Students Employed to Keep The Peace at Glastonbury
21 August 2009
BA (Hons) Events Management students taking a much needed break at the Glastonbury Festival
Their youthful outlook and fresh enthusiasm shone through
”Wayne Grove, Training Director, at AP Security
This year's Glastonbury Festival may be a dim and distant memory for this year's army of festival-goers but the team who organise the world's biggest greenfield music and performing arts festival are already planning next year's three day extravaganza.
With over 175,000 paying guests and around 30,000 members of staff all within the 900 acre site, peoples' safety is of paramount importance so security and safety is at the top of the planning list.
This year, for the first time, a team of 30 students on the University of Derby's BA (Hons) Events Management course were employed by the festival's security team to help steward the event - and it went so well that tutors are confident that they'll return for future festivals.
Matt Bromley, Programme Leader for Events Management, said: "The project started when we had a cohort of professional security staff enrol on our specialised Events Safety Management module.
"The group work for AP Security which is employed by Glastonbury Festival for security and stewarding services during the festival.
"The elements within this module, which is part of the degree or diploma course, are tailored specifically to festivals and are perfect for preparing people who want to work in this industry or who are looking to improve their skills.
"We were delighted to help AP Security recruit students from the University to help out at the Festival this year and we're confident that we'll be able to provide that opportunity to students in future years."
As stewards the students act as ambassadors for the festival making sure that even under pressure they keep a smile on their face and can help people make the most of their festival experience.
Activities the students were involved in included:
- assisting in crowd management
- reducing crowd related problems and maintaining a state of calm
- preventing unauthorised access to the festival site
- providing assistance and support to the emergency services where necessary
- to actively ensure the health and wellbeing of all guests
- to report any anti-social behaviour, illegal activity or perceived dangers.
Lerryn Brothers, 22, of Chinley, Derbyshire, has just completed the first year of her BA (Hons) Events Management degree course and was one of the students who worked at the festival.
She said: "As well as patrolling certain zones at the festival we did work in the 'pit', the area just in front of the stage, preventing people from interfering with the music acts and helping out any of the audience who seemed in trouble.
"I did find the work very tiring at the time but looking back it was a great experience. It made me realise just how much hard work goes into staging a festival."
Wayne Grove, Training Director, at AP Security added: "The students were a fantastic help. They were the eyes and ears on the ground and were highly professional at all times.
"We involved them in a variety of different tasks whilst they were onsite so they could really put the skills they'd learned in the classroom to good use in a real environment.
"It's our aim to relate to the crowd at events like Glastonbury, it's our job to make sure everyone is having the best experience and the students really helped us do that. Their youthful outlook and fresh enthusiasm shone through."
For further media information please contact Annabel Harvey, 01332 593004, or email: a.harvey@derby.ac.uk
