Festival Health & Safety: Gottwood
Background
OPS returned to Gottwood for the seventh time in 2024 - providing festival health and safety and a vast range of services to ensure this critically acclaimed, independent and intimate underground electronic music festival could go ahead.
DJ Boring, Mella Dee, Girls Don’t Sync, Move D and Crazy P were amongst those performing this year.
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.
This year, the festival saw a significant increase in demand, leading to some fresh (yet exciting) challenges for the team, as explained below.
Challenges
Increased capacity: the Gottwood capacity was 5,000, but this year, increased demand led the promoter to expand ticket sales to the maximum licensing capacity for the site, 7,000. Having worked with the client for several years on the show, this was a challenged we celebrated and embraced with open arms! Well developed relationships with both the SAG and the council meant the local authorities had no issues with the increased capacity, and also welcomed the festival’s growth. One the increased capacity was confirmed, we liaised with teams including security, medical, toilet providers - revisiting their deployments to ensure they had enough for 7.000.
Managing crowd flow: an increased capacity meant managing crowd flow became a more significant challenge than previous years. When high profile DJs were performing or during switch over periods, we deployed additional security and implemented one way systems during certain hours ensured crowd management systems were in place - constantly assessing the situation. and maintaining strong communication with security.
Weather: torrential rain on the first day of the live event led to concern regarding audience drop out for the rest of the weekend. It was agreed that the section in front of The Lawn stage would be closed for the first night of the festival, creating a barrier and deploying security to the area. Security were brief thoroughly, leading to strong communication with the audience members, who were very compliant. The DJs were also completely understanding of the reasons behind this decision, and continued to play on the stage.
Delivery
On-Site Health and Safety Management
Operations Manager
SAG lead
ELT meeting lead with police, council and contractors
Police SPS planning and liaison
Risk Assessments
Noise Management liaison
Event Safety Management Plan
Results
Another successful year at Gottwood with a sold-out, increased capacity show
7,000 happy festival-goers
Positive feedback from the client
We looking forward to working with the team again soon