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The Logistics of Music Festivals
The Logistics of Music Festivals
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0:00
This is the Glastonbury Festival… or at least, it will be. Right now it’s a dairy farm,
0:06
set in the Somerset countryside, home to about 400 cows. Through fall, winter, and spring they graze
0:12
the fields for grass and shrubs, in turn producing milk that’s used to make Worthy Farm Cheddar. But
0:18
come late-April, it’s time for them to relocate to their summer residence at a nearby farm.
0:22
That’s because these fields are about to be transformed into the largest greenfield music
0:27
festival in the entire world—in a matter of weeks, 200,000 people will descend onto
0:32
this farm in the middle of nowhere Britain. First, they block off access—there are a number
0:37
of roads and footpaths running through it which of course need to become private as construction
0:42
begins. Next, the perimeter fence goes up, along with the very first facility: a preliminary site
0:48
office from which the construction processes will be led. Before construction begins, though, they
0:52
need to address the roads. Most of them are made of dirt meaning in Britain’s rainy weather, with
0:57
a large number of heavy vehicles, they’d quickly become impassable. That’s why they lay down these
1:02
temporary metal road coverings rated for up to 40 tonnes. There’s also the matter of bridges.
1:07
There are a number across the site and small farm bridges were never designed to accommodate
1:12
a constant barrage of semi-trucks, so while many have been permanently upgraded through the years
1:16
to handle the demand, others get temporarily reinforced just for the festival period.
1:21
Around mid-May, the core stage of the build begins, so the site office gets supplemented
1:26
with shower and toilet facilities so that staff can camp on-site. Across the following weeks,
1:30
this staff headquarters will continue to grow—they’ll add a first aid center,
1:34
a welfare center with mental health and conflict resolution support, a staff canteen with three
1:39
hot meals a day, even a number of crew bars. The bulk of the build-work involves erecting
1:44
around 90 major temporary structures, ranging from tents to stages. What this
1:48
looks like from the perspective of Glastonbury Festival Events Limited—the actual organizing
1:53
company—is facilitating the work of a huge number of subcontractors who do the operational work of
1:58
erecting each facility. Their staff does little themselves beyond, well, organize.
2:04
As this occurs, work starts to build the core infrastructure of the event. Sanitation is of
2:09
paramount importance—200,000 people is a lot, and if there are not enough places for them to go,
2:15
they’ll find their own places to do their business. Glastonbury’s sanitation solution
2:19
would be described by some as innovative and by others as horrific. Basically,
2:24
they dig giant pits in the ground. They then install what’s called a long-drop toilet—a
2:30
row of toilet seats on top of holes that drop into the bigger hole. The “innovation” is that
2:35
the large hole is big enough that it doesn’t have to be emptied during the festival. Worthy Farm’s
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roads are massively congested during the festival, so having to have trucks constantly make their
2:45
way through to empty out Porta Potties would be quite detrimental to broader festival operations.
2:50
Rather, they clean the pits out just once at the end of the festival, then refill the hole with
2:54
dirt and allow residual waste to biodegrade. Of course it’s not all about outputs—there are
3:00
also the inputs. The festival includes about 1,000 different traders—food vendors, craft stalls,
3:06
charity tents, and more. Now, of course, it would be chaos if each and every one of these vendors
3:11
had to be entirely self-sufficient—each stall would operate its own generator,
3:15
you’d have propane canisters strewn all over the place, and the single-use plastics consumption
3:20
would fly firmly in the face of the festival’s eco-conscious mission. That’s why Glastonbury
3:24
essentially operates its own utility system. While Worthy Farm looks like a farm and operates
3:29
as a farm, the fact that the festival was founded by the farm’s owners—who still own it to this
3:34
day—made it practical to build some permanent infrastructure. The most notable example of this
3:39
is its water supply system. Underneath the fields is a network of pipes, similar to that underneath
3:44
any town, distributing water to key facilities. This has existed for decades, but the trouble
3:49
was that demand over festival weekend was so much more than traditionally needed in the area—about
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3 million liters a day compared to typical demand of just a half million in the adjacent village.
