Festival Health and Safety: Jazz Café Festival

Background

Some shows are just special, Jazz Café being one of them. This September, We Are OPS played a pivotal role in the first ever Jazz Café Festival, bringing our extensive event health and safety expertise to ensure a smooth and secure event.

Held in Burgess Park, this sold-out festival celebrated some of Jazz Café‘s most cherished artists, including Earl Sweatshirt, Nils Frahm, Arc De Soleil, Eliza, and Buena Vista All Stars. Our team collaborated closely with festival organisers to implement robust safety measures, allowing attendees to enjoy vibrant performances while prioritising their well-being fully.

This festival was thoughtfully tailored to resonate with local residents and the surrounding area, fostering a sense of community and ensuring that the event complimented the neighbourhood’s character. Our services not only created a memorable experience for festival-goers but also set a strong foundation for future events, highlighting our commitment to creating safe and enjoyable experiences spanning the live music scene.

Challenges

Production support: A mixture of live acts and DJs required different set-ups. We supported the production team with stage changeovers and assisted artists arriving in articulated trucks across the weekend.
Crowd management: We implemented various queue management systems to better prepare for and handle crowd flow.
Egress: On Day Two, attendees left a little earlier due to it being a Sunday, prompting us to bring forward our egress plans. Our security team adapted to this situation by employing a staggered approach, successfully clearing the site by 22:04 .

On-site Health and Safety monitoring of contractors during the build and break of the site
Licensing
Documentation including ESMP, Risk Assessments
Operations Manager
ELT meeting lead with police, council and contractors
SAG lead
Traffic Management Plan
Egress plan development and oversight
Police SPS planning and liaison
Community engagement: We hosted art projects and DJ workshops for young people in the local area, raised money for two local charities via donations, and provided paid work for a young person from the area, who is now receiving mentoring from the team

On-site Health and Safety monitoring of contractors during the build and break of the site
Licensing
Documentation including ESMP, Risk Assessments
Operations Manager
ELT meeting lead with police, council and contractors
SAG lead
Traffic Management Plan
Egress plan development and oversight
Police SPS planning and liaison
Community engagement: We hosted art projects and DJ workshops for young people in the local area. We raised money over the festival and donated the total raise to our two chosen charities support the local community.

Results

First ever Jazz Café Festival
Sold-out show
A festival that attracted guests of all ages, from 18 to 80!
Egress – successfully cleared the site in 4 minutes
Incredible feedback from the audience, the client and press