Billed as Scotland’s biggest and best free youth music festival, Youth Beatz is held annually at Park Farm Showfield in Dumfries, with music performances across four stages, along with free activities, including kids’ entertainment, circus skills, sports and the UK’s biggest bouncy castle.
Designed for young people aged 12-25 years old, Youth Beatz festival attracts around 20,000 people each day over a two-day event in June. It aims to provide youth services information and activity-based entertainment as part of a large-scale outdoor music event, with a focus on creating a safe environment for the young audience.
After successfully winning the contract to supply hostile vehicle mitigation against strong competition, our remit was to support delivery of that safe environment by installing a number of different HVM barriers to protect festival goers from vehicle as a weapon attacks and vehicle borne threats.
We protected areas totalling around 150m, including the event perimeter and ingress/egress routes. Different locations had varied requirements in terms of barrier performance, pedestrian permeability and speed of installation/removal, and we were able to work collaboratively with the client to ensure a practical, proportionate and appropriate solution was installed in each location. This included use of ARX Stopper!, a robust, two-component, modular HVM unit, assembled on-site and housed within a box casing. ARX Stopper! was installed in an ‘as rated’ VADS (vehicle attack delay standard) configuration by our trained technicians.
To protect pedestrians at ingress and egress locations we used a combination of two rated HVM barriers, including both a pedestrian-permeable solution and a rapid deployment system that could be moved aside quickly to enable emergency vehicle access if required. All HVM equipment was installed to our high quality standards by our trained technicians, and signed off by our qualified professionals on site, verifying that it met the parameters of our RAMS.
The HVM equipment needed to be installed with all quality assurance checks and client sign-off completed by Thursday 25th June, before the crowds began arriving the following day. After the event, our teams attended site again and ensured that all equipment was de-rigged and removed from site by Wednesday 1st July.
Throughout the project, our purpose was to mitigate safety and security risk for the event, while providing excellent customer service. Having delivered many similar projects for festivals and outdoor events around the country, we were also mindful of the need to minimise disruption for local residents and road users while optimising operational efficiency for the event.
Despite the unusually high temperatures this year, the installation and de-rig of the HVM systems was delivered efficiently to the client’s requirements by our skilled team, ensuring the site was in tune with the organisers’ safety and security goals, while the young festival goers enjoyed the tunes on stage.
