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Festival season is well underway and, over the summer, fields and farms across the country are being transformed into temporary music venues and campsites.
Whilst festival-goers will be anticipating a wonderfully relaxed weekend, the organisers are going to be very, very busy! Not only will they have to make sure that all the acts are in the right place at the right time, that there are enough staff and volunteers to ensure everything runs smoothly, that there are enough rubbish and recycling bins for everyone, and that there is an effective waste management system in place, they will also have to make sure that everyone – staff and public alike – are kept safe at all times.
The Health & Safety Executive produce guidelines for running an event safely which help you think about all eventualities and emergencies when it comes to health and safety. But as with all other health and safety requirements, it comes down to good communication and making sure there is adequate information available.
On your farm, you will need to clearly mark the areas where you are happy for members of the public to be, the areas where you definitely don’t want them to be, and the areas you want to keep private. Signage is the most obvious way to do this and this might be a good time to update your safety signs so they are clearly visible not just for the festival, but also for when your farm gets back to normal.
You will also need signs especially for the festival, showing where the car parks, toilets, smoking areas, site office, entrances, exits etc are. You might also want to be clear about which taps provide water that’s suitable for drinking.
With so many young people attending festivals, it’s inevitable that there will be certain individuals who will push the boundary of their own safety. It’s vitally important in such an event that your festival-goers can quickly establish where the medical services are located.
Of course, many festival organisers hand-make their own cheerful and very colourful signs that reflect the informality and joyfulness of their event. It is unlikely that we will have stock signs for, say, the Jouster’s Pub, Celestial Stage, Sunset Dancing, Funky Forest or Bad Dance Moves to name but a few we found on a Google search, so painting your own makes sense!
Whilst this kind of creativity is to be encouraged, it is also the case that there are mandatory signs that must be displayed by law, and we will always have plenty of those in stock. You could view our collection of stock signs in order to make sure your festival is both fun and safe!
