The Logistics of Music Festivals

00:22:10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om3IQ5HEQ8g

Résumé

TLDRThe Glastonbury Festival, held annually in Somerset, England, transforms a dairy farm into the world's largest greenfield music festival, accommodating 200,000 attendees. The preparation involves extensive logistics, including road upgrades, sanitation solutions, and infrastructure development. The festival employs innovative sanitation methods, such as long-drop toilets, and has built underground reservoirs to manage water supply. Vendors must adhere to strict requirements and pay significant fees, while the festival ensures crowd control through a perimeter fence and security measures. Community relations are prioritized, with local residents receiving complimentary tickets and support. Insurance challenges have increased due to rising costs and risks, while transportation management is crucial for attendee access. The Event Management Plan is designed to minimize the festival's impact on the local community, ensuring a successful and sustainable event.

A retenir

  • 🎶 The Glastonbury Festival transforms a dairy farm into a massive music event.
  • 🚧 Extensive logistics are required for site preparation and infrastructure.
  • 🚽 Innovative sanitation solutions include long-drop toilets.
  • 💧 Underground reservoirs manage the festival's high water demand.
  • 🛍️ Vendors must meet strict requirements and pay significant fees.
  • 🔒 A perimeter fence helps control crowd size and prevent gatecrashers.
  • 🤝 Community relations are prioritized with complimentary tickets for locals.
  • 📈 Rising insurance costs pose challenges for festival operations.
  • 🚌 Public transport is encouraged to manage attendee transportation.
  • 📋 The Event Management Plan minimizes the festival's impact on the local community.

Chronologie

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    The Glastonbury Festival, set on a dairy farm in Somerset, transforms from a grazing ground for cows into the world's largest greenfield music festival. As preparations begin, access is restricted, and construction starts with the installation of temporary roads and facilities to accommodate the influx of 200,000 attendees. The festival's infrastructure includes upgrading bridges and establishing a site office, while sanitation solutions are developed to manage waste effectively during the event.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    As the festival approaches, the core stage construction begins, and facilities for staff are expanded. The organization involves numerous subcontractors, with a focus on sanitation to handle the large crowd. Innovative long-drop toilets are installed to minimize the need for frequent waste removal. Additionally, the festival operates its own utility system, including a water supply network, to meet the increased demand during the event without straining local resources.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    Vendors at Glastonbury must adhere to strict regulations and prepare extensive documentation to operate. The selection process for vendors is meticulous, ensuring they align with the festival's values. Vendors pay significant fees for their spots, and a wholesale market is established for them to restock supplies during the festival. The festival's management ensures vendors maintain their assigned locations throughout the event, emphasizing the importance of compliance and safety standards.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:22:10

    The festival's operations are supported by an Event Control Center, overseeing security, safety, and crowd management. Measures are taken to prevent crime and manage crowd dynamics, including a perimeter fence to control access. The festival also addresses community concerns by implementing noise and light regulations, providing transportation options, and engaging with local residents to maintain positive relations. Despite challenges, Glastonbury continues to thrive, balancing the complexities of festival management with community integration.

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Vidéo Q&R

  • What is the Glastonbury Festival?

    The Glastonbury Festival is the largest greenfield music festival in the world, held annually in Somerset, England.

  • How does the festival prepare the site?

    The site, a dairy farm, undergoes significant transformation including road upgrades, temporary structures, and sanitation facilities.

  • What sanitation solutions are used at the festival?

    Glastonbury uses long-drop toilets that are not emptied during the festival, instead cleaned out after the event.

  • How does the festival manage water supply?

    The festival built two underground reservoirs to meet the high water demand during the event without stressing local systems.

  • What are the vendor requirements at Glastonbury?

    Vendors must provide extensive documentation, adhere to safety standards, and pay significant fees to operate at the festival.

  • How does the festival ensure crowd control?

    The festival employs a perimeter fence and security measures to manage crowd size and prevent gatecrashers.

  • What community relations efforts does the festival engage in?

    The festival provides complimentary tickets to local residents and organizes events to foster good relations with the community.

