackway – Lion HireCabins – KonstructaFencing, Barriers, Sign Structures andAcoustic Fence – Harsco

Perimeter Fence and Front of StageBarriers – Alpha EventsNoise Management – VanguardiaToilets – Andy LoosWaste and Recycling – Coventry CityCouncilWater Supplies – WatermillsSecurity and Crowd Management –Show and Event SecurityFurniture – BE Event HirePlant – Morris LeslieTraffic Management and Road Closures– Highway Traffic Management

What worked well at the festival?The 80s night was really wellreceived. I think this was due to anumber of factors, namely the strongand diverse line up and the supportfrom our media partners as thethemed evening was talked up on airwith tracks from the artists beingplayed during the run up to Godiva.We also secured a lot of coverage inthe local press and ran a VIP meetand greet with the artists.

The carnival was fantastic and as itmade its way from the city centre tothe park on the Saturday it picked upthousands of spectators en route.

The micro Acoustic stages in boththe main bar areas were really popu-lar and a laid back alternative to themusical entertainment on Friday andSaturday.

Did you make any changes or improve-ments this year and why? Were they successful?

After listening to comments madefrom last year’s festival we addedmore public toilets to the event, con-centrating on increasing numbersaround the entrances and exits. Wealso evenly dispersed the cateringunits across the site with more foodunits on offer in the family field. Thefinal improvement we made this yearwas to clearly display the variousstages and tents’ programme detailsfor the weekend on giant mesh ban-ners outside the tents and stages.

What were the biggest challenges andissues you faced when working on thisevent and how did you deal with them?We faced a challenge with the GodivaUnsigned Competition as we openedthis up to the West Midlands as aregion. The people of Coventry are,rightly so, very proud of Godiva andregard it as an event in the city, forthe city. When we announced thefinal bands in the unsigned competi-

Organisers of the GodivaFestival have claimed thisyear’s event was by far thebest yet. CV One’s MickMcLaughlin explained whythe festival’s 90,000visitors were so impressed.

Godiva Festival stripped bare ...tion we received some criticism fromcertain members of the public for notkeeping it local. As a result, CV Oneinvited the people who had voicedtheir opinions in for a meeting andthe Godiva Fringe was born. Thefringe event was held on the Fridayevening in the Belgrade Theatre andthe two stages were programmedexclusively by local people with onlyacts hailing from Coventry appearingon the bill. The event was highly suc-cessful and as a result we are hopingto make the Godiva Fringe a perma-nent addition to the programme.

Why do you think the festival is so popular?The festival has always been regardedas the highlight of the city’s event cal-endar – each year it has grown andevolved in both size and popularity. Ithink the festival’s main unique sell-ing point, which sets it apart fromother events taking place, is that it isand always has been completely freeof charge. Godiva is somewhat of aCoventry institution, offering a week-end of entertainment which is suit-able for the whole family.

How did you market the event and whatmethods worked well?We used a variety of methods to mar-ket the event, including, the officialwebsite, e-shots, social networking,printed media, in house publications,competitions, interviews and PR.Social media really took off this year

with thousands joining the GodivaFestival group on Facebook. We werealso very busy with the forums onour own website.

Was the festival well received this year.What sort of feedback have you had?On the whole we have had really pos-itive feedback and received brilliantreviews in both local and nationallistings. We are currently undertakinga Godiva Festival 2010 online surveyto collate with our surveys taken overthe weekend at the festival to identifythe opinions of our customers.

Mick McLaughlin

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LOVEBOX

FOR the third successive year,Sunbaba provided all the stage andsite branding at the Lovebox festivalin Victoria Park.

The company lit up the RelentlessEnergy Tent with a dramatic series ofback lit PVC panels and spruced upthe main stage with PVC stage scrims.

Digimesh Triangular shaped scrimswere provided for the Gaymers Stageand individual Foamex lettering wasused to brand the magical archwayentrance created by American setdesigners The Do LaB.

HT Coasted Polyester banners andDigiPly backdrop were selected forthe HMV signing tent and event sig-nage was created using PVC, Correxand Foamex, to integrate with each ofthe themed locations.

Sunbaba director Jonathan Boothsaid: “One of the special things aboutLovebox is that there’s such a varietyof stages and tents all with their ownunique style. We used a wide varietyof materials and printing processes tofit each of the locations’ specificneeds.”

