Operations and Health & Safety: Otherlands Festival

Background

Edinburgh promoter Fly had long held aspirations to host a multi-day camping festival, Otherlands, to complement their existing portfolio of shows and events. They approached We Are The Fair and OPS to assist with venue feasibility and decided to go host on a historic site, Scone Palace.

Challenges

• Licensing and Event Planning in Scotland are significantly different to England and Wales, however the OPS team have previous experience of working North of the border and were able to support in various aspects.

• As the event would feature up to 10,000 campers for 3 days and included Public Entertainment, Alcohol Sales and Food and Merchandise vendors, 3 different types of Licence were required. OPS worked closely with Fly’s Licensing Solicitors to secure all of the required permissions.

• Other challenges included the timings of the event, as there was a desire from the promoter to have music running on some of the stages until the early hours, whereas the venue had no precedent of hosting late night music events.

• OPS worked closely with the chosen Noise Management Consultant and the Council’s Environmental Protection Team to develop a Noise Management Plan that worked for all parties.

• OPS also lead on presenting the event to all of the other Responsible Authorities through the SAG process. This included creation of the relevant Management Plans, hosting multiple SAG meetings and collation of documents from other suppliers such as Security, Traffic Management, Medical and Welfare.

• During the build, break and live phases of the event, OPS provided both an Operations Director and Event Safety Advisor who were both on duty and took the lead in chairing on site SAG meetings, as well as assuming overall responsibility for the running of the whole festival.

Delivery

• Event Safety Management Plan

• Close Liaison with Traffic Management and Noise Management Teams

• Event Risk Assessment

• Fire Risk Assessment

• Supplier Auditing

• Operations Director and Event Safety Advisor On Site

Results

• Otherlands has been received as a resounding success, by customers, artists and press alike.

• The event is already confirmed for 2023 and will increase in size.