  • What challenges does the festival face regarding insurance?

    Insurance costs have risen due to risks associated with extreme weather and past incidents, making it difficult for festivals to secure affordable coverage.

  • How does the festival manage transportation for attendees?

    Public transport is encouraged, with additional trains and shuttle buses provided, alongside traffic management strategies for drivers.

  • What is the significance of the festival's Event Management Plan?

    The plan aims to minimize the festival's impact on local residents and ensure compliance with regulations.

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  • 00:00:00
    This is the Glastonbury Festival… or at least,  it will be. Right now it’s a dairy farm,
  • 00:00:06
    set in the Somerset countryside, home to about 400  cows. Through fall, winter, and spring they graze
  • 00:00:12
    the fields for grass and shrubs, in turn producing  milk that’s used to make Worthy Farm Cheddar. But
  • 00:00:18
    come late-April, it’s time for them to relocate  to their summer residence at a nearby farm.
  • 00:00:22
    That’s because these fields are about to be  transformed into the largest greenfield music
  • 00:00:27
    festival in the entire world—in a matter  of weeks, 200,000 people will descend onto
  • 00:00:32
    this farm in the middle of nowhere Britain.  First, they block off access—there are a number
  • 00:00:37
    of roads and footpaths running through it which  of course need to become private as construction
  • 00:00:42
    begins. Next, the perimeter fence goes up, along  with the very first facility: a preliminary site
  • 00:00:48
    office from which the construction processes will  be led. Before construction begins, though, they
  • 00:00:52
    need to address the roads. Most of them are made  of dirt meaning in Britain’s rainy weather, with
  • 00:00:57
    a large number of heavy vehicles, they’d quickly  become impassable. That’s why they lay down these
  • 00:01:02
    temporary metal road coverings rated for up to  40 tonnes. There’s also the matter of bridges.
  • 00:01:07
    There are a number across the site and small  farm bridges were never designed to accommodate
  • 00:01:12
    a constant barrage of semi-trucks, so while many  have been permanently upgraded through the years
  • 00:01:16
    to handle the demand, others get temporarily  reinforced just for the festival period.
  • 00:01:21
    Around mid-May, the core stage of the build  begins, so the site office gets supplemented
  • 00:01:26
    with shower and toilet facilities so that staff  can camp on-site. Across the following weeks,
  • 00:01:30
    this staff headquarters will continue  to grow—they’ll add a first aid center,
  • 00:01:34
    a welfare center with mental health and conflict  resolution support, a staff canteen with three
  • 00:01:39
    hot meals a day, even a number of crew bars.  The bulk of the build-work involves erecting
  • 00:01:44
    around 90 major temporary structures,  ranging from tents to stages. What this
  • 00:01:48
    looks like from the perspective of Glastonbury  Festival Events Limited—the actual organizing
  • 00:01:53
    company—is facilitating the work of a huge number  of subcontractors who do the operational work of
  • 00:01:58
    erecting each facility. Their staff does  little themselves beyond, well, organize.
  • 00:02:04
    As this occurs, work starts to build the core  infrastructure of the event. Sanitation is of
  • 00:02:09
    paramount importance—200,000 people is a lot, and  if there are not enough places for them to go,
  • 00:02:15
    they’ll find their own places to do their  business. Glastonbury’s sanitation solution
  • 00:02:19
    would be described by some as innovative  and by others as horrific. Basically,
  • 00:02:24
    they dig giant pits in the ground. They then  install what’s called a long-drop toilet—a
  • 00:02:30
    row of toilet seats on top of holes that drop  into the bigger hole. The “innovation” is that
  • 00:02:35
    the large hole is big enough that it doesn’t have  to be emptied during the festival. Worthy Farm’s
  • 00:02:40
    roads are massively congested during the festival,  so having to have trucks constantly make their
  • 00:02:45
    way through to empty out Porta Potties would be  quite detrimental to broader festival operations.
  • 00:02:50
