Personal Safety at a Festival: Your Ultimate Guide to Looking After Yourself This Summer
Are you heading to a festival this summer? Festivals and concerts are a great way of bringing people together to enjoy great music and have fun. But in order to get the most out of your experience it is important to take precautions and ensure your personal safety.
In this blog, we’ll be sharing some tips to stay safe at a festival to make sure you and your friends can have the best time.
Know The Safety And Accessibility Arrangements At The Festival
If you are heading to a festival this summer, the first thing you will research is probably the line-up. But one thing you should also look at, is the safety and accessibility measures at the event.
Festival Safety Measures
Before the festival, take some time to research the event and learn about:
The venue or location, and the layout
Where are the emergency exits?
What medical facilities does the festival have? And where are they located?
What are the security arrangements, and where are the security guards located
We hope you never need to use these facilities, but on the odd occasion you do, it is handy to have an idea of where they are.
Accessibility Provisions At Festivals
Many festivals try to ensure anyone can join in at festivals, and often have provisions in place to ensure everyone feels comfortable and can have a good time.
Everyone has the right to personal safety at a festival, and we all have a part to play in fostering an inclusive and welcoming culture at such events. Festival accessibility provisions can include free plus-one tickets for personal assistants, or dedicated camping areas or viewing platforms for disabled attendees. It’s worth checking out the event website in advance, as many of these services will require pre-booking.
Stay Together With Your Friends At Festivals
Attend festivals with a friend, or a group of friends to ensure you have someone to stay with and look out for one another.
Download A Personal Safety App
Festivals are often loud places, with so many people and places to go. With this in mind, it is a good idea to use a personal safety app which allows you to share your location. Download imabi Guardian ahead of your event and set up your friends as trusted contacts for location sharing. That way, the minute someone gets separated from the rest of you, you can hone in on their exact location using our handy platform.
You can download our personal safety app today via the App Store or the Google Play Store.
Agree A Meeting Point With Your Friends
Despite your best intentions, it is easy to get separated from your friends when you are at a festival with hundreds and thousands of other people. If you lose your friends, and are struggling to get in contact with them (mobile signals can often be poor at festivals) having a designated meeting point will help you reunite with your group.
Avoid Walking Alone In The Dark
It’s a hard truth to hear, but it’s also important to keep in mind that walking alone at a festival - especially once it gets dark - can leave you in a vulnerable position. Try to avoid walking by yourself during the evening, and stick with your friends.
Alcohol and Other Drugs At Festivals
Festivals are a place to let your hair down and have a good time, but overdoing it can become a problem for you, and your friends.
Drinking Alcohol At Festivals
Where alcohol is concerned, it’s important to pace yourself and be aware of your personal limits. Your safety at a festival is threatened when you’re overly intoxicated, as you’re less aware of danger and could therefore lose control and make bad decisions.
Protect Your Drinks From Being Spiked
Drink spiking can happen to any type of drink, whether alcoholic or non-alcoholic. This is why it is so important to be vigilant of what you and your friends are drinking. Even if you are trying to hydrate yourself, there is always the danger that someone has slipped something into your drink. Here are our following tips to avoid being spiked:
Never leave your drink unattended, and keep an eye on your friend’s drink
Don’t accept a drink from someone you don’t know
Consider sticking to bottled drinks as these are harder to spike
If you think your drink’s been tampered with, don’t drink it
If you think you’ve been spiked, Inform festival/venue security or staff immediately
Stay with your friends or relatives if you think you may have been spiked.
Avoid Drugs At Festivals
It’s against the law in the UK to be in possession of illegal drugs, so bringing them along to a festival is a bad idea.
The event will implement security measures to mitigate illegal activity on-site. If caught with such substances on your person or in your belongings, you'll likely be arrested by the police. At the very least, you’ll most definitely be asked to leave!
Seeking Medical Assistance
Should you find yourself feeling vulnerable as a result of illegal substances or too much alcohol, head straight to either the medical tent or the welfare team to seek immediate support. Always be honest with the event staff about what you’ve consumed; otherwise, they won’t know how best to help you.
Camping Safety at Festivals
With many festivals offering spaces to camp overnight, it’s important to plan and make sure to bring everything you might need to stay comfortable and safe during your weekend away. Here are our tips for camping at a festival
Know How To Set Up Your Tent
First and foremost, bring a tent! If you’re new to the festival scene and haven’t been camping before, practice putting your tent up before you go, checking you have all the right poles and pegs.
Do Not Leave Valuables In Your Tent
Tents are not a safe place to leave your valuables, so ensure you take those with you when you are out and about during the day.
Make Your Tent Stand Out In The Crowd
To help find your tent when you come back in the evenings, make it stand out with something instantly recognisable, such as a handmade sign or flag.
Take Your Tent Home After The Festival
This isn’t a personal safety point, but a matter of manners: take your tent with you when you leave. Don’t be that person who leaves their mess behind for the stewards to clean up. If your tent is broken, take it away and bin it yourself.
Festival Travel Advice
As with your camping plans, you’ll want to think ahead when it comes to getting to and from your destination this summer.
Know The Festival Location
Check the event website for the best postcode to use, then look at a map and decide whether you’re going to use public transport or drive to the festival. If you opt for the former, remember that your journey time will probably be longer than usual thanks to the number of other attendees doing the same!
Check Your Vehicle Before Driving
If you do decide to drive, make sure your vehicle is in good condition before setting off by checking things like tyre tread and pressure, as well as fuel and oil levels. Safety at a festival starts at home - nobody wants to break down a few miles out of the fun zone!
Festival Signposts
Whether you’re walking over from the nearest train station or driving to find the designated car park, keep an eye out for road signs approaching the site. These will direct you to the most efficient entry routes.
Remember Where You Have Parked
Once you’ve successfully parked up, make a mental note of where your car is in relation to the main festival site. It’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of arriving, but you’ll thank yourself later if you take a moment to snap a picture of your car in its parking space - that way, you can easily find it again at the end of the weekend.
Looking After Your Health At A Festival
Stay Hydrated
Festivals are often hosted throughout the summer, and involve a lot of walking through festival grounds to different stages in warm weather. To ensure you stay physically healthy, it is important to stay hydrated. Take a water bottle with you to fill up at hydration stations around the festival grounds.
Sun Protection
As well as staying hydrated in warm weather, it is also important to protect yourself from the sun. At festivals you often spent a lot of time outside, with very little shade. Make sure you pack sunscreen and a sun hat so you can protect yourself from the sun throughout the day.
Medical Assistance
Festivals will have medical assistance on site for you if you ever need it. Festival medics provide an invaluable service to festival-goers, ensuring that they have access to health and safety support when they need it. Festival medics are typically trained in first aid, life support and emergency medical care, as well as providing evidence-based medical advice and support.
Have Fun
While it is important to take the necessary steps to ensure your personal safety at a festival, it is important to have fun and get stuck into what the festival has to offer! Festivals are fun, exciting places that give you the opportunity to see incredible bands and artists whilst making memories with your friends and loved ones.
