Alan Scott-Davies, senior legal claims advisor at Harris Fowler Solicitors warns that although it’s currently summer festival time, safety is as crucial as part of the all-star line-up.
As reported in This is Cornwall, there are over 300 summer music festivals in the UK this year. Glastonbury is not just the biggest but is also one of the best; an annual opportunity for partygoers to let their hair down, get really muddy, drink, camp out in tents, listen to a diversity of music and enjoy a world renowned event - so long as people go prepared and avoid the hazards. It’s not just the visitors who need to take care, but also the hundreds of volunteers that work at the global event. For instance, the 2013 Ultra Music Festival has already seen two workers seriously injured when part of the main stage collapsed, bringing down a fairly large part of a seven foot tall LED screen.
When you research the Glastonbury Festival history, you come across a great article written by Tom Chivers [The Telegraph] in which he recalls some notable events from earlier years. For instance, in 1990 the largest crowd up to that time witnessed violence between security guards and new age travellers resulting in a good few injuries and 235 arrests. Little wonder that such a big event now comes with a policing bill which in 2011, involved 1323 officers at a cost of £1,588,765.
The Glastonbury Festival brings with it huge logistical problems and despite enormous effort by the organisers, there are going to be those who suffer injuries caused by accidents, crime or simply an overindulgence in alcohol and drugs. A number of people even suffer head and neck injuries every year as a result of 'crowd surfing' - mostly to people in the crowd rather than the surfers!
Your legal rights whilst on someone else's property are the same at Glastonbury Festival as anywhere else. It might be sensible to follow some safety tips including regular contact with friends, letting them know where you are - and you knowing where they are. Always keeping your mobile phone with you, but hidden and charged. Remembering to keep eating and drinking, ensuring that on regular occasions some of the liquid consumed is of a non-alcoholic variety, keeping up your hydration.
If you take regular medication make sure you have it with you because it's no fun having to trek half a mile through thousands of revellers to retrieve a pill from your tent - assuming you can remember where your tent is! Don't go wandering off on your own and if you have some treasured valuables leave them at home; if they're that precious they're not worth losing! Also, make sure you know where the medical facilities are and report any incident to a steward or to the police.
All this might seem over the top when all you want to do is have a good time but when the Glastonbury Festival has finished, stage has gone and the fields are quiet again, you don't want to be in hospital with an injury that leaves you wondering what might have been if you'd just followed a few basic safety tips.