Festival Republic to host conference on festival crime
Festival Republic is to host the fifth national Crime at Major UK Music Festivals conference on February 28, at the Royal Berkshire Conference Centre at the Madejski Stadium in Reading.
The conference is free to attend and will welcome around 120 representatives from key UK festival promoters who run large scale, professional festivals, their security companies and relevant planning, intelligence and operational officers from local police forces.
The annual conference is an opportunity for sharing tactics, expertise and experience, to combat crime and promote safety at music festivals. Since the conference was established in 2009, Festival Republic has witnessed a significant reduction in crime rates across Latitude, Reading and Leeds Festivals. At some events the crime rate was down 71 per cent from 2009 to 2012, showing the value of an open forum for sharing information, it says.
This year, the remit has been extended to also include a discussion of safety and liaison issues around the cancellation of an event.
The conference will be chaired by Melvin Benn, managing director of Festival Republic and Chief Superintendent Andy Battle, divisional commander of West Yorkshire Police.
The speakers confirmed and topics to be covered include:
- Chief Superintendent Andy Battle on the Police de-brief of the 2012 festival season;
- Jim King, director of Loud Sound and director of touring and events at AEG Live UK, former festival director of Creamfields, on the cancellation of Creamfields 2012;
- Radhia Karaa from the Office of Fair Trading on Operation Javelin (Olympic anti touting/website operation);
- Detective Chief Inspector Mark Teodorini and Detective Superintendent Nick Downing from the Metropolitan Police Service on Operation Podium at London 2012; and
- David Gunning from Reading Trading Standards on enforcing trademarks at Reading Festival.
