Spent quite a bit of time talking to the Oxfam staff - the ones in the towers around the boundary fences and throughout the campsite. They had reported fence jumpers (successful and unsuccessful...the 8 guys dressed up as ninjas trying to jump through the staff campsite, before being absolutely nailed by securtiy was a personal highlight...) and all sorts. After being at lots of UK festivals, I decided to take a wander around the main campsite and look at it from a security perspective.
Glastonbury has a superfence. V has a huge metal fence. Reading and Leeds are like fortresses. Creamfields...nothing. Well, not nothing, but very little. Between the car parks and the campsite was one of the flimsy building site fences...that was it. And car parks aren't exactly the hardest place to get into at festivals are they. The rest of the fencing around the site was very suspect - after reviewing the technical site map it made me realise how easy it would be to break into.
Campsites should be properly locked down areas. No-one enters or exits without the right credentials. By the sounds of things, people were pretty free to move from campsite to arena - whether they had a wristband or not. That is the worst mistake a festival can make. If people break into the campsite (which happens anywhere, Glastonbury aside maybe!) they should be contained there, then dealt with by the relevant security.
Throughout my nighttime wanderings the only security I really saw (and this is throughout most of the festival campsites, including red) was one security guard, plus young teenage girls up on the Oxfam towers. Although the athmosphere seemed very calm, if something had kicked off big scale (a la Reading riots) I'm not sure there was enough support to stop it. There may have been, I'm not sure, but after discussions with relevant security personel onsite, I'm not convinced there was.
One more point to consider - where do they get the security guards from? Are they fully trained, highly qualified, lots of experience etc? I'll let you decide. For certain though, Creamfields need a new security consultant or serious improvement if their license is to remain intact.
Creamfields Was a Disaster
in Creamfields
Posted
Camped staff this year. Was interesting.
Spent quite a bit of time talking to the Oxfam staff - the ones in the towers around the boundary fences and throughout the campsite. They had reported fence jumpers (successful and unsuccessful...the 8 guys dressed up as ninjas trying to jump through the staff campsite, before being absolutely nailed by securtiy was a personal highlight...) and all sorts. After being at lots of UK festivals, I decided to take a wander around the main campsite and look at it from a security perspective.
Glastonbury has a superfence. V has a huge metal fence. Reading and Leeds are like fortresses. Creamfields...nothing. Well, not nothing, but very little. Between the car parks and the campsite was one of the flimsy building site fences...that was it. And car parks aren't exactly the hardest place to get into at festivals are they. The rest of the fencing around the site was very suspect - after reviewing the technical site map it made me realise how easy it would be to break into.
Campsites should be properly locked down areas. No-one enters or exits without the right credentials. By the sounds of things, people were pretty free to move from campsite to arena - whether they had a wristband or not. That is the worst mistake a festival can make. If people break into the campsite (which happens anywhere, Glastonbury aside maybe!) they should be contained there, then dealt with by the relevant security.
Throughout my nighttime wanderings the only security I really saw (and this is throughout most of the festival campsites, including red) was one security guard, plus young teenage girls up on the Oxfam towers. Although the athmosphere seemed very calm, if something had kicked off big scale (a la Reading riots) I'm not sure there was enough support to stop it. There may have been, I'm not sure, but after discussions with relevant security personel onsite, I'm not convinced there was.
One more point to consider - where do they get the security guards from? Are they fully trained, highly qualified, lots of experience etc? I'll let you decide. For certain though, Creamfields need a new security consultant or serious improvement if their license is to remain intact.