Operations and Health & Safety: Moseley Folk & Arts Festival / UB40 at Moseley Park
Background
Moseley Folk & Arts Festival is a three-day celebration of folk, world and roots music takes place in the picturesque grounds of Moseley Park, Birmingham.
This year, guests (up to 6,000 each day) enjoyed headline sets from Squeeze, The Saw Doctors and Wilco, with other acts including The Proclaimer, Graham Nash, Angeline Morrison & The Sorrow Songs Band.
The weekend prior to the festival, UB40 returned to their roots with a very special performance - celebrating 45 years of music in Moseley Park, just a stone’s throw again from where their journey began.
The English reggae and pop band from Birmingham invited 4,500 fans to come and celebrate their anniversary with a special comeback gig, joined by support artists including Soul II Soul, The Mouse Outfit, Don Letts, Freetown Collective, Friendly Fire and Young Culture Band. The event also featured a variety of street food vendors, exclusive films and artist Q&As.
Having worked with organisers at Moseley Park for over 16 years, as well as Mostly Jazz Funk and Soul, OPS was asked to provide licensing and health & safety services to support the delivery of this fun, family-friendly event, as well as the iconic comeback concert for UB40.
Challenges
The layout of the park means that the existing ingress and egress route led festivalgoers out towards a busy main road through one pathway. While supporting the delivery of the UB40 comeback concert earlier in the summer, the OPS team created and managed an additional route to reduce congestion and provide a safer, more seamless experience for festivalgoers.
In previous years, OPS has only been required on site on the morning of the live event, to confirm the event is safe to go live. This year, however, the client was keen to keep OPS on site throughout the duration of the event to ensure the event went safely and smoothly.
Delivery
Effective implementation and management of ingress and egress route, enabling a smoother journey into and out of the event for guests
On-site Festival Health & Safety throughout the duration of the event
TENs license provided, enabling alcohol to be served at the event
Results
New and improved ingress and egress routes used for multiple events
OPS’s presence for the entire duration of the festival proved extremely beneficial and the client is keen to continue to have the team there throughout in future years
Positive feedback from the client
We look forward to continuing to support the safe delivery of Moseley Park’s wide range of events