    Rather, they clean the pits out just once at the  end of the festival, then refill the hole with
  • 00:02:54
    dirt and allow residual waste to biodegrade. Of course it’s not all about outputs—there are
  • 00:03:00
    also the inputs. The festival includes about 1,000  different traders—food vendors, craft stalls,
  • 00:03:06
    charity tents, and more. Now, of course, it would  be chaos if each and every one of these vendors
  • 00:03:11
    had to be entirely self-sufficient—each  stall would operate its own generator,
  • 00:03:15
    you’d have propane canisters strewn all over the  place, and the single-use plastics consumption
  • 00:03:20
    would fly firmly in the face of the festival’s  eco-conscious mission. That’s why Glastonbury
  • 00:03:24
    essentially operates its own utility system.  While Worthy Farm looks like a farm and operates
  • 00:03:29
    as a farm, the fact that the festival was founded  by the farm’s owners—who still own it to this
  • 00:03:34
    day—made it practical to build some permanent  infrastructure. The most notable example of this
  • 00:03:39
    is its water supply system. Underneath the fields  is a network of pipes, similar to that underneath
  • 00:03:44
    any town, distributing water to key facilities.  This has existed for decades, but the trouble
  • 00:03:49
    was that demand over festival weekend was so much  more than traditionally needed in the area—about
  • 00:03:55
    3 million liters a day compared to typical demand  of just a half million in the adjacent village.
  • 00:04:01
    Naturally, that demand spike strained the local  water mains and led to low pressure for nearby
  • 00:04:05
    residents. They complained that they were unable  to do their laundry or take a shower during the
  • 00:04:09
    festival, which wasn’t just annoying—it was  a risk to the festival itself. When community
  • 00:04:14
    sentiment goes down, so too does the likelihood  of getting an operating permit. As a fix,
  • 00:04:19
    the festival experimented with trucking water  in using tankers and filling massive bladders
  • 00:04:23
    that would feed into the pipes, but while this  alleviated the water pressure issues it still led
  • 00:04:28
    to community impact due to the nonstop procession  of trucks snaking through small village streets.
  • 00:04:33
    So eventually they built two massive underground  reservoirs. Today, in the weeks leading up to the
  • 00:04:38
    festival, these are slowly filled at a rate that  does not stress the local system, and they have
  • 00:04:42
    enough capacity to cover festival weekend without  creating exceptional demand on the local system.
  • 00:04:47
    The other utilities are provided by third-party  contractors—the festival requires that all traders
  • 00:04:52
    buy propane from the company Festival Gas which  operates regular deliveries throughout the site.
  • 00:04:57
    Meanwhile, another company called Aggreko builds  a temporary electric grid for the festival,
  • 00:05:02
    using a combination of large generators and  renewable sources, and traders contract directly
  • 00:05:06
    with them for their power supply more or less  how they would with a traditional grid operator.
  • 00:05:10
    This is only the start of the rules  imposed on vendors by the festival.
  • 00:05:14
    Each one of them is an independent business, but  they’re perceived by attendees as a component of
  • 00:05:19
    the overall experience, and therefore Glastonbury  is accountable for them and their actions. That’s
  • 00:05:24
    why they all have their binder: a huge  collection of paperwork on which their
  • 00:05:28
    ability to keep operating hinges. While exact  requirements will vary, in 2015, it looked
  • 00:05:33
    like this—vehicle and staff passes, proof of  insurance, health and safety documentation,
  • 00:05:38
    even their very own A5 No Smoking sign.  But the vendors, for their part, have had
  • 00:05:43
    plenty of time to prepare this documentation  along with their staffing plan, exact footprint
  • 00:05:47
    and layout of their space, and all the other  minutiae required as the application window
  • 00:05:51
    opens some nine months prior, with selection being  made three months prior to the festival. Selection
  • 00:05:56
    takes such a long time because a festival is not  just trying to fill the openings, they’re trying
  • 00:06:00
