Medicine Festival 2024

Background

In 2024, Alliance had the pleasure of playing an integral part of delivering the 4th Medicine Festival, and the 3rd that Alliance has been a part of. Since 2021, we have delivered full site security for this spiritual event and as of 2024, we also delivered full site health and safety during the build, live days and breakdown of the festival held at Wasing Park in Reading.

Medicine Festival is a not-for-profit celebration of music, art, and wellness, offering a unique platform for community, connection and personal growth. The 2024 iteration of the festival took place in a beautiful outdoor environment, that attracted a diverse audience united by a shared appreciation for cultural and holistic experiences. Featuring live performances, workshops and interactive sessions designed to inspire, heal and bring people together, the festival uses it profits to help empower indigenous peoples to preserve and protect their land, traditions and wisdom. 

Amidst the celebrations, Alliance Management Group (AMG) seamlessly integrated our Alliance Events and Alliance Safety divisions to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for all attendees. Our services:

• Full site Security and Safety Management

• Security manager, security supervisors, SIA & Steward provision

• Security management

• Security control

• Event control support

• Entrance search lanes

• Wayfinding Stewards

• Patrol teams

• Response teams

• Static Guards

• Fire Exit coverage

• Crowd management

• Egress crowd management

• Access Control

A Unified Approach to Safety and Security

1. At AMG, collaboration is at the heart of our operations. For Medicine Festival, our events and safety divisions worked in unison to deliver comprehensive planning and services tailored to the festival’s unique needs. This collaboration allowed us to address potential challenges proactively while maintaining an approachable and supportive presence on-site.
   

   Throughout the festival, the two divisions worked in tandem to ensure operations ran smoothly. 

   • Pre-Event Planning: Preparations always begin months if not years in advance for events such as this and with both Security and Safety taking priority, site visits and liaison with the Medicine Festival production team and their partners early on was paramount and the cohesion between our divisions made this process timely and efficient in creating a comprehensive event safety, and security, management plan.

   • Access Control and Perimeter Security: Our event security team managed entry points, utilising manned guarding and both pedestrian and vehicular response teams to ensure only authorized individuals entered the premises and that we quickly addressed any customer concerns. Their efforts were complemented by the safety division’s supervision of crowd flow and adherence to safety regulations with specific focus on crew vehicle movement, weather conditions, (namely wind), and the use of the lake for swimming. 

   • Incident Response: Our Head of Security and Health and Safety Lead were always on standby to address incidents promptly and used a co-ordinated approach allowing for minimal disruption to attendees and ensured swift and pragmatic solutions in line with both divisions’ objectives, whether this was managing appropriate incident responses, responding to security breaches or addressing health and safety concerns on site.

     
     

All of this allowed for increased operational practicality and excellent service provision and when sharing information with the festival production team and organisers allowed for enhanced real time decision making and post event evaluations. 

Highlights of the Festival Collaboration

• Efficient Crowd Management: Our collaborative approach ensured safe movement during peak times, such as main stage performances and workshop sessions.

• Proactive Security Measures: Routine foot and vehicle patrols and a visible presence deterred antisocial behaviours and addressed potential risks before escalation and helped to ensure any incidents in this regard were handled with the festival and its attendees in mind, ensuring communication, safety and wellbeing were, as always, our top priorities.

• Safe Vehicle Movement: Our teams across both divisions worked to ensure vehicle movement and access was only authorised with the safety of attendees amongst campsites and along pedestrian routes being considered a top priority. 

• Positive Attendee Experience: The integration of security and safety efforts enhanced the festival’s atmosphere, allowing attendees to focus on enjoying the event without concerns for their general well-being.
  

The successful delivery of safety and security measures at Medicine Festival 2024 underscores AMG’s commitment to its core values of reliability, trust, competence and communication. By leveraging the strengths of our event security and safety divisions, we delivered an experience that handled all incidents with the utmost care and safeguarded attendees, performers, and staff alike.

As we look forward to future collaborations, AMG remains dedicated to providing innovative solutions that prioritise safety, security, and community engagement at events and festivals all-over the UK.