Control Room Management at Download Festival

Brian Sims reports on control room management and the views of the event owner and promoter Live Nation for Download Festival 2013.

At the heart of every good security operation is a control room. It’s the nerve centre for pretty much everything to do with site management. The Download Festival 2013 control room at Donington Park reflected that truism. Click the image below to open a slideshow on the control room team.

The Showsec element of the control room — operational 12-17 June — resided on the lefthand side in an enclosed area of the space. The emergency liaison team staff, situated to the right in an open plan setting, hosted representatives from the promoter, the local authority, and the regional police service.

Showsec’s control room manager at this year’s festival was operations executive Louise Stockden, a graduate of the company’s much-respected Management Development Programme. In between numerous radio calls and conversations with her staff, Stockden found time to tell IFSEC Global about the kind of situations her team encountered.

There’s always an issue with illegal merchandise sellers. They tend to try and set up shop by the day tickets box office, but we monitor that space and others on the bespoke site CCTV. Their goods are inferior, and we need to make sure fans are buying T-shirts and other memorabilia only from the official stalls located inside the main arena.

Stockden and her team have also to deal issues with a potentially greater degree of severity. Illegal drug use, theft, the possession of offensive and dangerous weapons, fighting, anti-social behaviour, and accusations of sexual harassment/assault can all be part of the mix.

We rely not only on the CCTV, which is brought in specifically for the festival, but also the skill of our people on the ground. They must be the motivators for action as and when the need arises. We’re always liaising with the event production team. Management communications are kept completely separate.

Stockden’s efforts have been supported by a new innovation: scrolling temporary LED event signage across the Donington Park festival site. The signage contains information such as stage times for the bands, directions for entering and exiting the car parks, and notification of where fans can find advice and information.

“We want to help ensure the fans have a fantastic time and don’t realise that we’re here,” she said. “Safety and security are paramount, but we pay a lot of attention to deliver those functions in a non-intrusive manner.”

Special relationship

IFSEC Global also spoke with John Probyn, Live Nation’s festival director for Download 2013, at the company’s on-site offices. He was clearly pleased and impressed with the evolution of Live Nation’s working relationship with Showsec.

Since Download began on this site back in 2003, we’ve always worked with more than one security provider. This year, we decided to work with Showsec and Showsec alone. Simon Battersby [Showsec’s head of security for Download] attends every pre-event planning meeting. Great management skills, good supervisors, and excellent briefings are the keys to success, not to mention longevity of contract. We have them all in place with Showsec.

In 2013, Showsec subcontracted some of the on-site work to Event Security and Diamond Security; the latter took responsibility for some of the campsite duties.

Speaking of planning, what Probyn called the “hot event debrief” took place on Monday 17 June, the day after the festival ended.

We’ll be talking about additional ways in which we can improve any areas, such as the pit crew operation. That has now become a more skilled role than at any time in the past.
Our customers — the fans — are our bread and butter. Anything we can do to help them enjoy Download even more is worth exploring. That’s where Showsec is able to add its experience and skills into the mix for the next Download Festival.

Probyn compared the festival site to a small city, and he said Live Nation can be viewed as the council that governs that city.

That’s a direct reflection of how the events industry has changed. The barriers to doing business that were once there have been knocked down. Information sharing is vital, while every day is like another day at school. By that, I mean you learn something new, usually by trial and error.

From a logistical point of view, for example, moving the main stage to the left over the last two years has made “a phenomenal difference” to the security and safety operation. It has allowed for easier load-in for the trucks hauling things like stage equipment and lighting rigs to the site.

Next week, in the final part of our Download Festival security report, we will discuss campsite security.

Related posts:

• Access Control & Queue Management at Download 2013