Handling Late or Failed Delivery of Critical Music Festival Infrastructure.

Music festivals taking place on remote greenfield sites rely on a plethora of infrastructure elements for them to successfully operate. If any of this infrastructure is late being delivered or fails to turn up, it can have a significant impact on the event’s operation. What can organisers do to manage situations of failed or late deliveries of critical infrastructure components.

A well-planned music festival can go from a smooth working operation to incident management if critical components are delivered late or fail to arrive altogether. Organisers need to manage these situations carefully to successfully contain any disruption and prevent it becoming a complete operational failure which could lead to event cancellation. Building in contingency plans with engineered redundancy are key to successfully managing these delivery disruption scenarios.

Common Critical Infrastructure for Festivals.
Although the list of critical infrastructure components can be exhaustive the most common ones will include those that enable performances to take place like power generators, stages, backline PA systems and lighting rigs. A safe festival site is essential for site inspections where subsequent approval is given to proceed with the event and critical components can include sitewide lighting, crowd barriers, medical facilities, fire safety equipment and festival-goer sanitation facilities. Less critical but still key for organisers are payment system equipment which can impact on food and beverage vendors ability to take payments. Similarly essential equipment used for RFID scanning at entrance gates is required for safe crowd control for example. 

Building Robust Delivery Schedules and Contingency Plans.
During the festival planning phase, which could be a year in advance of the live event dates a comprehensive list of potential suppliers will be built. This will be a natural result of the audit process when selecting contractors for all the event critical infrastructure. Once the preferred contractor has been selected a backup list of substitute suppliers should be kept, safe in the knowledge that they have been through a vetting process and may have failed to be selected purely on price quoted. Networking and having ongoing relationships with other festival organisers can be a key part of tapping into potential emergency supplier situations. Using sophisticated event management software solutions like Festival Pro can help manage all contractor deliveries, scheduling and accreditation. Having this data accessible in one place ensures that organisers can manage their delivery schedules linked to a critical path planning tool. This data can help to manage delivery tracking logistics in real time enabling early notification of potential late deliveries. Some organisers maintain a rapid response backup solution of older assets they store offsite and may include backup generators, older used modular stage kits, emergency lighting towers and temporary fencing and barriers for example.

Dealing with The Impact of non or late deliveries.
If the planning phase has included built in redundancy for late deliveries organisers should implement their backup plans as soon as they become aware of a late or non-delivery of critical infrastructure. This could mean building smaller or modular stages, reducing the stage lighting, using temporary backup generators instead of a full smart grid and using portable toilet facilities, for example. If organisers receive notification of pending late delivery, they could act to expedite delivery by using external logistics specialists. Late or failed deliveries will mean that on-site operations staff need to adopt to a new reality which could have a knock-on impact of other logistical processes. Gate opening may have to be pushed back, and artist set times may have to be rescheduled, a delay of 3 or 4 hours is manageable, a chaotic opening is not. Whatever remedial action is required on-site organisers must still prioritise safety and ignoring this can make them legally responsible for any safety related issues. Delayed opening or reduced capacity can help maintain the site safety in line with regulatory requirements.

Communications.
Effective communications are essential to maintain control of a situation where late or failed deliveries occur. Internal staff must be fully appraised of any developing delivery situation and the possible impact on other operations. This enables the appropriate actions to be taken in a timely manner with backup contractors being contacted to arrange alternative supplies. In addition, sponsors, vendors and artists need to be appraised of any developing situation and the impact on opening times and potential audience capacity limits. Festival-goers need to be contacted and updated about changes to opening times or capacity limits, possibly asking for volunteers to accept refunds if necessary.

Financial Impact.
Sourcing new contractors at short notice or getting expeditated delivery will raise costs but this can be balanced against penalty clauses on contracts with suppliers who have failed agreed delivery schedules. If audience capacities are reduced organisers will have to make refunds to festival-goers which will reduce the overall ticket sales revenue.

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 including a dedicated contractor module. 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 Markus Winkler via Pexels

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