3 minutes reading time | 5th August 2019
This Irish August Bank Holiday weekend we took a return trip across the Irish Sea to the All Together Now Festival. This is the second year that FGH has exported services from the UK and we continue to expand internationally!
We deployed a stewarding team to help with the crowd management and safety of the event from the 2nd to the 4th August 2019. The capacity increased from last year’s event figures of 13,000 to 20,000 meaning the security operation for the festival site had to be completely reworked without compromising the magic of the event. This also meant moving sections into the woodlands, these were alive with activity offering more space and more entertainment than ever before. The Festival promised visitors a weekend of freedom and escapism through music, comedy, theatre, art and workshops taking place across 10 stages with various different hidden quirky gems.
Thinking green was at the heart of All Together Now’s ethos this year. Festival attendees came prepared with their own cups and reusable glasses. Recycling bins were also on offer with people encouraged to divide their waste. We paralleled this ethos with our own exciting, sustainable initiatives, keeping the sites we visit as tidy as possible and avoiding single-use plastics by issuing reusable cups, sports bottles and bags to all new staff members to save thousands of plastic cups and bottles going to landfill.
Our team worked with other security teams to manage the crowd and added to the safety team as stewards working closely with the event organisers, Garda Síochána (local police) and medical teams.
Soggy weather and traffic issues didn’t dampen the spirits of the Irish music fans. The festival is a strictly over 21’s affair although accompanied under 12’s get in for free, giving All Together Now a different audience to most other music festivals. 2019’s headliners included Hot Chip, Orbital, Bombay Bicycle Club & Fontaines. The acts contributed to the festival being sold out since March and attracting big crowds to the main arena.
The event organisers were amazed by our level of customer service stating, “FGH Security has brought something to Ireland we have never had before. Irish people love the English accent, you were the talk of the festival.”
Peter Harrison, Managing Director and Head of Security said, “Ireland once again has been absolutely great, such a nice show. This is probably the nicest audience I have ever seen at any festival in my career. It’s been helped massively by the people around me. Top work. Ireland loves FGH. FGH loves Ireland. We shall be back again.”
