Operations and Health & Safety: El Dorado Festival

Background

El Dorado is a boutique British music festival from the minds behind Cirque Du Soul, the creative brand famed for their colourful, energetic parties. The festival showcases a diverse line-up, drawing from the different strands of dance music.

The event has grown in capacity from a 3,000 capacity show in 2016 to a sold-out show of 12,000 people camping in 2023. This was the fifth year OPS worked alongside sister agency The Fair - producing and advancing El Dorado - with services including Production, Operations and H&S Management.

Challenges

• This year, storm forecasts prompted the activation of OPS’s Severe Weather Lightning Plan - a well-defined protocol which, up until this festival, had not been required to activate.

• We were also working with a new security company and a new traffic provider, both of whom were unfamiliar with the El Dorado site.

• An updated site plan and design changed the ingress, egress, parking and campsite layout. This presented challenges for all suppliers as they were also required to adapt their plans.

• A new additional hot tub, sauna and wellness area were also introduced this year, requiring updates to the event risk assessment, as well as the fire risk assessment.

Delivery

•  Two successful show stops, with minimal disruption to the festival programming and customer experience.

•  Positive feedback on security teams from artists and attendees.

•  New traffic management routes operated successfully, with plans to reuse in future years.
  
  

Results

•  Successful event with approximately 10.000 happy attendees.

•  Sell-out wellness programme operating smoothly all weekend.

•  Positive feedback from the client on our handling and communications surrounding the adverse weather.