Health and Safety: El Dorado Festival
Background
El Dorado is a boutique dance music festival set in Herefordshire’s Eastnor Castle. The show has been taking place since 2016 and has grown substantially from 3,000 to 9,300 people. An immersive festival experience of bohemian landscaping including a floating pontoon stage on the lake, a multi-level amphitheatre in the woods and a stage inspired by the Maya Mountains of Central America.
The line up spans across the dance music spectrum, from house and techno to garage and drum and bass. Acts included Kool and The Gang, Andy C, Horse Meat Disco and Todd Terje.
The festival is way more than just the music, with a diverse programme of yoga, live art and walkabout street performers.
OPS worked alongside the El Dorado team to deliver full Health and Safety services.
Challenge and Solutions
Over 2500m of festoon to erect in the campsite on undulated ground in a short space of time.
Solution: Plot the festoon on a site plan with a google maps overlay, calculate the required festoon length, where to drop power to them and also the number of scaff poles, put logs & clamps required. In addition to this, we booked an extra set of crew specifically to build the festoon. The ground was also scanned for underground services such as electric & water.Issues with off-site noise levels and local residents
Solution: Extensive planning and discussions with our noise consultants, audio supplier and SAG. We created off site noise level reports based on wind direction and other elements. We then changed stage orientation to face away
from the affected areas.Rethinking the camp site logistics with an increased capacity Solution: We recalculated and decided to set up contingency campsites that could be used as overflow.
Delivery
CAD Site Plan Authoring
Supplier Procurement
Site Management
Operations Management
Security Management
Site Build and De-rig
Crew Management
Door Management
Campsite Build
Campsite Management
Technical Production Management
Results
Smooth and safe running of the show seeing 10,000 attendees enjoy the festival over the 3 days
9 stages and 1 secret stage!
“This was the fourth edition of the ‘intimate and enchanting boutique festival’ – brought to us by Cirque Du Soul – and it absolutely delivered on its promise to help us ‘escape everyday life in search of something far more exotic’.” – Lad Bible
“El Dorado is quickly becoming the UK’s best kept secret music festival. The resounding sense is that the best is yet to come for this bright young thing.” – Vanity Fair