27-10final

Event Security
continued ... from previous page
Hence they are assessed, and looked
after until they are fit to go. Another
risk - customers putting themselves
at risk - is crowd surfing. When
Professional Security asks a steward
in the pit about it, he simply points
to a large green sign, besides a dome
camera, pointing at the audience: it
says that crowd surfers are ejected.
Some festivals have more of a culture
of ‘surfing’ - intrepid people having
themselves carried along on the lifted
arms of the crowd - than others. It’s
dangerous to the surfer and those
under him. If it happens, Showsec
catch them and bring them down,
Simon Howard says. The Showsec
pit staff are trained to be there. And
equipped; all wear ear plugs. You
do need them; in front of the main
speakers (that Busted guitarist James
Bourne is pictured standing atop,
previous page), your chest moves to
the thumping beat. A beach ball is
tossed around the front, for fun; when
it lands in the pit, a Showsec person
tosses it back. A feature of V Fest (or
plain V) is that the Sunday acts at
Weston Park were the Saturday ones
at a sister site, in Essex; and vice
versa. The Radio One DJ Annie Mac
went one better the night before and
played a set at Chelmsford, and took
a helicopter to the Weston Park to
play there too, the same night. Hence
a helipad. It’s a reminder of the sheer
variety of life during V, from directing
traffic to some VIP close protection;
and how timings are everything at V;
during Busted’s set, someone hands
a small blue laminated card to Simon
Howard. It sets out who’s playing
each of the four stages, and their
times. The day’s music has just begun;
but Showsec have already done plenty
of work. p
l Next month; bringing the team to
the arena.
HAPPY
‘In partnership with the
event’s security team
there has been some
outstanding work to
prevent drugs getting
into the festival and
these arrests should
serve as a message to
others thinking about
making the same
mistake.’
V’s Weston Park police
commander Supt Martin
Brereton.