    to fill the openings with vendors that match the  festival’s particular values and particular needs.
  • 00:06:06
    From the nonprofit and jewelry tents, to those  making greasy late-night meals or morning-after
  • 00:06:10
    breakfasts, vendors inform the experience of a  festival just as much as the art and music, so
  • 00:06:15
    the Glastonbury planners pour over each and every  detailed application. And should a vendor get in,
  • 00:06:20
    they’ll be paying for the privilege. While  exact fees to trade at Glastonbury aren’t
  • 00:06:24
    listed because each is case by case, sizable  and well-positioned food vendors have reported
  • 00:06:29
    prices in the 15-to-20,000-pound range for  the busier spaces nearer to major stages,
  • 00:06:35
    with rates dropping the farther one is  positioned from the festival center.
  • 00:06:39
    A telling sign that the hefty upfront fee  for a five-day run is worthwhile, though,
  • 00:06:43
    is a particular feature that appears in  small print on the Glastonbury map—the
  • 00:06:47
    wholesale market. Essentially, it’s a shop for  the shops. Each morning of the festival there’s
  • 00:06:53
    a procession toward this spot as wholesalers  bring in staple ingredients, fresh foods,
  • 00:06:57
    and serveware for the depleted vendors to  purchase. Much of these interactions take
  • 00:07:01
    place in the morning when the festival grounds  are generally quieter and easier to navigate.
  • 00:07:05
    For a small window of time, a slew of trucks  and tractors are permitted to run deliveries
  • 00:07:10
    around the site very slowly and carefully. But  for most, supplies are purchased and then hauled
  • 00:07:15
    by hand or wagon to get ready for the next rush.     Staying in stock is critical for vendors and
  • 00:07:20
    the festival alike, as a vendor is required to  station their booth at their assigned spot for
  • 00:07:25
    the entire run of the festival—as leaving early  would mean a significant fine and lost chance
  • 00:07:29
    to come back next year. In part, this is down  to security, as the vendor areas, or markets,
  • 00:07:34
    function effectively as islands sealed off from  the general admission areas. Booths, therefore,
  • 00:07:39
    are impermeable extensions of fences, each  keeping the festival public outside the
  • 00:07:43
    market zone where vendors have their vehicles and  extra supplies, and in some cases, where there are
  • 00:07:48
    vendor-only services and camping areas.  Even separated from general admission,
  • 00:07:52
    running a vendor at a festival is a draining  affair. The lines at some hours will be unruly
  • 00:07:57
    and never-ending, and at other times, nonexistent.  The heat will be sweltering, and there will also
  • 00:08:03
    be unrelenting rain. All the while there will  be pressure—pressure to move enough product to
  • 00:08:08
    justify the entry fee, pressure to make enough  to keep a food truck up and running for the next
  • 00:08:11
    few weeks until another festival, and pressure to  adhere to food safety standards—the last of which,
  • 00:08:16
    the festival is also keeping tabs on. To help wrangle Glastonbury’s vendors,
  • 00:08:20
    the festival deploys managers with offices  placed near groupings of markets to ensure
  • 00:08:24
    policies are being respected by the vendors and  guests and offering themselves as a resource
  • 00:08:28
    should anything start going sideways between the  two parties. These Market Managers report to the
  • 00:08:33
    Partnership Director, who is responsible for  dealing with all the external partnerships—from
  • 00:08:36
    fencing contractors to food vendors—and  operates from the Event Control Center,
  • 00:08:40
    which in 2015 was located here at the Green Barn.  Beyond market management, much of the overall
  • 00:08:45
    security and safety structures that the festival  relies on emanates from the Event Control Center.
  • 00:08:50
    At its busiest, it will see some 500 employees  and volunteers working in and around it, while
  • 00:08:55
    representatives of each aspect of the festival  will be based out of it for the festival's
  • 00:08:59
    entirety—such as the Operations Director,  Infrastructure Manager, Security Director,
  • 00:09:03
    Site Manager, and Health and Safety Coordinator  to name a few. Directly neighboring the control
