Operations and Health & Safety: Gottwood
Background
OPS returned to Gottwood for the sixth time in 2023 to ensure this critically acclaimed, independent and intimate underground electronic music festival could go ahead safely.
DJ Boring, Mella Dee, Move D and Crazy P were amongst those performing this year.
This year, the audience capacity reached 5,000, reflecting a stronger response than was seen in 2022, when the festival returned following a two-year break due to the pandemic.
While the OPS team initially only provided festival health & safety services at Gottwood, this has developed over the years we have worked with the festival team. In recent years, we have also provided a range of operational services during the build, live and break stages of the event, as explained below.
© Photography by Sienna Lorraine Gray
Challenges
In previous years, Gottwood has predominantly sold weekend tickets. This year, however, the festival sold more day tickets this year, meaning festival-goers were leaving on different days and egress became more challenging. OPS therefore worked on plans to ensure this was taken into consideration.
Historically, the festival has had problems with underage non-ticketholders breaking in. The OPS team has therefore a pro-active security deployment based around weak points in site layout and location.
© Photography by Jake Davis
Delivery
ESMP authoring and implementation
SAG liaison lead
Traffic Management Plan coordination
Licensing compliance
Event Risk Assessment
Fire Risk Assessment
Vulnerable Persons & Safeguarding Policy
On-Site Health and Safety Management
Operations Manager
Noise Management liaison
ELT meeting lead with police, council and contractors
Egress plan development and oversight
Police SPS planning and liaison
Results
Exceptional audience feedback with many declaring it “the best year yet”
Positive client feedback, who said it was a “pleasure to work with OPS as always”
We’re looking forward to working with the team in 2024