Music fans were able to enjoy the Bestival Weekend in the Isle of Wight this September, in spite of consistently wet weather before and during the event, with the help of crowd management company Showsec.
The company played a significant role in helping to keep the 40,000 capacity audience safe and warm, while at the same time ensuring that its own team was well equipped to operate in harsh conditions.<br><br>With driving rain and soft ground affecting festival-goers and production teams from the outset, it was important for Showsec to ensure its own team was able to rest and dry out after shifts in the wet weather. This way, they were best placed to offer advice and practical help to festival-goers who were working hard to keep their morale high in severely muddy conditions.<br><br>In the campsites and wider festival area, stewards were sensitive to customers’ needs, staying alert for weather-related illnesses such as exposure and effectively directing crowds around boggy areas and bottlenecks. Front of stage, ground protection measures introduced by the production allowed audiences to enjoy the entertainment in safety, while crowd management teams worked effectively in wet conditions.<br><br>With over 450 staff on site, Showsec’s contingency plans included using cabins and vehicles as drying areas for uniforms, ensuring that every staff member had dry clothes for their next shift, as well as maintaining the infrastructure of the staff campsite to ensure off-duty teams were well rested.<br><br>Showsec Area Manager Steve Reynolds said: “Our risk management procedures always allow for poor weather at festivals and Bestival put those plans to the toughest of tests. We’re pleased to say that our staff performed superbly under the harshest of circumstances, that our contingency systems performed very well indeed and that customers were able to enjoy themselves as far as the weather allowed."
Meanwhile at Camp Bestival, the new family-oriented sister event of the Bestival, was helped by customer care offered by Showsec. The company demonstrated its ability to work with all age groups, from nine months to 90, when it planned an event safety policy which included lost children at the 10,000 capacity festival, about half of whom were under 16.
The company worked with Loudsound and Radio 1 presenter Rob da Bank, to put a lost children system in place, which saw every child given a wristband with a phone number attached. Showsec provided lost children teams – adapting the idea of the traditional “rapid response” team – who would bring any lost children to a central area run by the Isle of Wight Youth Trust.
“The longest any child was with us was about three hours, with the vast majority reunited within 15 minutes,” says Paul Trippier, Deputy Crowd Manager for Showsec. “The system worked very well. Parents or guardians had to present their identity to us to ensure we were releasing the children to the right people. It was a slight change to our usual festival plan but our experience at shows such as Disney on Ice and High School Musical stood us in good stead.”
The family nature of the show also had other benefits: “The campsite clearance was the quickest and cleanest I’ve ever experienced,” says Paul. “At festivals there are often still people remaining late into the Monday, a little ‘worse for wear’. But with it being a family event, everyone was off site by 2pm, leaving behind an exceptionally clean field.”
Lost children feature in the Retail Security magazine that comes with the October issue of Professional Security magazine.
