Following changes to the Licensing Act (2003) it is possible to apply for a licence that runs for a number of years. Melvin Benn, the licence holder, and GFL chose to apply to Mendip Council for a licence spanning four years.

A central consideration for Melvin Benn and GFL was crowd safety for the higher number of visitors, and it was essential to demonstrate in their application that their excellent crowd safety record could be maintained. GFL asked Evacuation Strategies to prepare a Crowd Safety Assessment reviewing GFL’s proposals and making recommendations where needed. 

Evacuation Strategies were consulted at an early stage of the draft licence application to understand the changes proposed to accommodate the additional visitors, and reviewed all the existing documentation including risk assessments, event management plans, and the major incident plans.

Then we worked with the GFL team drawing upon their in-depth experience of the event to develop a model of how crowds moved around the site in the past and how this might change in the future. Risks were re-assessed. A number of recommendations were made including:

·         Some routes were widened and new bridges added to create a balanced crowd flow system around the site;

·         Stewarding procedures developed to control visitor numbers at certain locations;

·         Enhancements to the risk assessment process; and

·         Additional observation and data collection during the Festivals.

These were committed to by Melvin Benn in the licence application.

The report submitted by Evacuation Strategies underpinned the licence application, which was successfully granted in its entirety, 135,000 public and 42,500 staff tickets for four years on March 26^th. Evacuation Strategies were present at the hearing to substantiate the reports findings and recommendations to the Mendip Licensing Committee.

The report recommendations were further supported by Mendip Council and the Police, who went to state that they become a condition of the licence. A Crowd Safety study is now to be part of an annual review prior to the Festival for the duration of the licence.

Melvin Benn, director of The Mean Fiddler and licence holder for Glastonbury Festivals Ltd said:

“Simon Ancliffe had made recommendations to improve visitor safety following the 2003 Festival, which we implemented, and Evacuation Strategies were the obvious choice to assess our crowd safety planning as we prepared our licence application. Having experts on-board and their report smoothed the way to a successful application, and I am pleased that they will be on-site to observe this year’s Festival and help us prepare for the next one.”