  • 00:09:07
    center is fire control and a makeshift police  station, the former supplied by the regional
  • 00:09:11
    Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service.  Connected by phone, radio, and CCTV, the Event
  • 00:09:17
    Control Center keeps close tabs on everything  from impending weather and conditions across the
  • 00:09:21
    ground to the flow of guests and density of crowds  all with the aim to monitor pending problems and
  • 00:09:25
    proactively gameplan solutions. And to make sure  nothing is missed, and response can be hastened
  • 00:09:30
    when problems do arise, the directors and managers  stationed at the control center work with official
  • 00:09:34
    Area Organizers spread across all areas of the  festival—from stages to campgrounds. It’s this
  • 00:09:40
    group that will supervise the buildout of their  region, carry out daily inspections, and manage
  • 00:09:44
    adherence on everything from health and safety  standards to the onsite traffic management plan.
  • 00:09:48
    Of course, keeping a festival running smoothly  and safely during it requires ample foresight
  • 00:09:53
    before it. A campground, for instance,  can be well monitored by area organizers,
  • 00:09:58
    accounted for by police, and aided by a robust  lost-and-found system, but crime and petty theft
  • 00:10:03
    are things that a good festival addresses  long before the festival. At Glastonbury,
  • 00:10:08
    campgrounds are modestly lit by strung-up festoon  lighting to minimize crime in the dark of night,
  • 00:10:12
    while each camp will have lock-up areas for  campers' valuables. In such a chaotic environment,
  • 00:10:17
    the best way to solve problems is  to limit them in the first place.
  • 00:10:20
    The same goes with crowd dynamics—crowd control  procedures only really work when officials have a
  • 00:10:25
    good sense as to the exact number of participants  they’re dealing with. As a generally free-spirited
  • 00:10:30
    venture from the beginning, Glastonbury has always  dealt with its fair share of gatecrashers. In its
  • 00:10:34
    history, the festival has even welcomed them—a  past that has created a culture of seemingly
  • 00:10:39
    good-natured trespassing. But that changed with  this fence. Running 5 miles or 8 kilometers
  • 00:10:45
    around the festival’s perimeter, the Super  Fortress Fence, as it’s called, has helped the
  • 00:10:49
    festival ensure a right-sized crowd by minimizing  intrusions with its smooth 12-foot tall face and
  • 00:10:54
    45-degree overhang at the top. Still, some will  try it, so spread across the festival are guard
  • 00:11:00
    towers and patrols on motorized vehicles to watch  for those trying to sneak over, or under, the
  • 00:11:05
    massive fence. Perhaps countering the festival’s  traditionally welcoming ethos, the fence is a
  • 00:11:09
    safety necessity because letting in thousands of  unaccounted-for guests will strain resources and
  • 00:11:14
    alter crowd dynamics to a potentially dangerous  extent. And it’s also a licensing necessity,
  • 00:11:20
    as this fence came into being in 2002 in response  to a 15,000-pound fine for having gatecrashers
  • 00:11:25
    take the crowd size well over the licensed  capacity. Without a far more aggressive system
  • 00:11:29
    of keeping people out, Glastonbury was facing  the potential of losing its license entirely.
  • 00:11:35
    Now, organizing a festival like Glastonbury  once is, in and of itself, a massive feat,
  • 00:11:40
    but doing a festival like Glastonbury year  in year out is yet more impressive because
  • 00:11:44
    it not only has to function, it has to function  well. What’s at risk is not just losing business,
  • 00:11:51
    but losing the festival’s right to operate at  all. There’s no inherent right for Glastonbury
  • 00:11:57
    to operate. If things go wrong, it risks  losing this: its operating permit. And
  • 00:12:02
    making Glastonbury’s operations yet more  challenging is the fact that it has to
  • 00:12:06
    do all of this in a quiet, sparsely-populated  rural area of famously bureaucratic Britain.
  • 00:12:12
    An endless array of regulations are imposed  on the festival by both the local and national
  • 00:12:17
    government. Perhaps the biggest risk-area, in the  government’s eyes, centers around alcohol. It’s
