Event Security Armed police Earlier, a pair of police carrying machine-guns walked across the arena, on patrol (or just taking a short-cut?!). Armed police were also standing at site entrances from the main road, the A5, on the Shropshire-Staffordshire border. The crowd evidently took the sight in their stride. HAPPY ‘Effective security doesn’t stop or start at the fence line and instead requires close coordination between law enforcement, venue owners and managers, and emergency management.’ On venue security, US federal Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Elaine Duke. v fest stewarding: We continue our series on the event security at the summer V Festival at Weston Park. Simon Battersby, a Showsec director, is among those standing in the way of hundreds of mainly young V fans, who dash towards the stage. ‘Slow down!’ he says, and gestures with his hands out, palms down. It has some effect. It’s about 11.30am on the Sunday of the long weekend pop concert, and the arena nearest the main stage has just been opened. Those keenest fans are hurrying to the stage, to stand at the front. Their faces show only smiles. It plainly doesn’t occur to them that their behaviour could be risky; that if they trip over the grass they may hurt themselves and others. Some are wearing wellies, the sensible footwear for a festival, or are carrying food and drink, so can hardly sprint. It’s a metaphor for all security and risk management; Showsec have put in a lot of thought and work into making that moment safe, and no-one notices. Everyone only has eyes for the stage. After the encores As Showsec the event security and stewarding contractor pointed out to Professional Security, V Festival is like a temporary city; with its own hospital, police and lighting. Among the tasks of security staff is to then clear the arena, on the Saturday and Sunday night, after the last band has played its encores; some of the customers may take some convincing that it is time for them to make their way to the camp-site. Before the arena opens again at 10am, the ground is cleared of all the troddendown pizza and drinks cups that tens of thousands of people are bound to leave. At 10am, only part of the arena opens; a part by the main stage remains fenced off, while crews prepare the stage. Acts may have their own requirements such as the wires to allow a singer to ‘fly’ over the audience; or an ‘ego ramp’ (the technical term for that outcrop of stage that lets a singer strut beyond the stage proper). Security has to know all these things in advance to plan how many stewards are needed where. By 11am, hundreds of people It’s only temporary are standing, quietly but expectantly, at the temporary fence, all facing the stage, about 100 yards away. Rope control About two dozen Showsec stewards are standing along the fence. They’ve been told to be welcoming, to say hello, but not to answer any question as to how the fence will be removed. If a steward even in good faith gave a wrong piece of advice, that could trigger a mass migration of people; risky. Quite a few fans are waiting at the end of the fence furthest from the stage; they evidently have experience from past years that the stewards will begin to dismantle the fence there, and load it on a fork lift truck, and take it to back stage. The risk is; hundreds of fans and machinery and stewards taking down fencing don’t mix. The mitigation is neat; a rope, held by those two dozen or so stewards. It keeps the fans away from the fork lift truck and two vehicles behind it, to pick up the fencing foundations, and shepherds the fans to walk in a curve, first away from the stage and around the fencing not yet taken up, and only then towards the stage. It’s a reminder that no two festivals are alike, and how true was a remark by Richard ‘Churchie’ Church. Even stewards and supervisors who have worked V or indeed any place in past years A sequence of photos showing how the stewards managed holding and then taking up the fence line to the arena stages. A tape, uniformed stewards and the temporary fence; note on the right the fork lift truck ready to begin work on carrying the fence off the field. Second: the dismantling in progress, Richard Church (grey t-shirt) superintending. Thirdly: the work nearly done, while customers walk past the rope enclosure have to attend to the site briefing, and not think that they’ve heard it before. Some part of the logistics may have changed; or, a steward may have worked at a different site the weekend before - Showsec also secure the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, and the Royal Highland Show; and a fortnight before V, did the Wilderness Festival in Oxfordshire for the first time. In other words, every job is special; different. Break-down A festival, as Churchie says, has its own ‘ethos’; but from one year to the next, other parties, police, the council, may require changes. Hence months and months of site meetings. Churchie breaks off for the latest about the impending break-down of the fence. He calls it a ‘controlled movement of a large amount of people: “We try to mitigate risk as much as is possible.” Simon and Churchie explain how a festival crowd may be more eager on a Thursday evening and Friday, when all is fresh, but by Sunday they have got into a routine. By 11.40am, the temporary fencing and fork lift truck and rope and all are out of sight, and the stewards are in a bunch in a corner of the arena, to be deployed to their next place, after one more part of the weekend goes without a hitch. p l Next month; in the control room. 50 DECEMBER 2017 PROFESSIONAL SECURITY www.professionalsecurity.co.uk p50 ShowsecV 27-<strong>12</strong>.indd 3 17/11/2017 <strong>12</strong>:01
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