Sunbaba rises toLovebox challenge

THE key to success at Lovebox wasgiving visitors the flexibility to be apart of as much of the festival as theywanted, according to organisers.

For the first time this year, the eventran over three days – with the newFriday date headlined by DizzeeRascal. Each of the days was alsogiven a clear identity – Friday appeal-ing to a younger demographic,Saturday to the traditional Loveboxaudience and Sunday particularlygeared towards a gay audience.

Festivalgoers could choose to buy aticket for one of the days, two days orthe whole weekend and according toorganiser Rob Silver, it was that levelof choice which appealed to thecrowds.

He explained: “London is a big cityand there are enough people outthere to target so we did the differentcombinations of tickets. We addedFriday because we thought that if wewere building the site and spendingthat amount of time, effort andmoney, it makes sense to try and useit for a day longer.

“Sunday was our biggest successand a fantastic day. In the past, wewould always sell more tickets forSaturday so we wanted to come upwith a concept that would work forSunday. We created a day with a verystrong identity which took elements

from gay culture and we are reallydelighted that it did so well in thefirst year.”

Almost 60,000 people visited thefestival in Victoria Park over theweekend and Rob also revealed whyhe thinks the event has become sucha success. He added: “We are inspiredby other festivals to raise our gameand have tried to create a boutiquefestival in the heart of London where

people don’t have to commit to buy-ing camping tickets.

“They can have that festival experi-ence in the middle of the city butwith a much cheaper ticket price.

“We are really pleased. “There are a lot of festivals out there

and a lot on offer for customers so weare delighted at how many peoplechose to come to Lovebox.”

Stepping upsecurityTHE biggest thing which organisershope to tackle at next year’s festival isenhancing the security of the event.

Rob added that as Lovebox hasgrown and become more well known,it has also appeared on the radar forticket touts and people trying to get inwithout a ticket.

He said those involved with the run-ning of the festival will be looking atextra measures for next year to tryand protect festivalgoers from fallingvictim to touts who are managing toexploit the event’s current wristbandentry system.

On stage atLoveboxStars performing at this year’s Loveboxincluded:

� Dizzee Rascal� Roxy Music� Grace Jones� Mark Ronson� Noisettes� Ellie Goulding� The Maccabees� Paloma Faith� Hot Chip

Pictures: Oliver Boito

Flexibility pays off

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HYDE PARK

POWER Logistics successfully man-aged all of the power requirementsfor this summer’s series of Hyde Parkconcerts.

Dave Oxley was the company’s proj-ect manager and installed over 60generators around the event site,while ensuring the efficient, safe pro-vision of all electrical services andfuel management.

The concerts, which attracted400,000 music fans, began with HardRock Calling featuring Pearl Jam,Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney,followed by midweek ‘SerpentineSessions’ for up and coming bandsand a Kings of Leon Concert beforeending with the Wireless Festival fea-turing Pink, LCD Sound System andJay-Z.

The company’s large twin packsdelivered around six mega watts ofpower to the stage to supply the tech-nical production, while the rest of thegen-sets were distributed around thepark to feed the concessions, cateringoutlets, bars and hospitality areas.

Dave said: “I have worked withinHyde Park before, so was prepared forthe environmental sensitivitiesrequired when working in any of theRoyal Parks regarding overspill light-ing issues that could affect theindigenous wildlife, which is alwaysimportant to us.

“This was like a large nine-day festi-val spread across two weekends,without the camping aspect, and Ilook forward to coming back formany years.”

Power Logistics’ Pete Wills and Phil Screeton

Firm plugged in to series’ needs

SHOWSEC’S Simon Battersby washead of security for the series of HydePark gigs – working with the RoyalParks, licensing bodies, emergencyservices, Live Nation and all other keystakeholders to ensure all securityand crowd management require-ments were met.

With over 400,000 people comingthrough the doors over the sevenscheduled events, the team plannedand delivered a complex security andcrowd management operation, which

was flexible to the requirements ofthe different shows and artists.

The changes in audience profile andartist requirements between each gigwere also significant – with MojoBarriers adapting its crowd barriersystem to suit each audience rangingfrom Hard Rock Calling to the mid-week Kings of Leon gig to Wireless.