  • 00:12:22
    of course in the festival’s financial interest  to sell as much alcohol as possible, but too
  • 00:12:26
    much drunken debauchery can and has turned music  festivals into riots. Therefore, the UK government
  • 00:12:32
    prohibits certain activities that it deems likely  to promote excessive consumption. For example,
  • 00:12:37
    the venue must monitor to assure patrons are  not pouring alcohol into other people’s mouths,
  • 00:12:41
    and the festival is prohibited from running  drinking games that involve consuming a certain
  • 00:12:45
    amount of alcohol in a certain amount of time.  But the government isn’t the only entity the
  • 00:12:50
    festival is answerable to. Just as significant a  risk is that of upsetting their insurers. You see,
  • 00:12:56
    festivals are incredibly risky businesses, but  they’re also massive businesses. Glastonbury is
  • 00:13:02
    estimated to earn upwards of $80 million a year  in revenue, but that revenue all hinges on just
  • 00:13:07
    five core days of operation. If weather washes it  out or key artists fail to show or reality doesn’t
  • 00:13:13
    match expectations, Glastonbury will likely have  to refund ticket-sales—either due to government
  • 00:13:18
    regulations or public pushback. Of course, almost  all of the expenses—contractors, tent rentals,
  • 00:13:24
    infrastructure, staff salaries—will have already  been paid for. It’s not like a traditional
  • 00:13:29
    concert-venue where a year-round schedule offsets  the risk of individual shows—here, all their eggs
  • 00:13:35
    are in one basket. Without insurance, one rainy  weekend could bankrupt the business, and even
  • 00:13:40
    without foul weather the festival might struggle  to hire contractors and artists due to concern
  • 00:13:44
    about nonpayment in the event of cancellation.  So insurance is effectively mandatory. Almost any
  • 00:13:51
    large festival will hold a massive policy covering  both general liability and more unique risks like
  • 00:13:56
    event cancellation and artist non-appearance.  Very few insurers—reportedly about ten—will
  • 00:14:02
    actually underwrite these policies given  their massive scale, giving them quite a
  • 00:14:06
    bit of leverage in setting terms. Every policy  is unique, but much of the design and operations
  • 00:14:11
    of festivals is therefore dictated by the  insurer—for liquor liability coverage they
  • 00:14:16
    might require that sales are limited to two  at a time, for general liability coverage they
  • 00:14:20
    might set security staffing minimums, for artist  non-appearance coverage they might prohibit the
  • 00:14:24
    festival from booking particularly troublesome  artists, for event cancellation coverage they
  • 00:14:28
    might require an on-site meteorologist.  But while these insurance policies make
  • 00:14:32
    event management a sustainable business,  they are also now holding the industry back.
  • 00:14:37
    Many of these policies did cover cancellation due  to communicable diseases, meaning the insurers
  • 00:14:42
    lost a colossal amount of money in 2020 due to the  COVID pandemic. Five years on, it’s still almost
  • 00:14:48
    impossible to get a policy covering pandemics, at  least at a reasonable cost, but even the policies
  • 00:14:53
    excluding it have inflated in cost. There have  been a number of high-profile incidents that
  • 00:14:57
    likely involved high-dollar payouts in recent  years like the deadly Astroworld crowd crush.
  • 00:15:02
    And then on top of that, there’s a global trend of  increased extreme weather. Just as this is pushing
  • 00:15:07
    up home insurance rates in fire-prone areas, it’s  also raising the cost of festival insurance.
  • 00:15:12
    Combined, there are instances like the Bonnaroo  festival, in Tennessee, which cancelled in 2020
  • 00:15:17
    due to COVID, 2021 due to flooding, and 2025 due  to heavy rains. With three cancellations in six
  • 00:15:23
    years, it’s no wonder insurance rates are going  up. Bonnaroo is owned by Live Nation which, due to
  • 00:15:29
    its scale, can likely negotiate lower rates as its  risk is diversified over many different festivals,
  • 00:15:34
    but the impacts are more pronounced for  independent festivals like Glastonbury
  • 00:15:37
