This year’s sold-out event ran at Bramham Park over the August Bank Holiday weekend, and saw a plethora of rock and metal bands taking to the stage – among them pioneering thrash Gods Metallica (who headlined on the Friday night) and newer acts including Rage Against The Machine and Bullet For My Valentine.
As the festival has grown (this year it was sold out again), so AP’s role has developed alongside it in tandem with the company’s relationship to promoter Festival Republic.
Watching security at work
“We are delighted to have finally seen a security firm in action that we can highly recommend,” said Deborah Rees of Safeconcerts. “We always watch the security at work wherever we go and certainly don’t tell them. I think it’s fair to say that we’re often disappointed with the behaviour we have witnessed. Of all the festivals we have been to this year, we most certainly didn’t expect to find an oasis of quality work at the Leeds event.”
In conversation with info4security, Rees continued: “I think not seeing the crowd as the enemy, criminals or as people on whom they could vent their aggression were the major reasons setting AP’s staff apart from other security teams. My partner saw one of the pit team take a nasty kick to the face. It was accidental, caused by a youngster climbing over a barrier. The guy must have been hurt, but he never reacted and didn’t take it out on the crowd.”
Rees added: “In our experience this is really rare and something we don’t ever underestimate. We think it takes highly-trained and skilled individuals to be able to deal with a crowd like this and not react badly to constant provocation. If other AP teams work to this standard then we feel confident that festival goers are in safe hands.”
Rigorous staff training
AP Security is well aware that a good relationship with the crowd at any event is extremely important. It attributes achieving this to rigorous staff training, something it takes extremely seriously, with each and every employee attending a pit training course held during non-show days at Brixton Academy (one of the many venues at which AP is responsible for crowd safety).
“Attending the course doesn’t guarantee work in the pit,” said AP’s general manager, Andy Stevens, “but an operative definitely cannot work there unless they’ve completed the necessary training.”
Re-developed over the years, the course comprises six hours of hands-on training spread over two days, looking at the roots of pit work, the roots of the pit itself, barrier formation and the history of live music right through to practical, hands-on aspects such as lifting people out of the crowd, dealing with crowd surfers and the basic management of a pit area. The course also extends to instruction on pass checking and working with other agencies – medical workers, the promoter and the media, for instance – on a festival site.
Interracting the right way
“All these people have a role to play. That being the case, it’s important we interact with them in the correct manner,” explained Stevens, “but the most important people for us are the ones directly in front of the barrier.”
Stevens continued: “The two most important messages we try to impart in the training are that this is an incredibly serious business [-] people’s lives often depend on our competency [-] and that our people should remember these kids are only dancing. Many people view crowd surfing as an aggressive action, but it’s only a dance, albeit one that relies on being caught by us at the end and then being treated with dignity.”
Speaking about this year’s crowd at Leeds, Deborah Rees added: “This is the only team we have seen in action that have not reacted badly to crowd behaviour, nor did they adopt the usual standard we normally see where security operatives are unapproachable, surly and rather unpleasant in their attitude. Most security firms underestimate the importance of good customer skills at these events.”
An award for ‘Team AP’
“This award is for everyone at AP and is as much for those members of staff who did not work at Leeds as those who did,” concludes Stevens. “It’s the culmination of so much hard work by a lot of people and we are extremely proud to accept such a fantastic accolade.”
Twice winner of the Crowd Management of the Year Award, AP Security boasts over 17 years’ experience in the UK leisure market, earning an enviable reputation for its work at resource-intensive events such as the Glastonbury Festival as well as prestigious gatherings including the Henley International Festival and the Boat Race.
The company also handles events at famous venues such as the O2 Arena, the Brixton Academy and Wembley Stadium.