In addition, for the Wireless gig anew third stage was added, so a widerstrategy was also needed which tookthis change in to account.

Security flexibility needed

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25

HYDE PARK

ContractorsPower LogisticsEveSearchShowsecGuard Force SecurityPKL ToiletsDe BoerHewdenWatkins HireStar EventsEat to the BeatEvent Medical ServicesRyan’s CleaningXL Video

FOR the eighth year running, XL wereback in Hyde Park for another awesomesummer line up.

Providing an HD PPU, five camera sys-tem and playback for the main stagethroughout, XL put pictures to screenfor the acts of Hard Rock Calling, Kingsof Leon, and Wireless.

Chris Saunders headed the 15-strongteam from XL with Ruary MacPhie cut-ting the screens for the main stage.

Along with the main festival installa-tion, XL have also been supplying tour-ing cameras and LED to a number of theheadline acts. This included StevieWonder, Paul McCartney, Kings of Leon,Pink, Jay Z, Chase and Status and DJShadow; so smooth integration betweensystems was essential. The challengingtask of combining XL’s HD PPU with a

variety of different touring systems, fellto engineers Richard Carroll, WolfgangSchram and Ray Gwilliams who madeeverything run smoothly throughout.XL’s new AJA Ki hard disk recorders alsocame in useful for those last minuterecord requests.

VT playback and announcements werehandled by Jack Dickinson using XL’sOnTheAir Video playback system. Runalongside a Final Cut edit suite, this pro-vided a flexible solution for on site alter-ations.

During the Hard Rock Calling week-end, XL also supplied a B10 LED truckand a 4 x 4 Lighthouse R7 screen to theHard Rock Café VIP areas.

Plasmas in the press, VIP and artistareas relayed live screen footage as wellas the all important England match.

XL rises to the Hyde Park challenges

John rolls uphis sleeves ...THIS year’s event also provided Johnwith a chance to roll his sleeves upand get right to the heart of theaction.

He added: “It was difficult this year.My festivals manager HannahFarnham is on maternity leave so Ihave got more involved than I nor-mally would. But I thoroughlyenjoyed it as it enabled me to seemore and focus on things which mayneed to be tweaked or changed. It wasgreat to be working on the ground asit also showed me how much we relyon the people we work with and howgood they are.”

GLORIOUS weather and spectacularheadline performances kept thecrowds happy at this year’s WirelessFestival.

Popular sets over the weekend fromthe likes of Pink and Jay Z combinedwith warm and dry weather helpedto create a trouble free atmosphereamong festivalgoers and another suc-cessful event for organisers LiveNation.

The festival – which is sponsored byBarclaycard – takes place in London’sHyde Park and according to organiserJohn Probyn, everything went well.

He said: “This year’s Wireless wasabsolutely brilliant and the weathermade such a difference.

“We had a really good mix of acts –Pink’s was a stunning show and Jay-Zwas mindblowing. It was also possi-bly the best behaved crowd we havehad in Hyde Park.”

John revealed to The Main Eventthe changes which were put in placeat this year’s festival and how theyhave helped to improve the experi-ence for festivalgoers.

He added: “We put in a couple ofsystems to improve security and thenumber of people without tickets try-ing to gain entry. We rumbled a cou-ple of people with fake passes –Showsec are getting better and better

at spotting fake laminates and wrist-bands. It definitely helps to build upthese relationships with suppliersand it’s something I have alwayssworn by. I am very loyal to contrac-tors and get the same in return.”

Live Nation has had a busy year sofar working on sites including theFaenol Estate in Bangor for BBCRadio One’s Big Weekend andDonington Park for Download.

And John added that working inHyde Park provides a different set ofchallenges to those faced on other

events.“Hyde Park is a nightmare – there

are so many rules and regulations. Itis essentially the Queen’s back gardenso when we are working there wehave to use a certain standard.

“Also, we might have 65,000 peopleat the event but there may also beanother 30,000 people in the parkhaving a day out, so it’s almost liketwo venues.

“But it is a big, prestigious venueand it was great to see 65,000 peoplehaving such a great time.”

‘Wireless was absolutely brilliant’

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GLASTONBURY

Company supplies over 1,200stage units to GlastonburyALISTAGE was among the suppliersworking at this year’s Glastonbury.

