Operations and Health & Safety: Camp Wildfire
Background
Camp Wildfire returned once again to St Clere Estate for the 2022 instalment of the festival. Wildfire is a festival with adventure at the heart of the event concept, operating over 3 consecutive weekends. Alongside musical and theatrical performances in the evening, the event directs audience focus towards a range of exciting opportunities, from Archer and Zorbing, to Flying Trapeze and Apothecary. Similarly to the 2021 event, the first of the 3 weekends was targeted towards families, and the second and final weekends open only to over 18’s.
OPS were asked by We Are The Fair to provide full Health & Safety services for the festival, including the creation of event documentation, supplier auditing and on-site safety.
Challenges
This year saw 200 activities operating during the 3 consecutive weekends. The OPS team had to ensure that all H&S documentation was requested and reviewed prior to arrival on-site. This therefore included a significant amount of liaison with the relevant activity leaders, including offering advice on writing documentation, and working with them to ensure safety plans and procedures were aligned throughout.
Due to the notably hot weather experienced in the UK during the build-up to the event, the team worked closely with Wildkind, in addition to the local Fire Service, to implement a number of suitable and sufficient plans, ensuring fire safety was at the forefront of the event planning and delivery. Certain measures included; the presence of a specialised fire safety team throughout the entirety of the live event, fire bell points located strategically around the event site, designated smoking and cooking areas for campers, and additional extinguisher provision distributed across site.
During the final night of live, there was a lightning storm which resulted in the need for a full evacuation of the main arena. This was facilitated by the Operations Manager and Safety Advisor, with presence from the security team, who successfully directed all remaining attendees from the main arena to their camping locations.
There was a large number of activities, performances and workshops taking place simultaneously each live show day. This meant that extra attention to safety compliance was required and the need for any incidents to be reported quickly and effectively investigated.
Although the event is of a small capacity, the geographical spread of the event is large. This resulted in the requirement of 2 Safety Advisors to be present to allow for the full assessment and monitoring of the event.
Delivery
Event Safety Management Plan
Event Risk Assessment
Fire Risk Assessment
On-Site Safety and Operations
Supplier Auditing
Results
Successful delivery of 3 events over 3 consecutive weekend
Positive audience experience
6,000 attendees in total
200 activities taking place over the 3 weekends