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In the pit<br />
of V Fest<br />
We have a day at V Festival, one of<br />
the UK’s largest and longest-running<br />
outdoor summer music festivals.<br />
We see the variety of security and<br />
stewarding work that goes into<br />
a weekend of happy customers,<br />
whatever the weather. We begin at<br />
the centre of the action: at the main<br />
stage.<br />
Let’s see you jumping up and<br />
down! shouts a member of<br />
Busted to the audience. The<br />
band has only been on stage a few<br />
minutes and already some of the<br />
crowd are singing along. It’s just after<br />
midday on the Sunday, the last day<br />
proper, of V Festival at Weston Park,<br />
the stately home on the border of<br />
Staffordshire and Shropshire. Busted,<br />
a reformed boy band, are the first act<br />
of the day on the main stage and into<br />
their second song. “Have you enjoyed<br />
your weekend so far?” Busted ask.<br />
“Thanks for coming and hanging out<br />
with us.” About 20 stewards from the<br />
event security contractor Showsec<br />
can hear all this; but cannot see it,<br />
because they are standing in the ‘pit’,<br />
the area between the stage and the<br />
Above and next page: pit stewards face the audience - note the giant footballs<br />
in the air, knocked around by the good-natured crowd - and passed back by the<br />
stewards when they land near them<br />
Photos by Mark Rowe<br />
crowd behind the barrier. Six medics<br />
in green uniforms to the side of the pit<br />
are watching Busted, but all Showsec<br />
eyes are on the crowd, including a<br />
‘spotter’ at stage height (pictured left).<br />
They’re wearing a throat microphone,<br />
and are watching for anything,<br />
most commonly someone in need<br />
of medical help. It’s a serious job,<br />
but being so visible to the audience<br />
does allow or might even demand<br />
some light-hearted interaction with<br />
the crowd, such as leading them in a<br />
dance move.<br />
Eyes on crowd<br />
It’s a cool, cloudy August day - and<br />
later it turns to rain - but from the start<br />
Showsec staff are beside the water<br />
standpipe on each side of the stage,<br />
filling white plastic cups, handing<br />
out water to whoever asks for it on<br />
their side of the barrier - even if to<br />
Professional Security it appears the<br />
man asking for it just wants to wash<br />
down his sandwich. Those at the front<br />
took the trouble to queue and then<br />
hurry to the stage, to bag the best<br />
spot. They may stay there for hours,<br />
and to go to the toilet would mean<br />
they lost their place. But not to take<br />
in water could leave them dehydrated.<br />
The front of the crowd, then, far<br />
from glamorous, can lead to medical<br />
emergencies. At the side of the stage<br />
is Simon Howard Showsec’s London<br />
area manager, who’s working here at<br />
V as front of stage manager. He talks<br />
Professional Security through how<br />
and why pit staff may pull audience<br />
members over the barrier. Generally<br />
at V, it’s when someone has fainted,<br />
having been at the front too long. One<br />
steward either side of the distressed<br />
person: “We ask the crowd around<br />
them to help pull them over.” If the<br />
person isn’t well, Showsec give them<br />
to the medics. Or, the person may be<br />
OK, but just felt they had to get out -<br />
it may be so crowded, there’s no way<br />
you can slide towards the back and<br />
the toilets, food stalls and so on. That<br />
person is escorted back to the arena.<br />
At some festivals - and V isn’t that<br />
sort - there may be a fight. Showsec<br />
will call in a ‘response team’, that<br />
switch on their body cameras. If<br />
Showsec deem someone should be<br />
ejected, they are taken for processing.<br />
At some festivals, they may be given<br />
a ‘warning’ wristband, banning them<br />
from the arena until the next day.<br />
Or, they are ejected from the site<br />
altogether; not tipped onto the kerb<br />
as out of some Wild West saloon, but<br />
taken to a bus station, for instance.<br />
Right: On Sunday<br />
morning, stage crew<br />
test a wire for an artist<br />
to fly over the crowd<br />
36<br />
OCTOBER 2017 PROFESSIONAL SECURITY<br />
Customer care<br />
Even there, customer care applies;<br />
if the ejected person is under the<br />
influence of drugs, or just hung over<br />
or not thinking very straight after a<br />
sleepless weekend, does the event<br />
promoter want to risk someone<br />
ejected getting run over on the A5?<br />
www.professionalsecurity.co.uk