Glastonbury Festival 2010
Appendix 1 (b)
Crowd Monitoring
Introduction
The management and control of crowds and capacity at outdoor events is
fundamental to the health and safety of all attending. Glastonbury Festivals
Limited (GFL) has considerable experience and over many years has
developed their venue to accommodate the audience and facilitate good
crowd movements around the site.
The purpose of this brief report is to describe what work was done at this
years event by the MDC crowd monitoring team, identify key issues and
achievements, comment on compliance with licence conditions and to make
recommendations for consideration at future events.
There were two MDC crowd monitoring teams working on Thursday, Friday
and Saturday evening between 18:00 and approximately 02:00 the following
morning. In addition the screenings of the England World Cup football
matches were monitored on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons. The main
focus of their work was to observe crowd movements around the site,
capacities of venues, stewarding and hazards associated with crowd flows
(pinch points, obstructions, vehicle movements and trip risks). Of particular
interest were crowd movements in and around the late night attractions after
the main venues had closed and the management of crowds at the World Cup
football match screenings. The monitoring of the pit areas during
performances was outside the scope of the work of the teams.
Meetings were held with Simon Ancliffe the Movement Strategies team lead,
Tim Roberts the GF Event Safety Coordinator and Brian Schofield the GF
Security Manager before and regularly during the event to discuss any
emerging issues.
The main thrust of the crowd management licence conditions (operating
schedule) is for a crowd dynamics expert to review crowd safety and to make
recommendations for implementation in the following year. In 2009 GFL
commissioned Movement Strategies (MS) Limited to observe the Festival and
report on crowd safety issues. The MS recommendations and GFL
responses from GF 2009 were incorporated into the Event Management Plan
and can be found in Chapter A. A3. There was also a requirement for copies
of crowd movement risk assessments to be submitted prior to the event.
Key Issues
1. The World Cup 2010 was played in South Africa between 12th June
and 11th July 2010. England played their final group match
against Slovenia on Wednesday 23rd June and as a result of this
win the team was drawn to play Germany on Sunday 27th June.
Both matches were due to be broadcasted while the public were
on the Glastonbury Festival site.
Although discussions started early on plans for the live broadcast of England
Matches plans for the screening of the weekend match were not well thought
through. The crowd numbers watching the football on Wednesday afternoon
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were higher than expected and as a result additional contingency
arrangements were put in place to increase the available viewing capacity for
the weekend match. Although it was always planned to use Bushy Ground
(on the west of the site) to screen the weekend match, an additional screen
was provided to the east of the site at Barren Ground.
Public camping was also allowed in part of the Bushy Ground arena.
Unfortunately the camping in this area was not particularly well managed
when the site opened to the public. This resulted in the toilets that had been
provided for use by the public watching the match to be partially concealed
from view. The visitor experience at the Sunday screenings could also have
been better, as although the topography of the arenas provided good visability
the screens provided ( one screen in each arena) were relatively small and so
it was reported that it was difficult to see and the commentary was impossible
to hear at the back.
2. Visitors to the event were encouraged to arrive earlier than ever
with car parks open for the public on the evening of Tuesday 22nd
June.
Only limited monitoring of the car parks was carried out by MDC officers, but
no public safety issues were reported overnight at the time. Certainly the plan
to encourage early arrivals worked well and the public came earlier than ever.
The good weather forecast and the screening of the football is likely to have
encouraged the public to have come early. One complaint was received from
a visitor of lack of water and long queuing times to get in on Wednesday
morning.
3. The finish times of the main stages was changed to 12:00
midnight.
It is thought that the earlier finish time of the Group A venues was an
influencing factor on improvements to the late night crowd movements.
4. The area to the south east of the site known as Arcadia/ShangriLa has become increasingly popular as a late night venue over
the last few Festivals and in attempt to address late night
crowding and capacity issues the area has been more than
doubled in size and the entrances enlarged.
5. Subjectively the site feels extremely busy.
Observations made at the Event that there were more people present than in
previous years are entirely subjective. Even during Sunday afternoon when
some eighty thousand people were thought to be watching the football
screenings the main site still felt reasonably busy.
6. At peak times at the close of the most popular acts on the main
pyramid stage, Furlonger can become very busy and a pinch point
can develop at the entrance to Hawkwell above the Disabled
viewing point.
At one time over the weekend tents were pitched at this pinch point just inside
Hawkwell. These tents were removed quickly but crowd safety issues were
reported at this point at peak times particularly on Saturday night when Muse
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were playing.
7. As people arrive earlier and earlier there is some argument that
there is a need for more entertainment on Thursday evening
The absence of large scale entertainment puts pressure on the smaller
venues on Thursday evening. The capacities inside these locations appears
to be well managed and no issues have been reported however when the
public can’t get inside then they simply gather outside which could cause a
problem should there be a need to evacuate a venue quickly. Fig 1 shows the
crowd relaxing outside the Tuborg Bar on Thursday evening and similar
crowds were found through out the site outside tented venues on this evening.
Fig 1 Crowds outside the Tuborg Bar
8. Over the last couple of years the footprint of the site has become
larger with more and more off-site “glamping” locations.
