2009 and 2010 saw the first Rewind Festivals take place in Henley-on-Thames. They proved such a success that, this year, promoter The Rival Organisation added a second event in the picturesque grounds of Scone Palace, near Perth, where high profile 1980s acts like Toyah, ABC, The Human League, Bananarama, Nik Kershaw, Billy Ocean, Tony Hadley, Rick Astley, Heaven 17 and Howard Jones all performed.
AP Security provided crowd safety services at the 2010 Rewind Festival in Henley, and the promoter was so impressed that the company was asked to provide its services at both sites in 2011.
“We have a very good working relationship with the promoter,” said AP Security’s national sales manager John Phillips. “The client wanted to maintain the consistency of the production team, and knew that this is an event which we understand.”
AP Security gave the client the option of the event security specialist just providing a management team, but the ACS-listed company was asked to provide all the required personnel. A total of 95 staff attended during Festival Weekend.
With Phillips, Chris Hollands and Tommy Michalis managing the AP Security team, and Andrew Legg taking over as night security manager, it was the company’s first major job in Scotland.
“Everyone was really positive,” said Phillips. “We always enjoy new challenges, and meeting a whole new audience was a good experience.”
The 1980s: a musical decade to remember
With the 1980s being a decade that many remember with a rather guilty pleasure, Rewind isn’t a festival where the audience takes itself too seriously. The Scone Palace event was no exception, with the 20,000-strong crowd forsaking all vestiges of sartorial decency to break out their long-retired deely boppers, ra-ra skirts and legwarmers. Some even dressed as Rubik Cubes and Smurfs!
With blazing sunshine and temperatures (appropriately) touching the 80s, the atmosphere was very good-natured throughout.
“Our staff are always encouraged to interact with the public and enter into the spirit of things: we are there to help, not hinder,” explained Phillips. “Apart from the inevitable, if small number of people who attempted to get in without paying, there were absolutely no problems. The sun shone and everybody thoroughly enjoyed themselves.”
“Being the first time that we had staged Rewind in Scotland, we were very happy with the festival’s success and AP Security played a key role in achieving that,” insisted David Heartfield of promoter The Rival Organisation.
“As always, AP Security were totally professional and forged seamless working relationships with the local police, the council and other organisations. We look forward to working with them at Henley and at other events in the future.”
This is confirmed by the festival’s overnight manager, Bill Nicholson, who stated: “I have worked alongside AP Security for many years now and across several events, and have always found them to be very professional. They deliver a quality service while retaining the flexibility required in festival situations. The frontline staff always deliver a friendly and approachable attitude. AP Security are always a pleasure to work with.”
Working relationship between the police and the security provider
Inspector David Hunter of Tayside Police added: “The working relationship between Tayside Police and AP Security was excellent, and I found members of the public, stallholders and others to be similarly praiseworthy of the company’s staff. I personally witnessed good interaction with members of the public and, in particular, was advised of a couple of incidents which were managed without the need for police involvement. Again, this is indicative of the professionalism of AP Security’s staff.”
Hunter concluded: “The primary aim of events such as this is to ensure a safe and secure event and the contribution of AP towards achieving this was hugely significant.”
“Of course we learned things – we always do – but by the end it was getting a bit embarrassing as we had received so many compliments coming from all directions” enthused John Phillips. “Chris gathered all of our staff together at the end of the event to tell them how universally positive the reaction had been to their work. They were really chuffed: they were bouncing off the walls on the way home. It was the perfect start for a new festival, and we very much hope to be back next year.”
John’s sentiments were echoed by many in the audience. Words like ‘amazing’, ‘fab’ and ‘great’ were being used to describe the festival, coupled with a widespread desire from people to come again in 2012.
Meanwhile, this year’s Rewind in Henley took place on the weekend of 19-21 August and featured many of the artists that played in Scotland, alongside other well-known 80s acts including The Village People, Holly Johnson, Haircut 100 and Captain Sensible.
As successful as the Scone Palace weekend, there was plenty of Happy Talk and nobody was Glad It’s All Over…