4:01
Naturally, that demand spike strained the local water mains and led to low pressure for nearby
4:05
residents. They complained that they were unable to do their laundry or take a shower during the
4:09
festival, which wasn’t just annoying—it was a risk to the festival itself. When community
4:14
sentiment goes down, so too does the likelihood of getting an operating permit. As a fix,
4:19
the festival experimented with trucking water in using tankers and filling massive bladders
4:23
that would feed into the pipes, but while this alleviated the water pressure issues it still led
4:28
to community impact due to the nonstop procession of trucks snaking through small village streets.
4:33
So eventually they built two massive underground reservoirs. Today, in the weeks leading up to the
4:38
festival, these are slowly filled at a rate that does not stress the local system, and they have
4:42
enough capacity to cover festival weekend without creating exceptional demand on the local system.
4:47
The other utilities are provided by third-party contractors—the festival requires that all traders
4:52
buy propane from the company Festival Gas which operates regular deliveries throughout the site.
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Meanwhile, another company called Aggreko builds a temporary electric grid for the festival,
5:02
using a combination of large generators and renewable sources, and traders contract directly
5:06
with them for their power supply more or less how they would with a traditional grid operator.
5:10
This is only the start of the rules imposed on vendors by the festival.
5:14
Each one of them is an independent business, but they’re perceived by attendees as a component of
5:19
the overall experience, and therefore Glastonbury is accountable for them and their actions. That’s
5:24
why they all have their binder: a huge collection of paperwork on which their
5:28
ability to keep operating hinges. While exact requirements will vary, in 2015, it looked
5:33
like this—vehicle and staff passes, proof of insurance, health and safety documentation,
5:38
even their very own A5 No Smoking sign. But the vendors, for their part, have had
5:43
plenty of time to prepare this documentation along with their staffing plan, exact footprint
5:47
and layout of their space, and all the other minutiae required as the application window
5:51
opens some nine months prior, with selection being made three months prior to the festival. Selection
5:56
takes such a long time because a festival is not just trying to fill the openings, they’re trying
6:00
to fill the openings with vendors that match the festival’s particular values and particular needs.
6:06
From the nonprofit and jewelry tents, to those making greasy late-night meals or morning-after
6:10
breakfasts, vendors inform the experience of a festival just as much as the art and music, so
6:15
the Glastonbury planners pour over each and every detailed application. And should a vendor get in,
6:20
they’ll be paying for the privilege. While exact fees to trade at Glastonbury aren’t
6:24
listed because each is case by case, sizable and well-positioned food vendors have reported
6:29
prices in the 15-to-20,000-pound range for the busier spaces nearer to major stages,
6:35
with rates dropping the farther one is positioned from the festival center.
6:39
A telling sign that the hefty upfront fee for a five-day run is worthwhile, though,
6:43
is a particular feature that appears in small print on the Glastonbury map—the
6:47
wholesale market. Essentially, it’s a shop for the shops. Each morning of the festival there’s
6:53
a procession toward this spot as wholesalers bring in staple ingredients, fresh foods,
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and serveware for the depleted vendors to purchase. Much of these interactions take
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place in the morning when the festival grounds are generally quieter and easier to navigate.