The main public safety concerns with these sites relate to the management of
services and facilities on the premises and how members of the public get to
and from the Festival Site.
Achievements
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The screening of the England v Slovenia World Cup match on
Wednesday 23rd June in the Pyramid Arena was an unqualified
success. The Pyramid Arena was filled with a good natured crowd
enjoying an England win in the sunshine – see Fig 2.
The partnership work that enabled circa eighty thousand people to
watch the screening of the England v Germany match on Sunday 27 th
June in two locations is commendable. All the emergency services and
a number of voluntary groups worked with Glastonbury Festivals to
enable two football arenas to be set up and show the live broadcasts.
The ability of GF to work with partners and the willingness of all parties
to work together should be acknowledged.
Both England World Cup matches were broadcast during the event
without crowd safety issues.
The continued drive to reduce pedestrian vehicular conflict is a great
success. In particular the development of more and more pedestrian
walkways, stewarded vehicle route crossing points and the work of the
chaperone stewards combined with the concentration of issuing of
Fig 2 Screening of England v Slovenia on Wednesday 23rd June (Pyramid
Arena).
passes and vehicle curfew works really well. Fig 3 shows the new
pedestrian walkway behind the Pyramid Stage which allows
pedestrians to access the Hospitality Compound safely. Less
successful was the walkway along the Pilton Bypass. This partitioned
off section was approximately one tent wide and was used for
camping.
 The entertainment space in the southeast corner of the site is to some
extent a victim of its own success. Although the capacity of the area
has been increased the areas available for circulation particularly in
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Appendix 1 (b)
Arcadia and the Unfair Ground are no larger than in previous years
leading to pinch points developing in these areas when busy. The
development of late night contingency plans and the encouragement of
more visitors to enter via the Circus Field were successful, but some
issues remain.
Contingency plans to prevent overcrowding during the late night
periods work well at The Park. Issues identified around queuing for
venues such as the silent disco on Thursday evening were managed
adequately at the time and improved arrangements put in place on the
following evenings.
The construction of Bella’s Bridge and the placing of a small stand at
the outdoor circus stage led to improvements of crowd flows in this
area.
Communication with visitors works very well. GF uses a range of
channels, including website, radio, daily newspaper, stewards and
screens to get crowd safety and other messages to the public. Of
particular interest was the use of the website to advise and obtain
feedback on arrival times at the start of the event and the use of a
number of methods to inform all on the changes to the football
screening on Sunday.
Fig 3 Pedestrian walkway in Back Stage compound
 The combined knowledge and experience of the key management
personnel, contractors, volunteers and all staff associated with
Glastonbury Festivals is an important factor in the success of the
event.
 The commitment of the key personnel to crowd safety is impressive as
is the organisations ability to respond quickly and change crowd
movement plans to adapt to evolving conditions. During the peak
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Appendix 1 (b)
times in the south east corner of the site after the main stages finished
on every night these key people could be found observing and directing
crowd flows.
The Crowd Safety conditions in the operating schedule were broadly
complied with though some of the documents for example the
Glastonbury Festival Crowd Assessment arrived late.
GF also took forward the bulk of the recommendations made by
Movement Strategies following the 2009 event.
Conclusions
Glastonbury Festival is a safe event, but that safety is achieved because of a
number of complex factors and relationships and can not be taken for
granted. GFL does follow the guidance available in the Health and Safety
Executive publication Managing Crowds Safely.
Competitive scheduling and the huge number and variety of venues and
attractions go a long way to promote good crowd movements. This combined
with excellent stewarding and security aided by monitoring by CCTV cameras,
well informed friendly easy going mixed age group audiences all contribute to
the making of a safe festival in terms of crowd movements.
The issues identified and recommendations made are more about building on
the existing good practice.
Recommendations
The following recommendations are made for consideration at future events.
 The pedestrian walkway along the “Pilton Bypass” should be better
stewarded or structured to prevent this area being used for camping.
 GF have demonstrated that they can halt vehicle movements during
peak pedestrian flows so it is recommended that they review whether
vehicles such as refuse trucks etc can be kept back for example off
stage road when acts are closing.
 The layout in terms of circulation space in the south east corner of the
site will need to be reviewed again. The attractions in Arcadia and the
Unfair Ground in the current location take up so much space that free
flowing circulation is impossible. GF could consider relocated these
attractions.
 Emergency crowd movement plans be developed for busy periods at
Furlonger Lane.
 The provision of additional permanent security/stewarding points to
compliment the existing static and mobile patrols in the Pyramid and
Other arenas to provide a more visible presence to support the public.
 Evaluation of queuing times for first time entrants and review of
equality of arrangements at the main pedestrian gates.
 Additional thought should be given to improving methods of assessing
and managing crowd numbers in specific areas of the site.
 It is recommended that GF undertake more customer insight work to
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capture information about their customer base which will enable them
to recognise in advance how the crowd profile might be changing.
More younger and less Glastonbury Festival wise visitors could impact
on crowd safety.
Lead Officer: Marietta Gill
Date: 26 August 2010.
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