Reading and Leeds Chief Takes Extra Safety Precautions
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Written by Elliott Batte
The chief of this weekend’s Reading and Leeds festivals has told fans that he has taken extra precautions to make sure there are no tragedies at this year’s events.
It comes after three different festivals suffered stage collapses this summer following horrendous weather, which left ten dead in total. The most recent disaster was at Belgium’s Pukkelpop, where five died and at least 70 were left injured after the lighting rig hit the deck following 65mph winds.
“If we had something similar [to Pukkelpop],” organiser Melvin Benn told BBC Radio 1, “I know what actions I would take in order to make sure people were safe. I have to table top exercises with the emergency services about the actions I would take in the event of all of those things.
“Believe me, there is no scenario of an eventuality that I have not looked at, including freak storms. I know how I would deal with it to ensure peoples' safety. The level of effort over safety is immense. It's the thing which keeps me awake at night.
“It's difficult to comment how freakish the weather was. Whether the weather was with or without warning. It's virtually impossible to deal with things that are of that intensity without warning.
“Here in the UK, I would like to think, and certainly history has always suggested, that we've always had warning and that we're able to prepare. The UK has an exemplary record in terms of safety at festivals. The festivals are all governed by very strict licensing. There has to be sign off of everything.”
It comes after bad weather forecasts for both of the two music festivals were seen this week.
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