    where the risk is more singular. And insurance  issues are greatest for new festivals. Insurers
  • 00:15:43
    charge higher rates when a festival is unproven,  which makes it exceptionally hard to start a new,
  • 00:15:48
    independent festival—especially when Fyre  Fest so visibility demonstrated the risks.
  • 00:15:53
    But of course the other risk to the festival’s  longevity is that the neighbors just get sick of
  • 00:15:57
    it. And it’s happened before. In 1992,  Anne Goodes, a Worthy Farm neighbor,
  • 00:16:02
    erected a 30-foot white cross overlooking  the festival site from her property. As a
  • 00:16:07
    devout Christian, Goodes was antagonistic towards  what she considered blasphemy taking place during
  • 00:16:11
    Glastonbury, between the free love and free drugs.  And it wasn’t just her—as the festival grew, so
  • 00:16:17
    too did the schism between it and the locals—so in  response, founder Michael Eavis developed a series
  • 00:16:23
    of solutions that today fall under the tightly  named Event Management Plan—one that’s recorded,
  • 00:16:28
    approved, and filed by Somerset Council. These  plans are designed to essentially contain the
  • 00:16:33
    festival—succesfully implemented, it should  make it so the neighbors in Pilton barely
  • 00:16:38
    perceive Glastonbury, even as their village  of a thousand effectively grows to 200,000.
  • 00:16:44
    Of course, not everything can be contained. A  certain amount of litter, for example, is to
  • 00:16:48
    be expected, and therefore the festival commits  to cleaning up at key sites like the surrounding
  • 00:16:52
    streets and local train station for three weeks  before and after the event weekend. Light and
  • 00:16:57
    noise pollution are also inevitable, so a 12:30  p.m curfew is instituted on the main stages on
  • 00:17:02
    Friday and Saturday, along with a midnight sound  curfew on Sunday. After that point, smaller stages
  • 00:17:08
    and venues are allowed to keep operating under  strict maximum volume conditions. In fact, to
  • 00:17:12
    assure compliance, crews from the council patrol  locations near the festival with decibel meters
  • 00:17:17
    until dawn. And the same goes for lighting, which  is installed specifically to “minimize the risk of
  • 00:17:22
    nuisance” onto neighbors. Even the generators  for directional lights have decibel caps.
  • 00:17:27
    Of course, the one thing that just simply has  to go in and out are the people. Transporting
  • 00:17:33
    200,000 people to the middle of the countryside  is, of course, a headache. Naturally, public
  • 00:17:39
    transportation is most efficient, least intrusive  to neighbors, and it’s the method of choice for at
  • 00:17:43
    least a third of attendees. That includes nearly  30,000 who take the Great Western Railway, which
  • 00:17:49
    adds more than a dozen extra trains from London  Paddington to the Castle Cary stop per day to meet
  • 00:17:53
    demand. That stop, however, is not at the farm and  from Castle Cary Railway Station—a tiny two-track
  • 00:18:00
    stop with little infrastructure—officials help to  guide the thousands of people onto shuttle buses
  • 00:18:04
    which take them to the farm. Riders can only bring  what they can carry—there are no trolley carts
  • 00:18:09
    for luggage and large items like instruments just  aren’t allowed. Buses carry another 20,000 people,
  • 00:18:14
    who arrive in a cascade of times over the start  of the festival and are dropped off at a dedicated
  • 00:18:19
    entrance, close to the action, for coaches.  And then, of course, there is everyone who drives,
  • 00:18:24
    with 28,000 public cars, 5,000 campervans, and  another 12,500 vehicles for employees. Traffic
  • 00:18:30
    management starts nearly 30 miles or 50 kilometers  away from the farm. First, there are 35 miles or
  • 00:18:36
    56 kilometers of designated clearways, where  cars are not allowed to stop or pull over. Then
  • 00:18:41
    there are more than 350 miles or 560 kilometers of  diversionary routes, forced one-ways, and dozens
  • 00:18:47
    of closed exits all designed to keep traffic  moving and reduce impact on local neighborhoods.
  • 00:18:52
    Here, roads are closed along Lottisham Road,  A37, and A361 to keep cars concentrated on
  • 00:18:58
    thoroughfares instead of traversing through  farm lands and disrupting rural life.