The Harlow-based company washeavily involved with supplying stag-ing for the event, supplying over1,200 modular stage units – anincrease of nearly 30 per cent on theprevious year.

The units were used in a variety oflocations across 26 different stageson the vast site. These includedAcoustic, Avalon, Block Nine, Kidzand Shangri La.

According to the team, moving suchamounts of equipment is not easyand calls for a lot of teamwork andlogistical expertise – the company

was also very grateful that the weath-er was kind to everyone this year.

Even with its own large hire-stock(upwards of 2,500 units), things couldhave been difficult if Alistage had notmanaged to get the equipment off-site at the end of the festival as it wasneeded on other jobs across thecountry soon after. This situationwas also made worse by the timing ofthe Baccus “Adicup” five-a-side tour-nament at Somerset House thatrequired nearly 200 units all at lowlevel at the same time as theGlastonbury build.

The company has also recentlyworked on Lovebox and Latitude.

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GLASTONBURY

ALTHOUGH the prolific Britishgraffiti artist has been keeping alow profile in the UK recently, it isalleged that Banksy didn’t breakwith tradition and made his usualpilgrimage to Glastonbury festival –leaving his legendary mark on theiconic Super Fortress high securityperimeter fence.

Yet to be authenticated by theChesterfield based firm Eve, the lat-est artwork shows all the signs ofbeing the creation of the elusivestreet artist, with echoes of previ-ous work running throughout, suchas the CND symbol and strongstencilling. With one of its threemetre fence sections used as the

canvas, Eve is currently taking stepsto authenticate the artwork beforedeciding where the section can behoused for fellow Banksy fans’enjoyment.

Eve’s managing director RickBarnett said: “Both Banksy and hisartwork are surrounded by intrigueand speculation, so we’re extremelypleased this piece of modern artwas found and that we can nowprotect it to share with all.

“The eight kilometre fence notonly serves a vital security purposeduring the event, but over the yearsit has grown to become an iconicsymbol of the festival – a statuswhich has been further increased

with this potential Banksy mark.”Eve has worked with Glastonbury

Festival for nearly 40 years provid-ing temporary access solutions andrelated services and in 2002, toensure the future of Glastonburyfestival by stopping illegal entryand providing a safe environmentfor legitimate festival goers, Eve andGlastonbury Festival engineersworked together to design anddevelop the formidable fence.

Standing at 4.12m high and nearly8km long, it has unique high secu-rity features including an attachedexternal roadway to prevent tun-nelling, 45-degree overhangs toprevent climbing and no nuts and

bolts to prevent the fence frombeing dismantled.

Eve also supplies the festival withover tens of kilometres of temporary roadways, additionalfencing, bridges, crowd control bar-riers and walkways to ensure theorganisers, contractors, securityand festivalgoers can move aroundsite safely. This year, it did the sameand more.

As the festival grew in size for theanniversary, the requirements forEve’s products and services havegrown, including an extension tothe fence and internal infrastruc-ture.

Eve ready to protect Banksy’s unique mark

FROM humble beginnings in theearly 1970s when just 100 peopleattended, the festival has now grownto attract more than 150,000 revellers– creating a tented city the size ofSunderland.

Festival organisers, Mendip DistrictCouncil, Avon and SomersetConstabulary and the emergencyservices work together to deliver theevent – but it hasn’t always beenplain sailing for those involved.

In the 1990s, as the licensed atten-dance grew, so did the number ofillegal entrants and security provi-sions were unable to cope.

This came to a head at the 2000 fes-tival when an estimated 250,000 wereon site, which put public safety atserious risk. The event was brandeduncontrolled and unsafe, and the dis-trict council prosecuted organiserslater that year.

The following year, organisersdecided to take a year out and con-template their plans for future. It wasalso clear that the council and policeequally had to improve their ways ofdealing with the festival.

This was the beginning of partner-ship working between the three keyagencies – and the transformation ofthe festival.

The main challenge for this groupwas to make improvements for thebenefit of public safety, crime reduc-tion, emergency planning and tominimise impact on the local com-munity.

Since then the group has helpedcreate a safe and controlled eventwhich is held up as a beacon for itsmulti-agency approach to planninglarge scale events.

