As festival season approaches SafeSite Facilities takes a look at how event organisers can ensure revellers have a safe and joyful experience.
With festival goers in 2024 reporting overcrowding and sky-high ticket prices, along with sets cut short at Glastonbury and a crowd surge at Boardmasters Festival in Cornwall, Sandra Howey at Safe Site Facilities gives her approach to a successful 2025 season below:
There are so many moving parts to organising a successful festival – including the crucial aspects of crowd barriers, fencing, lighting, walkways and signage.
Get these wrong and the festival experience can sour very quickly. Get them right and you’re on the road to creating a happy festival experience for all, where people can have a good time without worrying.
Although it is important to stick with the festival vibe, focus on safety is paramount. It’s a careful balancing act.
Arrivals
When people reach a festival, there should be secure perimeter fencing which is high enough to keep intruders out. Overcrowding due to jumping the fences can create serious safety issues and has the potential to ruin the experience.
Once revellers have parked up and they need to get into the festival or make their way around it, the walkways need to be safe.
Consider the time of year and the forecast, making sure safety mats for walkways are available and that metal road protection is in place for visitors and site vehicles, preventing them from getting stuck in the mud and more importantly emergency vehicles have quick access.
Speed bumps leading up to the site will prevent accidents and keep traffic slow. Entrances need defences such as water filled or concrete barriers, which are crash tested to 50 miles per hour. They also have the bonus of assisting the Traffic Management team on site. If visitors can reach the festival quickly and seamlessly, they’re already off to a flying start.
Moving around the site
Different types of fencing are required for each area, depending on the activity. Stage barriers will need to be more robust – and high enough to stop people climbing over – keeping the acts and spectators safe.
Once festival goers are queuing to get in to see a favourite act, lower fencing or pedestrian barriers will be required to ensure crowds are managed safely into the stage area to prevent people jumping the queue and pushing in and causing upset.
Safemats, or Ground Protection Mats, should be installed along all the main routes with more available if a festival site becomes extremely muddy. Clear Path mats can also be added that feature colours showing people the designated route.
Think about those with accessibility issues and ensure disabled access doors are always manned and as accessible as the general entrances. Helping people to feel safe, whether they are trying to see their favourite act or finding their way around the site is all part of ensuring a happy and worry-free experience.
CCTV
CCTV is an important element of keeping revellers safe at festivals, whether it’s used as a deterrent to stop fans from sneaking in or to make sure people feel safe, particularly when they are in areas with lower footfall.
It also means security guards will be able to intervene in real time, especially with the use of AI powered CCTV technology, which can differentiate between animals and people trying to get into the festival site.
There are also CCTV towers which are portable and can moved around festival sites depending on where need is greatest.
Those who have paid to get into a festival want to feel safe when they are on site and CCTV will hopefully provide reassurance to attendees.
Access
Organisers need to carefully consider access, both for the set up and de-rig of a festival. Site vehicles should have different access to the public, ensuring minimal hold ups on both sides.
Timings for set up and de-rig need to be planned out carefully.
Delivery and collection vehicles not in use at the festival could be costly due to potential ‘standing charges’. It is therefore important to ensure suitable offloading facilities are available and there is adequate space available to carry this out.
Ensure there is good access for water tankers to fill water filled barriers to avoid hold ups.
If every aspect is not assessed and plans in place it is amazing how much time can be wasted with just one small detail left overlooked. Checking logistics in advance can save an awful lot of hassle, giving festival goers the opportunity to make a swift exit at the end of their experience, is always welcome.
Barriers
For safety reasons it is important to give careful thought to which barriers will suit each area of the festival to keep the budget to a minimum.
For example, pedestrian barriers will funnel people in a certain direction, but other types, such as Heras fencing, provide an opportunity to create branded hoardings which help to keep that festival vibe, by giving people an exciting backdrop and of course advertising opportunities.
Pedestrian barriers are not as sturdy as police barriers, so they are more suitable where there is likely to be less crowd pressure. For example, police barriers are designed to withstand a little more pressure, however for the front of the stage barriers are even more heavy duty and designed for purpose to resist crowd pressure. Assessing which stages and acts these may be required for is invaluable.
It is therefore important to assess areas of the festival and determine where pinch points are likely to be.
It’s also important to include sufficient ballast to stop barriers and fences from blowing over in strong winds and consider likely wind speeds in the location of the festival.
For larger events the pemieter fencing around festivals ideally would be three meters high with solid hoarding. Internal fencing should also be protected by ballast to stop people from pushing the fences down or for protection from high winds blowing them over to ensure crowd control measures are effective and that people can focus on enjoying the festival experience and feel safe at all times.
Security
Security teams need to understand the protocol of managing crowds at a festival, which means they are doing their job, but without being heavy handed. It’s managing people fundamentally, so they still have that feel good factor, whilst keeping everyone safe.
Lighting
From fairy lights to disco lights, there is a kaleidoscope of options to create that festival vibe.
Higher intensity lighting is also crucial to help people find their way around and critical for safety.
Lighting should be deployed along the main routes, where queuing takes place and any hazard areas, for example around the toilets and disabled access.
Overall, it’s important for everything to be clear and easy to understand. Festival sites can be vast and disorientating – especially in the dark, or if people are stressed, tired or have had a few drinks.
Not every festival is a Glastonbury – most are much smaller, of course. The key takeaway is to carefully prepare for the numbers you’re dealing with to ensure fans and organisers have a festival to remember, for all the right reasons.
