Sometimes the words “music festival” can alarm and panic an entire city or even state – like in that Southpark episode “Die Hippie, Die” where the music festival comes to town and won’t leave. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s hilarious. The concerns we as promoters have been asked to address range from completely reasonable to downright absurd.
One of my favorite pre-show meetings is the public safety meeting. We call together all the public health, emergency and safety officials and run through our security, traffic, ems, and overall emergency plans. The cops and firefighters know the drill and we all speak the same language in regards to security and emergencies. Dealing with them to execute our emergency plans is pretty black and white. Many things in the festival production world are very gray, but planning for an emergency isn’t one of them.
What I love about the cops and firefighters is that they’ve handled all kinds of situations and have seen the best and worst in people. We’re just throwing a big party. They get it.