The Importance of Security in Music Festivals and Concerts. Case : United Kingdom (uk) in the Last Decade

1. Title

The importance of security in music festivals and concerts. Case : United Kingdom (UK) in the last decade

2. Abstract

The research proposal will be focusing on the increasing importance of security in music events in the UK in the last decade. The main topic of the research is safety and security issues and complications that come with that type of events. The review of the literature is concentrating on risk management process and health and safety issues included. The research method chosen and research data methods will be listed and explained in detail. Limitations and feasibility of the proposal topic will be discussed and taken into consideration.

3. Aim

The main aim of the research paper is to create awareness of the importance of safety in events and more specifically music festivals and concerts in the UK in the last ten years. It is also aiming to provide valuable information about the matter as a way of encouraging event organisations to plan and perform more security driven events.

4. Objectives

The main objectives of this proposal are as follow:

[1] to point out the importance health, safety and security in music festivals and concerts in the UK

[2] to discover if there is lack of awareness about the problem in UK music event organisers and organisations.

5. Research question and problem

There are plenty of statistics from music events all around the world with endless number of reported injuries and accidents, from crowd crushing and equipment falling down to stage collapsing and even artists being killed or severely injured. The UK is no different, accidents still do happen despite all the health and safety regulations. This topic has been investigated before in this particular area but the main focus of the researchers was rock music events as people used to associate them with violence. Nowadays it is known that the problem affects all types of events. As a result this paperwork will be focusing on finding answers for questions like "what are the disputes and benefits of organising music events in the UK and how could security be improved /has been improved in the last decade? ".

6. Introduction

The review of the literature is concentrated on everything related to security and safety issues within the music event industry. It will be looking in detail topics such as : health and safety issues and risk management process.

7. Literature review

7.1 Event Management

To understand clear what the difficulties of organising a music event in terms of security are; we should start with the basis. The event organisers have to decide the details about the type of music event they want, the purpose of it, where and when they want it to happen, their target market, do they have enough staff and do they need to hire more (Tarlow,2002).

7.2 Risk Management and Risk Management Process

It is essential to identify the possible risks before the actual event. Preventing them requires constant decision making. Harris (2008) describes it as the process of sufficiently reducing uncertainty and doubt about alternatives to allow a reasonable choice to be made among them.

A risk plan should be created as a way of predicting the risks of an event. Rutherford Silvers (2008) explains the main points of a risk plan as being : risk planning, analyzing, response, monitoring and control, communication and documentation.

7.3 Legal Compliance

When it comes to big music events with crowds where alcohol and drugs could be mixed,it is essential to ensure compliance with the law. The law states that there must be general rules to ensure safety at events. Unfortunately, there are problems involved. Every event is different and the event industry is constantly changing. Even if there are rules supervised by legal authorities,their knowledge about events of that type could be limited and their decision whether something is high risk or not could be misleading (Long and Robinson, 2004). Event Safety Guideline in Britain was created after an accident following the Monsters of Rock festival in 1988. If this guide succeeds becoming common knowledge for professionals everywhere, it will help increase the security at music events (Long & Robinson, 2004). A risk management policy is created to obtain all the relevant insurance for the event. In this way all the important information and documentation from the event can be collected to be able to apply for insurance (Matthews, 2008).

7.4 Health and Safety

Health and safety hazards stand for fire, food and beverages, hazardous materials such as glass, chemicals,etc. Fire safety