How do midsummer music and other outdoor events – by nature one-offs – secure themselves?
What can make securing a music festival quite galling for a security person trying to do a job may be the rebellious attitude of some of the musicians. For instance veteran rocker Iggy Pop sang ‘No Fun’ into the face of one steward, and tried to crowd-surf at Isle of Wight pop festival in the summer.
Can they keep within the Private Security Industry Act regarding contract security officers, and protect themselves and the thousands of customers from threats from theft to ticket-touting to drug dealing and (as has harmed Glastonbury before) mass intrusion by people without tickets breaching the perimeter?! Let alone safeguarding people out to have a good time who may resent any staff trying to enforce rules against crowd surfers or about drinking or camp-fires or VIP-access only areas.
Thereโs a link here with the regulator because SIA director Andy Drane, as a former Avon and Somerset assistant chief constable, took charge of policing a Glastonbury among other things for the force.
At arguably the biggest and most famous open-air summer event, Glastonbury, the answer seems to have been a careful division of (SIA-licensable) security activities and other actions that stewards can do without needing security skills. GFL (Glastonbury Festivals Limited) has hundreds of volunteer stewards – provided for years by charity Oxfam, wearing flourescent bibs – to โsupportโ the security set-up. According to GFL, the stewarding duties include:
Crowd management in venues
Parking and marshalling traffic
Stewarding entrances and exits
Fire stewarding in venues
Campsite stewarding
operating security lock-ups
staffing information points and generally assisting members of the public.
The stewards when they are not working a shift can enjoy the rest of the festival for free, and hence attracts students. Specialist security staff do all what GFL term the higher-risk activities, such as dealing with confrontation, village security – that is, the temporary home for the tens of thousands of tented visitors – and staffing the pits of the main stages. GFL adds: โOne area where it is specifically important to clarify the respective roles of security and stewards is at the gates. The role of the Glastonbury gate stewards includes: checking for valid tickets and passes; providing directions as requested by the public; operating the pass-out system
Carrying out vehicle accreditation
Checking for valid vehicle passes
Providing information โ such as camping availability
Directing traffic on site
Directing public, both to the gates and from the Bus Station
The role of the contract security companies, working on gates, may include some aspects of the above, but is more likely to include: protecting gate staff and securing pass-out tickets (which might be a source of conflict and / or people trying to get in without paying); dealing with any confrontation; searching vehicles and seizing any contraband goods; liaising with other security personnel over ticket touts and organised crime.
Summer 2008 was the first full season for the deployment of digital wireless equipment for events from CCTV installer Spindlewood.
The Wakefield-based company was awarded the 14 camera system by Live Nation for the Download Festival at Donnington, after we had demonstrated how our new technology, with USP battery backup, could overcome the problems of terrain, interruption of power supply and wireless interference from the East Midlands Airport.
The company was asked to provide the same coverage in Hyde Park for the O2 Wireless Festival and the Mandela Birthday Concert. Donnington Park itself then contracted the firm to cover their Motor Cycle Grand Prix.
At both Events at Donnington and Hyde Park, deployed was a body mounted digital video system, the Ranger, to provide a roving and immediately available unit to attend on site for transmissions back to the operations centre. Called to over 50 incidents, it tracked and led to the arrest of drug dealers and pick-pockets, aided immediate interventions in crowd control and helped on the spot decisions for medical treatments for cases ranging from exhaustion to over-indulgence.
Recently Spindlewood won contracts at two more hotels in the Holiday Inn Express chain, at Watford and Burnley. Both hotels require a 12 camera system integrated with intruder and panic alarms linked to local police. And the new Hard Days Night Hotel in Liverpool has a 25 WDR Vista Mini dome camera system installed by Spindlewood. A further five vandal resistant Vista domes have been installed externally for coverage access points to the hotel. Footage is fed back to the security managerโs office where it can be viewed on two Vista monitors and two 16 way DVRs.