Some of the key successes of thepartnership working are:� Compliance with licence condi-tions� Improved noise management� Reduced impact on the local com-munity � Halved the percentage of hospitalreferrals � Reduced reported crime� Improved emergency planning� Prevented unauthorised encamp-ments � Eliminated ticket touting near thefestival� Reduced vehicular movement � Reduced ticketless fans arriving

Here’s what the people involved hadto say ...Coun Nigel Hewitt-Cooper, local dis-trict councillor covering the

Glastonbury Festival site and theportfolio holder for neighbourhoodservices, which includes licensing theevent: “Since becoming a councillor Ican clearly see the huge improvementsthat have taken place regarding part-nership working.

“It has also been very encouraging tosee the proactive approach that thenew organisers have to listening toour concerns and acting on them.

“This has become a world renownedevent and other authorities use it as astandard when organising similarlarge scale events.”

Rachael Rogers from the LocalAuthority Co-ordinators ofRegulatory Services (LACORS): “It isclear strong working relationshipshave been developed between allagencies, particularly the key agen-cies. This can now be put forward asan exemple of how a large eventshould be planned, organised andlicensed.”

Melvin Benn, licence holder forGlastonbury Festivals: “What reallymakes this extraordinary festival workand be safe is the incredibly strongpartnership working with MendipDistrict Council and Avon and

Somerset Constabulary. There is noquestion that I am responsible for thefestival with Mendip and Avon andSomerset being the judges and moni-tors of what I do.

“No-one should ever underestimatethe valuable and often unseen rolethat the district council and policeundertake as public bodies workingwith a private one to makeGlastonbury Festival the greatestevent on earth.”

Close working relationships between all parties involved ensures the Glastonbury Festival happens safely year onyear. The Main Event heard from the people who make it happen.

‘A tented city the size of Sunderland’

Shakira who performed at the event

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ROCKNESS

JOHN King from MRL Safety attendedRockness as the event safety managerfor the third consecutive year.

This was another successful year forthe event with bright weather andplenty of happy people. The plan-ning had begun months earlier withthe event management team fromLoudsound.

The MRL Safety team were updatedabout changes to the site and eventand drafted safety documents andevacuation plans.

John King worked closely alongsidethe contractors at the event to ensureit all went smoothly without anyhealth and safety issues. MRL Safety

believe in continually striving toimprove relationships with the siteteams they work with and include thelocal authority in this, in this case theHighland Council. The event passedwithout any incidents during thebuild or break of the event.

John said: “It’s always a pleasureworking with the Loudsound team,all of us that are involved in puttingthe event together work very closely,professionally and safely to ensurethe event runs smoothly and thatstaff and the public enjoy the event.Overall Rockness 2010 was yet anoth-er highly successful event put togeth-er by Loudsound.”

Rockness 2010: another highly successful event

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ROCKNESS BRENT RESPECT FESTIVAL

BRENT Council is responsible fororganising the Respect Festival andhas a remit to include as many sec-tions of the community as possible.

Attractions on offer this year includ-ed musical performances, free horse-drawn carriage rides from theHousehold Calvary MountedRegiment, a roller disco and danceand DJ workshops.

Expressions of interest for the festi-val go out about five months beforethe festival, inviting members or thecommunity to submit ideas for con-sideration in the programme.

And Melissa said this generates a lotof interest from local people who arekeen to get involved.

She explained: “Brent RespectFestival is a festival by, for and aboutour community.

“It is an opportunity for some toshowcase their talents in the per-forming arts on our stages, to displayand perhaps sell their creations atour stalls areas or for members of thecommunity to come together in theirleisure or recreational pursuits, be itdance or participating in a sportstaster session.

“It is always a challenge to fit asmany of the worthy expressions of

interest we receive, especially fromyoung people, into the official pro-gramme, not wanting to dampenspirits and enthusiasm but also want-ing to showcase the very best we haveon offer.”

According to Melissa, the eventchanges each year as communitiesexperience new things which theythen want to show others.

She added: “The event evolves eachyear in the same way our communi-ties evolve; as they come togetherand as they experience new and posi-tive activities in their lives that theywish to share with the wider Brentcommunity.

This year saw the culmination ofour Flavours of Brent capacity build-ing programme for outdoor caterers.Roller Disco, an activity that has beentaking place at Bridge Park SportsCentre in Stonebridge as part of ourphysical activity in the borough wasalso immensely popular, as was theworld record attempt at the ElectricSlide – with a massive turnout of people of all ages in our attempt tobreak the record for the largest single outdoor electric slide perform-ance.

