Staffing / Team

Most festivals use some mix of professional staff and volunteer workers to run their event. Finding the right balance between professional and volunteer staff depends on the size and culture of your event and can be a process of trial and error. Unfortunately, when event safety and event security are at stake, there is little room for error. To get a deeper insight into this challenge, we spoke with Marjana Jaidi, Director of Oasis Festival. For the small, exclusive desert getaway in Marrakech, she uses a professional-volunteer hybrid to get the right balance of authentic and efficient. We also spoke ...

Event surveillance should be near the top of every organizers priority list, and having that ubiquitous perspective is essential for managing any mass gathering nowadays. It’s a tragic reality that grave threats to the safety of your patrons have to be considered from the moment you start planning an event. Event security today is a multi-team collaboration that relies on cutting-edge technology and expert command and control. Few people know as much about this synergy as event surveillance expert Chad Ladov. Ladov is the founder of Unified Command, a wireless HD event surveillance firm. Ladov has worked in high-level security, venue, ...

Wireless Festival organizers have increased security at the advice of police, who are on high alert following recent terror attacks in London. “With the backdrop of the current threat level from terrorism, event organisers will have been given the latest protective security advice to keep their event as safe as can be,” says Sergeant Andy Underwood, of the Counter Terrorism Focus Desk at Haringey Police. Tens of thousands of people will converge on Finsbury Park from July 7 to 9 to see high-profile acts including The Weeknd and Chance the Rapper. Perimeter fencing, metal detectors, sniffer dogs, and a ban ...

Anyone that has ever come through the tunnel and onto the Las Vegas Speedway during Electric Daisy Carnival will attest, there’s no festival in the world that can match it for decadence. With twelve stages, eighteen fairground rides, and about 450,000 people, it’s one of the world’s biggest dance music festivals and celebrated its 21st year in suitably mind-blowing fashion by improving almost every area of the event. The logistics nerds would do well to travel to EDC Las Vegas to get some insight into how this incredibly slick operation goes down. From light design to the management of crowd ...

[/one_fourth][three_fourth_last padding="0px 0px 0px 20px"] LAIRD WILTON, Chief Revenue Officer, Marcato The challenge for organizers is that modern festivals are logistical beasts! To stage a festival, there are an incredible amount of details to manage in order to deliver a safe, convenient and fun event. Event Specialists that have gained their experience in “the trenches” bring huge value to the festival organization. Their wisdom and experience help avoid major problems and are one of the key resources a festival organizer can access to help take the fan experience to the next level![/three_fourth_last] [one_fourth][/one_fourth][three_fourth_last padding="0px 0px 0px 20px"] JEFF KREINIK, Head ...