Showsec “revitalised and rejuvenated” its operating strategies to maximise the secure environment and customer experience at this year’s Creamfields Festival – the first stage of a five-year deal signed with event organiser Cream International Events.
The festival and event security specialist won the contract following a competitive tender, and it builds on over a decade of successful working partnerships with the festival organisers, ensuring the highest quality of care for guests since Creamfields launched back in 1998.
Creamfields – which this year took place from 26-28 August in Daresbury, Cheshire – has grown from a small dance festival spawned from the underground clubbing culture to become one of the UK’s largest events. It now pulls in crowds of over 50,000 and features major chart headliners including the Chemical Brothers and Swedish House Mafia.
This year, Creamfields added a third night to the line-up and welcomed more than 45,000 gig-goers across the weekend.
Guest experience of paramount importance
Speaking about the 2011 show, Mark Logan – director at Showsec – said: “It’s no longer a niche dance-based demographic in terms of audience base. Creamfields is now a mainstream festival where guest experience is of paramount importance to the organisers.”
He continued: “As the UK’s leading electronic music festival, Creamfields differs to live music events – the focus is not so much on the traditional 180 stage format, but more about safe access and egress to and from the campsite and between multiple performance areas, each attracting different audiences depending on the acts that have been scheduled. With so many campers this requires sophisticated crowd-management systems.”
Showsec provided 1,100 licensed staff working across a multitude of shift patterns over the weekend, in turn ensuring a flexible approach to the security operation.
“The five-year contract means that we can have a truly joined-up approach with CI Events and Loud Sound,” enthused Logan. “We’re not simply a security provider – we are part of the festival management team and, as such, we can tweak methods and processes from year-to-year, concentrate resources and allocate management solely to this project.”
Jim King, Loud Sound’s festival director, commented: “We’ve invested in site infrastructure, such as the solid perimeter fence around the whole site, and have also invested a lot of time in working with Showsec to plan and implement various strategies. These strategies ensure our guests have a safe and enjoyable experience.”
King went on to state: “With this year’s increased capacity we knew that security was the right thing to focus on. We’re pleased Showsec has been awarded the contract: the company’s knowledge and expertise within the festival security sector makes it the obvious choice for the job, and means we can now develop a long-term security strategy.”
Helping the 2012 Olympics get off to a flying start
Showsec helped the Olympic 2012 celebrations get off to a flying start recently as the company ensured the safety of thousands of guests at the prestigious ‘One Year to Go’ countdown event held in London’s Trafalgar Square on Wednesday 27 July.
Over 6,000 people attended. Among the crowds were a plethora of special guests and VIPs including Prime Minster David Cameron, London Mayor Boris Johnson and Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Organised by the Greater London Authority (GLA) in conjunction with Innovision event management and Westminster Council, the countdown was televised live on BBC One.
David Cameron made a brief speech on the current planning and budgeting for the 2012 Games, which was followed by dancing, live music from The Feeling and the unveiling of the 2012 medal designs by British artist David Watkins.
Dayo Adelugba, Showsec’s head of security on the day, said: “It was a very high profile event which centred around ensuring the one hour live TV show went smoothly.”
He added: “People were arriving from 6.00 pm with the show starting at 7.00 pm, and we had to make sure everyone was in place in good time. We searched each person who attended and, despite the tight timeframe, the ingress and egress went really well and there was a really safe vibe throughout.”
Security Industry Authority-licensed staff
Showsec provided 130 Security Industry Authority-licensed security staff and stewards as well as five supervisors.
Dayo continued: “Getting people in and out quickly and safely was our main concern. As it was ‘rush hour’ no roads could be closed, meaning that we had to closely monitor and control the flow rate of people accessing and leaving the site. Thorough planning between ourselves and the organisers meant that the entire event was a success and everyone enjoyed the celebrations.”
Over 12.1 million people (21% of the UK’s population) tuned into the BBC News coverage and the ‘One Year to Go’ special programme.
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