7:05
For a small window of time, a slew of trucks and tractors are permitted to run deliveries
7:10
around the site very slowly and carefully. But for most, supplies are purchased and then hauled
7:15
by hand or wagon to get ready for the next rush. Staying in stock is critical for vendors and
7:20
the festival alike, as a vendor is required to station their booth at their assigned spot for
7:25
the entire run of the festival—as leaving early would mean a significant fine and lost chance
7:29
to come back next year. In part, this is down to security, as the vendor areas, or markets,
7:34
function effectively as islands sealed off from the general admission areas. Booths, therefore,
7:39
are impermeable extensions of fences, each keeping the festival public outside the
7:43
market zone where vendors have their vehicles and extra supplies, and in some cases, where there are
7:48
vendor-only services and camping areas. Even separated from general admission,
7:52
running a vendor at a festival is a draining affair. The lines at some hours will be unruly
7:57
and never-ending, and at other times, nonexistent. The heat will be sweltering, and there will also
8:03
be unrelenting rain. All the while there will be pressure—pressure to move enough product to
8:08
justify the entry fee, pressure to make enough to keep a food truck up and running for the next
8:11
few weeks until another festival, and pressure to adhere to food safety standards—the last of which,
8:16
the festival is also keeping tabs on. To help wrangle Glastonbury’s vendors,
8:20
the festival deploys managers with offices placed near groupings of markets to ensure
8:24
policies are being respected by the vendors and guests and offering themselves as a resource
8:28
should anything start going sideways between the two parties. These Market Managers report to the
8:33
Partnership Director, who is responsible for dealing with all the external partnerships—from
8:36
fencing contractors to food vendors—and operates from the Event Control Center,
8:40
which in 2015 was located here at the Green Barn. Beyond market management, much of the overall
8:45
security and safety structures that the festival relies on emanates from the Event Control Center.
8:50
At its busiest, it will see some 500 employees and volunteers working in and around it, while
8:55
representatives of each aspect of the festival will be based out of it for the festival's
8:59
entirety—such as the Operations Director, Infrastructure Manager, Security Director,
9:03
Site Manager, and Health and Safety Coordinator to name a few. Directly neighboring the control
9:07
center is fire control and a makeshift police station, the former supplied by the regional
9:11
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service. Connected by phone, radio, and CCTV, the Event
9:17
Control Center keeps close tabs on everything from impending weather and conditions across the
9:21
ground to the flow of guests and density of crowds all with the aim to monitor pending problems and
9:25
proactively gameplan solutions. And to make sure nothing is missed, and response can be hastened
9:30
when problems do arise, the directors and managers stationed at the control center work with official
9:34
Area Organizers spread across all areas of the festival—from stages to campgrounds. It’s this
9:40
group that will supervise the buildout of their region, carry out daily inspections, and manage
9:44
adherence on everything from health and safety standards to the onsite traffic management plan.
9:48
Of course, keeping a festival running smoothly and safely during it requires ample foresight
9:53
before it. A campground, for instance, can be well monitored by area organizers,
9:58
accounted for by police, and aided by a robust lost-and-found system, but crime and petty theft
10:03
are things that a good festival addresses long before the festival. At Glastonbury,
10:08
campgrounds are modestly lit by strung-up festoon lighting to minimize crime in the dark of night,
10:12
while each camp will have lock-up areas for campers' valuables. In such a chaotic environment,
10:17
the best way to solve problems is to limit them in the first place.
10:20
The same goes with crowd dynamics—crowd control procedures only really work when officials have a
10:25
good sense as to the exact number of participants they’re dealing with. As a generally free-spirited
10:30
venture from the beginning, Glastonbury has always dealt with its fair share of gatecrashers. In its
10:34
history, the festival has even welcomed them—a past that has created a culture of seemingly
10:39
good-natured trespassing. But that changed with this fence. Running 5 miles or 8 kilometers
10:45
around the festival’s perimeter, the Super Fortress Fence, as it’s called, has helped the
10:49
festival ensure a right-sized crowd by minimizing intrusions with its smooth 12-foot tall face and
10:54
45-degree overhang at the top. Still, some will try it, so spread across the festival are guard
11:00
towers and patrols on motorized vehicles to watch for those trying to sneak over, or under, the
11:05
massive fence. Perhaps countering the festival’s traditionally welcoming ethos, the fence is a
11:09
safety necessity because letting in thousands of unaccounted-for guests will strain resources and
11:14
alter crowd dynamics to a potentially dangerous extent. And it’s also a licensing necessity,
11:20
as this fence came into being in 2002 in response to a 15,000-pound fine for having gatecrashers
11:25
take the crowd size well over the licensed capacity. Without a far more aggressive system
11:29
of keeping people out, Glastonbury was facing the potential of losing its license entirely.
