Music Festival Entrance Gate Control and Timing Management

Music festival entrance gates require meticulous planning to ensure the safety and security of an outdoor event. Good planning and management can avoid unnecessary queuing and overcrowding at festival entrances. The entrance gate experience for festival-goers is often their first impression of the organisation so it is essential to get it right.   

There are many moving parts involved in getting the entrance gate management right from timing, location and staffing levels to ensuring that expected capacity numbers have been fully anticipated.

Planning and Coordination. 
Accurate estimates for attendance is key in planning the entrance gate requirements with larger capacity festivals requiring multiple entrance gates to avoid overcrowding and long queues. Location is an important consideration too with gates sited near to car parks and open spaces to avoid potential choke points. Once crowd flow estimates have been established a sufficient number of security staff and volunteers need to be assigned. The entrance processes need to be agreed to ensure that staff can scan electronic tickets quickly and security staff conduct searches without causing unnecessary delays. Organisers should always put in place contingency plans that allow them to increase staffing levels or re-direct festival-goers to avoid overcrowding. Robust emergency procedures need to be put in place and understood by all staff. 

Timing.
Intelligent management of the opening and closing times of festival site gates can help to spread visitor traffic over a longer period. External factors like local licensing and police requirements may determine when gates can open and close. This is done to help control local road traffic congestion and limit noise and other intrusions that may impact local residents. Some festival organisers may assign a gate time slot to specific tickets which help to spread entrance gate traffic. 

Training and Communication. 
The planning process should include comprehensive training for gate staff including volunteers and security personnel. This training will include specific processes for scanning tickets and issuing RFID wristbands along with search protocols. Gate staff will also need to be fully aware of opening and closing times along with rules relating to exist and re-entry. Organisers should publish the opening and closing times on their website so that festival-goers are aware of when they can enter along with the procedures in place for ticket verification and searches. In addition to website and social media messaging organisers can implement on-site signage that clearly indicates gate numbers and times for given tickets along with entry procedures for electronic scanning and searches.

Assuming that good planning and coordination has been established by the festival organisers the entrance procedures for festival-goers should be smooth and fast. Organisers will need to monitor crowd traffic in real time so that contingency plans can be implemented if changes need to be made. Having a flexible approach helps to maintain safety and quick trouble-free entrance.

For festival organisers planning their events using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. 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 Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, cashless payments and contactless ordering. 

Photo by Chris F via Pexels

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