Operations and Event Health & Safety: Southampton Fireworks

Background

We have been working with the Event Cartel since 2017, enabling the safe delivery of events including Oktoberfest Southampton, Oktoberfest Poole and, more in more recent years, the Southampton fireworks display - the largest fireworks display on the South Coast.

The event invited up to 9,000 attendees to enjoy the show, featuring live music, funfair rides and food traders, and a grand firework display.

We Are OPS provided advanced operational services, advanced health & safety services, and on-site health & safety throughout build, break and live stages of the event. We also produced a range of documentation which enabled the event to happen.

 Challenges

·      Weather: Storm Ciaran brought severe rain to the site during the build and live stages of the event. The event’s location next to the sea also meant strong winds were a challenge. This led to a site restructure by our colleagues at The Fair, while the OPS team updating H&S documents and capacity calculations,

·      Ground damage to ground: A recent event on the site caused damage to the ground. To ensure safety on site while enabling the event to still go ahead, we adding ped barrier to keep guests away from wet ground, and manage crowds safely and effectively. We also implemented one way systems to ensure fun fair rides could still enter and exit the site safely.

·      Egress: We were aware that most guests would leave immediately after the firework display. Unfortunately, this was at the same time that a boat was schedule to arrive into the harbour, and cars leaving the boat were due to use the same exit route as pedestrians leaving the firework display. To manage this, we made sure to communicate with Red Funnels Ferries well in advance of the show, maintaining this constant communication on the day to make sure the boat was still on schedule. We made sure fencing was intsalled to create a seperate route for pedestrians, guiding them away from the road. We made sure to brief all security and traffic teams on site, positioning our safety team in different areas (the ferry area, the fireworks display area, and the main road) to manage traffic and pedestrian flow.

Delivery

·    Documentation (risk assessments, ESMP)

·      Supplier auditing

·      Advanced health and safety

·      On-site health and safety

·      On-site operations

Results

·     Management of challenges on site weather

·      Successful egress management

·      Another successful year enabling the people of Southampton to enjoy a sensational firework display