  • 00:19:02
    Residents, themselves, are given vehicle passes  to make sure they can still move around between
  • 00:19:06
    villages unimpeded. In fact, they’re given a lot  of things. Residents of Pilton, the community most
  • 00:19:12
    impacted, receive complimentary tickets to the  festival and the surrounding neighborhoods get
  • 00:19:15
    a number of price-tiered tickets along with  a designated place to park at the festival.
  • 00:19:20
    Officials also set up a 24-hour hotline for noise  and light complaints. And, in the fall, organizers
  • 00:19:26
    throw a Pilton Party—essentially a mini music  festival—as a thank you to the villagers, workers,
  • 00:19:31
    and local people. These efforts to work with the  community instead of against it have worked. For
  • 00:19:36
    55 years, the festival has returned, continually  growing in both numbers, stature, and scope.
  • 00:19:43
    Music festivals are incredibly complex exercises,  and they’re incredibly risky businesses,
  • 00:19:48
    but there’s a reason why organizers  go through all the effort and risk.
  • 00:19:52
    Done right, they’re also incredibly successful  businesses. They’re massively popular among fans,
  • 00:19:58
    and also among artists. In fact, they’re some of  the most attractive gigs out there—for headliners,
  • 00:20:03
    the pay is massive; for emerging artists, the  crowds are massive. And ultimately this makes
  • 00:20:08
    sense. For a festival to build a 200,000  person city on some empty cow pasture,
  • 00:20:13
    there must be a very good reason why.  So let’s say that now that you’ve learned
  • 00:20:19
    about the logistics of music festivals you want  to learn about the logistics of ski resorts or
  • 00:20:23
    search and rescue or commercial fishing or the  Hajj or coal mining or arms manufacturing. Well
  • 00:20:28
    boy do I have news for you. We made a whole  series called the Logistics of X that dives
  • 00:20:33
    into those exact subjects. That’s one of almost  a dozen different Nebula Originals produced by
  • 00:20:38
    the Wendover team—we’ve also made a documentary  about what happens when you're a tiny Alaskan
  • 00:20:42
    town almost entirely dependent on cruise ship  tourism and then COVID stops that entire industry.
  • 00:20:47
    We made a documentary about the political  kerfuffles that led to most of the western
  • 00:20:50
    half of the US relying on the Colorado River  to deliver them more fresh water than the river
  • 00:20:54
    actually does—the consequences are bad, by the  way. We made a documentary about what happens when
  • 00:20:58
    you’re a tiny British territory in the middle of  the South Atlantic who was only ever connected to
  • 00:21:01
    the world by a week-long ferry but now you open  an airport in 2016 and your entire way of life
  • 00:21:05
    changes. And we’ve made even more than just that,  but it’s worth knowing that it’s not just us:
  • 00:21:10
    there are hundreds of creators on Nebula.  Everyone uploads their regular videos there
  • 00:21:15
    ad and sponsorship free, and plenty go on to  make other great Nebula Originals. I think
  • 00:21:19
    Wendover viewers would particularly enjoy 17  Pages, which is a documentary by Bobby Broccoli
  • 00:21:24
    about one of the biggest scientific controversies  of the 20th century. It’s really well-made and,
  • 00:21:29
    frankly, mindblowing. If you value high-quality,  thoughtful, independent entertainment, then Nebula
  • 00:21:35
    is the place to be. And in my opinion, what really  seals the deal is that it’s quite affordable—when
  • 00:21:40
    you use our link, Nebula.tv/Wendover—you’ll get  more than 40% off an annual plan which brings
  • 00:21:46
    the cost down to just $36 a year. That’s not per  month, that’s per year. So this is far less than
  • 00:21:53
    really any other streaming service or YouTube  Premium, and signing up even helps support the
  • 00:21:58
    channel. We don’t operate a Patreon because we  put all of our efforts into Nebula, so once again,
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    head over to Nebula.tv/Wenodver  to sign up, and thanks if you do!
Tags
  • Glastonbury Festival
  • logistics
  • infrastructure
  • sanitation
  • community relations
  • crowd control
  • insurance
  • transportation
  • vendors
  • Event Management Plan