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The Social Responsibilities of Music Festival Goers.

Andy Robertson

With over 5 million people attending music festivals in the UK (in a normal year) there falls a huge collective responsibility. When so many people are travelling and congregating in one place the impact on the environment and health and safety issues are significant. Attendees therefore have an obligation to others for safety and environmental impact.   


Just in the UK every year about 100 people lose their life whist attending music festivals. However, considering the number of people attending this is a fairly insignificant ratio but as an industry, music festival event organisers should be striving to get that as close to zero as possible. Event organisers do their utmost to ensure a safe environment with compliance to all health and safety measures but to some extent the onus also falls on the festival goers too.

The issue surrounding drug abuse is obvious and organisers do everything they can to prevent drugs from entering venues but equally have first responders on hand in the full knowledge that drug and alcohol related issues can and do happen. Festival goers should be vigilant about such health-related issues and consume alcohol in a responsible manner. Almost all events constantly promote the safe consumption of alcohol and other substances and is a key communication element seen at every music festival. Acceptable social behaviour should always be encouraged and disruptive or violent anti-social actions will be dealt with appropriately and rapidly by the event marshals.

Festival goers should heed advice form organisers about methods of transport to festivals so that they minimise their impact on the environment along with the resulting carbon footprint. Use of public transport is always encouraged and attendees should do their utmost to avoid using their own cars. With huge amounts of rubbish piling up at the end of every festival the onus again is on the festival goer to minimise their impact on this. Buying from vendors that use recycled material and disposing of containers as directed on the festival grounds. Equally festival goers should aim to leave nothing behind on site and take their rubbish and tents home with them to be disposed of correctly.

Appropriate behaviour of festival goers should always be encouraged by music festival organisers and in the last 20 years the constant messages and communications via social media and on site have been having an impact. The majority of festival goers are responsible drinkers and are fully aware of the environmental impact they have and will now do all they can to act responsibly. Fortunately, the awareness of the impact of antisocial behaviour and environmental concerns is now well established and can only improve the adventure for festival goers with a positive experience that they are happy to repeat again and again. 

Using an event software management platform like
FestivalPro can help music festival organisers manage all their communications to festival goers using ticket sales channels and online social media to push the social and environmental responsibilities of ticket buyers. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The FestivalPro platform is easy to use and has the features and functionality for festival organisers to implement key themes and messages to festival goers.  

Andy Robertson
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