Mojo Barriers supplied over 1000m of barrier across the two sites. Aluminium Mojo Barrier, incorporating the Barrier Load Monitor System (BLMS), formed the main front of stage systems with the new secondary barrier system employed at both festival sites constructed from steel barrier, in the new configuration, located between the front of house mixer and stage.
Headliners Pearl Jam's last festival tour in Europe was shattered by the tragic deaths of nine people during their Rosklide show. So their return to festival stages this year was accompanied by particularly close attention to health and safety issues.
This is an area Mean Fiddler's festival director Melvin Benn has always managed carefully. He has developed both festival sites over the years and created a festival weekend with a unique atmosphere, with a good record for safety. Benn says: "We have always looked for ways to improve the sites, and in the past two years we have worked closely with Mojo Barriers and a team from Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College in conducting research with their Mojo BLMS system that measures the pressure exerted on the front of stage barriers. This has been pioneering research in monitoring the well being of our audiences.
"When considering our festival barriers, I was very keen not to affect the great atmosphere we get in front of the stage and not create sterile pens or the segregated golden circle we see at some shows.
"The video of the crowd surge at an Oasis at a Manchester concert last year influenced my thinking in preventing a surge from further back in the audience and I'm delighted with the way the barrier we designed has worked. It's been self policing in terms of numbers and done exactly what I hoped."
Patrick Jordan, Mojo Barriers MD says: "Melvin was the first of the big promoters to invest in BLMS and he has taken a lot of time and effort to study how the pressure readings correlate to audience discomfort. Since starting our research at Leeds in 2004 we have installed BLMS into over 30 concerts and festivals across Europe. We are just starting to correlate pressures with factors such as bands, gradients and notably, barrier design. It is still early days for the research, but I think Melvin's decision to look at different barrier configurations, leading to the one he created for Leeds and Reading, reflects his understanding of crowd dynamics and the importance of getting the barrier design right."
Jim Gaffney led the team from Mojo Barriers UK office, who installed the barriers at Leeds and Reading, Gaffney says: "It was quite a novel approach of Melvin's, but I have to say it worked very well. It seemed to help fans who wanted to see a particular band without getting surfed across or dragged into a 'mosh pit'. They could now stand behind the secondary barrier, where it was less exuberant, to watch the bands from a great vantage point."
(Chris Henry)
