The end of May saw East London enjoy one of its most colourful events, the Baishakhi Mela, with over 110,000 people welcoming the Bengali New Year. This record-breaking crowd enjoyed one of the hottest days of the year so far.
Baishakhi Mela is the biggest Bengali event in Europe and features a heady mix of a colourful parade, live music, DJs, dance, costume, arts, crafts and the best Bengali food outside of Bengal itself.
It was AP Security’s second year providing staff at the event, the company’s pointing to its working relationship with the Metropolitan Police and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets for safety and stewarding integrated. The Mela covers a wide area, including parks at Allen Gardens and Weaver’s Fields, plus many of the surrounding roads. With responsibilities including phased road closures, crowd management and safety, keeping local residents happy and dealing with the inevitable frictions between groups of local youths, AP’s planning began at the beginning of the year.
Come the day, with its 100-strong team briefed, AP’s planning paid off and the event proceeded smoothly. Adam Scott, AP’s head of security at the Mela, said: “The Mela is a complex event and all our staff need to have a very clear understanding of what’s required. The rolling road closures are an especially complex area to manage. Ensuring that they are closed (and stay closed) when required, but are opened as quickly as possible afterwards, takes very careful co-ordination and clear communication.”
An event attracting up to 110,000 people will throw up unexpected challenges and AP’s ability to respond quickly, on the company’s own initiative, was key to another successful Mela. Integrating with the police on site, AP staff were able to sort out any issue’s at a moment’s notice, without the delay which would be caused by lots of two-way communication with the Met first.
Nick Green, senior arts and events manager at Tower Hamlets Council, said: “We were delighted with the quality of AP Security’s staff and the company’s usual meticulous input to the planning of the event and its delivery on the day. This was the most successful Mela yet and AP played a significant part in how smoothly everything ran.”
“It was another highly successful event,” said Adam. “Hot weather always means that people get frustrated a little more easily than on a cooler day, but our highly trained staff know exactly what to expect in any given conditions and to adjust how they react accordingly. We were very pleased to be part of such a successful event for the second year and look forward to many more.”
About AP Security
Winner of the first Safeconcerts Award for Excellence, twice winner of the Crowd Management of the Year Award and now winner of the NOEA 2009 Training in Events Tribute, AP Security has worked at resource-intensive events such as Glastonbury Festival and Leeds Carling Festival, as well as at gatherings such as Henley Festival of Arts and Music and the Boat Race plus at venues such as O2 Arena, O2 Academy Brixton and HMV Forum. It has offices in London, Leeds and Coventry.