“The festival is one of Brent's most

popular with council staff, residentsand visitors to the borough alike andhas over the years morphed into afestival that reflects not only Brentresidents’ interests but their skillsand passions.

“It is where they come to see, pres-ent, learn, challenge, engage, andcommunicate with one another. Inessence it is the very definition ofwhat a community festival is allabout.

This year’s Brent Respect Festival attracted its biggest ever audience – with over25,000 people attending the celebrations in Roundwood Park. Organiser MelissaInman spoke to The Main Event.

‘A festival by, forand about ourcommunity ...’

29 30/7/10 10:43 Page 1

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MedicalManagementSP Services (UK) LtdUnit D4, Hortonpark EstateHortonwood 7 Telford Shropshire TF1 7GXT: 01952 288 999F: 01952 606 112E: [email protected]

ParamedicoNo 1a Storage unitTannery closeCroydon Industrial EstateBeckenhamKent BR3 4BYT: 02086565956M: 07515287962E: [email protected]

PortableKitchensPKL Group (UK) Ltd,Stella WayBishops CleeveCheltenhamGloucestershireGL52 7DQT: 01242 663000E: [email protected]

PromotionalStaffACG : Artimis Creative GroupHickory HousePrimsland CloseMonkspathSolihullB90 4YHT: 0121 703 3168M: 07977 252308E: [email protected]

Revolving StagesMovetech UK A division of BritishTurntable Co LtdEmblem StreetBoltonBL3 5BWT: 01204 537682E: [email protected]/rental

Screen HireXL Video2 Eastman WayHemel HempsteadHertsHP27DUT: 01442 849400E: [email protected]

Sound & LightingStage ElectricsThird WayAvonmouthBristolBS11 9YL T: 0844 870 0077 F: 0117 916 [email protected]

StagingCentre Stage EventsUnit 108a Leyland Trading EstateIrthlingborough RoadWellingboroughT: 01234 783234E: [email protected]

Daytona Stage HireP.O. Box 43HuddersfieldHD8 9YUT: 01484 605555M: 07889 132580F: 01484 602806E: [email protected]

Steeldeck Rentals LtdUnit 58T.Marchant Estate42-72 Verney RoadLondonSE16 3DHT: 020 7833 2031E: [email protected]

The Outdoor Staging Company Ltd1 Langley DriveCastle Bromwich B35 7ADT: +44(0)7866 470 293E: [email protected]

The Revolving Stage Company LtdUnit F5, Little Heath Industrial EstateOld Church RoadCoventryCV6 7NDT: 024 7668 7055E:[email protected]

The Stage Bus19 Prestwood RoadWeoley CastleBirminghamB29 5EBT: 0121 603 8367M: 07738 900 762 E [email protected]

Trade AssociationsNOEASusan TannerPO Box 4495WELLS.BA5 9AST: 01749 674 531E: [email protected]

VenuesFabric LondonLevel 2 Greenhill House Cowcross Street London EC1M 6BT: 020 7549 4844E: [email protected]

Wicksteed Park Ltd.Barton RoadKetteringNorthantsNN15 6NJT: 01536 512475F: 01536 518948E: [email protected]

Walkie TalkiesWall to Wall CommunicationsUnilink House21 Lewis RoadSutton, SurreySM1 4BRT:020 8770 1007F:020 8770 9700E:[email protected]

Water suppliesWater Direct LtdB-26 Earls Colne Business ParkEarls ColneColchesterEssexCO6 2NST: 0845 345 1725F: 01787 223354E: [email protected]

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PORTABLE ROADWAY

MEDICAL

RECYCLING

WASTE MANAGEMENT

EVENT BRANDING

TOILET HIRE

FAIRGROUNDS

Unit D, Central Estate,Albert Road, Aldershot,Hampshire GU11 1SZ

Tel: 01252 313005

The EventMedicine Company

Email: [email protected]

VEHICLE HIRE

BARS RADIO HIRE

POWER SUPPLY

BALLOONS

CLASSIFIED 31

CATERING

EVENT HIRE

LARGE SCREEN HIRE

STAGE HIRE

HEATING & COOLING

32 derby 29/7/10 15:54 Page 1

Main Event (August 2010)

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