Health and Safety: Big London Nightwalk 2019

Background

OPS have worked with The Big Issue Foundation since 2015 to carry out event production and health & safety for their annual Big London Night Walk. The walk takes place in March each year to raise money for the charity, with over 300 participants taking on the challenge to walk 13 miles around London in the middle of the night.

Challenge

After the event was sadly cancelled in 2018 due to the ‘Beast from the East’, OPS were asked again to produce the 2019 edition of the Big London Night Walk. This involved designing an interesting new 13 mile walking route which would take walkers around some of London’s famous sights, as well as curating the detailed street-by-street directions and signage for the walk.

The team liaised with relevant local councils and authorities to gain permissions for the event and worked to ensure that the event adhered to each boroughs’ specific regulations. Additionally the team worked with The Big Issue to ensure all production supplies were delivered to the correct checkpoints in time, and liaised with each checkpoint individually to ensure they were prepared for the event.

Delivery

• Event Production and Health & Safety

• Route Design – curation of map and street-by-street directions

• Liaison with councils and local authorities

• Liaison with checkpoints

• Erection and take down of route signage

• Briefing of security and medics

• Participant health & safety briefing

• Checkpoint management and volunteer briefing

• Oversee of all logistics throughout event duration

Results

• Successful event with 320 walkers participating

• Speeches from Big Issue vendor, Big Issue staff and ex-vendor James Bowen with his famous cat Bob!

• No injuries or incidents