Local Authority Building Control at the Glastonbury Festival

With a capacity of up to 210,000 people, Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset is set to be one of the world's largest festivals of 2022. Throughout most of the year, the venue is a working farm, but during the Glastonbury Festival it transforms into a vast temporary international city. Usually, Mendip District Council only has to worry about its typical population of 112,500 people. But for one week during the festival, making this Somerset farm safe throws up a huge challenge. It actually becomes the fourth largest city in the South West of England by population, squeezed into 1,100 acres.

A huge amount of work takes place every year to ensure the event continues to be regarded by many as the best music and performing arts festival in the world. Local Authority building control professionals working as part of Mendip District Council’s Licensing Team, as the structures monitoring team, play a crucial role in this preparation, combining many years of Glastonbury Festival experience. The team work on all aspects of ensuring safety for everyone working at and attending the legendary event. They are responsible for ensuring all temporary structures including the Avalon Inn, the Pier, the Irish Piano Bar and the BBC studio in The Park, as well as all the stages and platforms are safe and secure.

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and relevant regulations made under it apply to the Festival. The Festival occurs on agricultural land which is under the enforcement responsibility of the Health & Safety Executive (HSE). However, the Festival is a licensed entertainment event and the enforcement responsibility falls to Mendip District Council (MDC) for the duration of the licence. The Four Licensing Objectives for the Council under the Licensing Act 2003 are:

• The prevention of crime and disorder 
• Public safety
• The prevention of public nuisance
• The protection of children from harm 

Each MDC Lead Officer has a particular area of responsibility for the Festival such as structures, noise control, Health & Safety, food safety, water supply and camping. A strategy of onsite inspections and priorities are planned. GFL employ specialist consultants, often private Structural Engineers, EHO’s & HSO’s to manage these and many more issues of the Festival such that the festival becomes ‘Self-Policing’ in some respects. This means fewer inspections for the Authority but more auditing.

Building Control’s role starts prior to work commencing on site and continues during the construction phase and the actual event with teams of Building Control professionals present on site every day from the preceding Friday to carry out structural inspections on all venues, ensure means of escape provisions are satisfactory and enforce licence conditions. 

Chair of the LABC South West region. Nigel Hunt, who led the Building Control team at the festival for over 20 years has seen a shift in responsibility from hands-on advice in checking means of escape strategies, emergency lighting, and structures to an auditing and compliance role, working alongside the festival organisers. Nigel says,