11:35
Now, organizing a festival like Glastonbury once is, in and of itself, a massive feat,
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but doing a festival like Glastonbury year in year out is yet more impressive because
11:44
it not only has to function, it has to function well. What’s at risk is not just losing business,
11:51
but losing the festival’s right to operate at all. There’s no inherent right for Glastonbury
11:57
to operate. If things go wrong, it risks losing this: its operating permit. And
12:02
making Glastonbury’s operations yet more challenging is the fact that it has to
12:06
do all of this in a quiet, sparsely-populated rural area of famously bureaucratic Britain.
12:12
An endless array of regulations are imposed on the festival by both the local and national
12:17
government. Perhaps the biggest risk-area, in the government’s eyes, centers around alcohol. It’s
12:22
of course in the festival’s financial interest to sell as much alcohol as possible, but too
12:26
much drunken debauchery can and has turned music festivals into riots. Therefore, the UK government
12:32
prohibits certain activities that it deems likely to promote excessive consumption. For example,
12:37
the venue must monitor to assure patrons are not pouring alcohol into other people’s mouths,
12:41
and the festival is prohibited from running drinking games that involve consuming a certain
12:45
amount of alcohol in a certain amount of time. But the government isn’t the only entity the
12:50
festival is answerable to. Just as significant a risk is that of upsetting their insurers. You see,
12:56
festivals are incredibly risky businesses, but they’re also massive businesses. Glastonbury is
13:02
estimated to earn upwards of $80 million a year in revenue, but that revenue all hinges on just
13:07
five core days of operation. If weather washes it out or key artists fail to show or reality doesn’t
13:13
match expectations, Glastonbury will likely have to refund ticket-sales—either due to government
13:18
regulations or public pushback. Of course, almost all of the expenses—contractors, tent rentals,
13:24
infrastructure, staff salaries—will have already been paid for. It’s not like a traditional
13:29
concert-venue where a year-round schedule offsets the risk of individual shows—here, all their eggs
13:35
are in one basket. Without insurance, one rainy weekend could bankrupt the business, and even
13:40
without foul weather the festival might struggle to hire contractors and artists due to concern
13:44
about nonpayment in the event of cancellation. So insurance is effectively mandatory. Almost any
13:51
large festival will hold a massive policy covering both general liability and more unique risks like
13:56
event cancellation and artist non-appearance. Very few insurers—reportedly about ten—will
14:02
actually underwrite these policies given their massive scale, giving them quite a
14:06
bit of leverage in setting terms. Every policy is unique, but much of the design and operations
14:11
of festivals is therefore dictated by the insurer—for liquor liability coverage they
14:16
might require that sales are limited to two at a time, for general liability coverage they
14:20
might set security staffing minimums, for artist non-appearance coverage they might prohibit the
14:24
festival from booking particularly troublesome artists, for event cancellation coverage they
14:28
might require an on-site meteorologist. But while these insurance policies make
14:32
event management a sustainable business, they are also now holding the industry back.
14:37
Many of these policies did cover cancellation due to communicable diseases, meaning the insurers
14:42
lost a colossal amount of money in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. Five years on, it’s still almost
14:48
impossible to get a policy covering pandemics, at least at a reasonable cost, but even the policies
14:53
excluding it have inflated in cost. There have been a number of high-profile incidents that
14:57
likely involved high-dollar payouts in recent years like the deadly Astroworld crowd crush.
15:02
And then on top of that, there’s a global trend of increased extreme weather. Just as this is pushing
15:07
up home insurance rates in fire-prone areas, it’s also raising the cost of festival insurance.
15:12
Combined, there are instances like the Bonnaroo festival, in Tennessee, which cancelled in 2020
15:17
due to COVID, 2021 due to flooding, and 2025 due to heavy rains. With three cancellations in six
15:23
years, it’s no wonder insurance rates are going up. Bonnaroo is owned by Live Nation which, due to
15:29
its scale, can likely negotiate lower rates as its risk is diversified over many different festivals,
15:34
but the impacts are more pronounced for independent festivals like Glastonbury
15:37
where the risk is more singular. And insurance issues are greatest for new festivals. Insurers
15:43
charge higher rates when a festival is unproven, which makes it exceptionally hard to start a new,
15:48
independent festival—especially when Fyre Fest so visibility demonstrated the risks.
