Who Calls the Shots at Music Festivals in Emergencies.

Ensuring public safety on a music festival site is paramount to organising entities but who ultimately makes the key decisions when faced with emergencies. A large-scale festival may have hundreds of staff on a site during live dates along with even more volunteers, so a clearly defined decision-making structure is essential.

Large festivals can be logistically complex, and it is therefore necessary to clearly define who is responsible for making critical decisions and that all involved are aware of the decision-making processes. Delays in making the right decision could lead to serious injuries, or worse, so the ability to rapidly identify issues and make the right call about next steps is vital. How can festival organisers plan for seamless decision-making processes for future live events. 

Decision Makers. 
Every festival organising entity has a different management or organisational structure although some positions will take on similar responsibilities, it will really depend on the size of the event. The top decision maker will usually be a Festival Director or Event Director who will oversee every aspect of the festival including budgets, artist curation and operational logistics. Every function will probably have a department head (with their own teams) who will report directly to the Festival Director. Key amongst the department heads will be the Operational or Production Manager who has responsibility for the day-to-day logistics during the event live dates. In addition, other key decision makers could be the legal owners or promotors of an event who the Festival Director will often report to. In most case there is a clearly defined hierarchy of decision making. 

Emergency Planning and Protocol Creation. 
During the planning phase for any festival coordination with emergency services is essential in drawing up an Incident Management Plan which documents processes and procedures with protocols for dealing with every conceivable emergency. These processes and protocols need to be clearly communicated to all department heads for dissemination to every team member. This will include clear instructions on how to escalate information about incidents, and where necessary bypassing a management level if an immediate manager is unavailable. In some cases, the Festival Director may appoint a dedicated Safety Manger who will be responsible for implementing emergency plans which may include evacuation, show cancellation and involvement of external emergency services. 

Communications. 
This dissemination of planned emergency protocols and the contents of any Incident Management Plan to all staff and volunteers is essential to ensure full understanding. Organisers need to agree before the event how on-site communications will be made (usually walkie talkies and/or mobile phones) along with back up plans as batteries can die and mobile signals can be weak. Key decision makers need to make themselves available for the entire live dates of the event to avoid any unnecessary delays in implementing emergency protocols. If a key decision maker is unavailable, they need to appoint a substitute in their place who will be given the same authority. 

Real Time Decisions. 
Most large-scale music festivals will have some kind of central control room, usually a portacabin in the backstage zone where information about any incidents is gathered. This control centre needs to be staffed by senior management along with representatives from external emergency services who will be monitoring communications and observing events through CCTV for example. If an emergency is declared staff from the control room can issue instructions to deploy relevant personnel which may include those from the police, fire, medical or security teams. In situations where large crowds are surging dangerously the management of emergency services and communications to festival-goers is essential to help flow people away from problem areas without causing any panic. 

For festival organisers planning their next event using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, site planning, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Image by StockSnap via Pixabay

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