15:53
But of course the other risk to the festival’s longevity is that the neighbors just get sick of
15:57
it. And it’s happened before. In 1992, Anne Goodes, a Worthy Farm neighbor,
16:02
erected a 30-foot white cross overlooking the festival site from her property. As a
16:07
devout Christian, Goodes was antagonistic towards what she considered blasphemy taking place during
16:11
Glastonbury, between the free love and free drugs. And it wasn’t just her—as the festival grew, so
16:17
too did the schism between it and the locals—so in response, founder Michael Eavis developed a series
16:23
of solutions that today fall under the tightly named Event Management Plan—one that’s recorded,
16:28
approved, and filed by Somerset Council. These plans are designed to essentially contain the
16:33
festival—succesfully implemented, it should make it so the neighbors in Pilton barely
16:38
perceive Glastonbury, even as their village of a thousand effectively grows to 200,000.
16:44
Of course, not everything can be contained. A certain amount of litter, for example, is to
16:48
be expected, and therefore the festival commits to cleaning up at key sites like the surrounding
16:52
streets and local train station for three weeks before and after the event weekend. Light and
16:57
noise pollution are also inevitable, so a 12:30 p.m curfew is instituted on the main stages on
17:02
Friday and Saturday, along with a midnight sound curfew on Sunday. After that point, smaller stages
17:08
and venues are allowed to keep operating under strict maximum volume conditions. In fact, to
17:12
assure compliance, crews from the council patrol locations near the festival with decibel meters
17:17
until dawn. And the same goes for lighting, which is installed specifically to “minimize the risk of
17:22
nuisance” onto neighbors. Even the generators for directional lights have decibel caps.
17:27
Of course, the one thing that just simply has to go in and out are the people. Transporting
17:33
200,000 people to the middle of the countryside is, of course, a headache. Naturally, public
17:39
transportation is most efficient, least intrusive to neighbors, and it’s the method of choice for at
17:43
least a third of attendees. That includes nearly 30,000 who take the Great Western Railway, which
17:49
adds more than a dozen extra trains from London Paddington to the Castle Cary stop per day to meet
17:53
demand. That stop, however, is not at the farm and from Castle Cary Railway Station—a tiny two-track
18:00
stop with little infrastructure—officials help to guide the thousands of people onto shuttle buses
18:04
which take them to the farm. Riders can only bring what they can carry—there are no trolley carts
18:09
for luggage and large items like instruments just aren’t allowed. Buses carry another 20,000 people,
18:14
who arrive in a cascade of times over the start of the festival and are dropped off at a dedicated
18:19
entrance, close to the action, for coaches. And then, of course, there is everyone who drives,
18:24
with 28,000 public cars, 5,000 campervans, and another 12,500 vehicles for employees. Traffic
18:30
management starts nearly 30 miles or 50 kilometers away from the farm. First, there are 35 miles or
18:36
56 kilometers of designated clearways, where cars are not allowed to stop or pull over. Then
18:41
there are more than 350 miles or 560 kilometers of diversionary routes, forced one-ways, and dozens
18:47
of closed exits all designed to keep traffic moving and reduce impact on local neighborhoods.
18:52
Here, roads are closed along Lottisham Road, A37, and A361 to keep cars concentrated on
18:58
thoroughfares instead of traversing through farm lands and disrupting rural life.
19:02
Residents, themselves, are given vehicle passes to make sure they can still move around between
19:06
villages unimpeded. In fact, they’re given a lot of things. Residents of Pilton, the community most
19:12
impacted, receive complimentary tickets to the festival and the surrounding neighborhoods get
19:15
a number of price-tiered tickets along with a designated place to park at the festival.
19:20
Officials also set up a 24-hour hotline for noise and light complaints. And, in the fall, organizers
19:26
throw a Pilton Party—essentially a mini music festival—as a thank you to the villagers, workers,
19:31
and local people. These efforts to work with the community instead of against it have worked. For
19:36
55 years, the festival has returned, continually growing in both numbers, stature, and scope.
19:43
Music festivals are incredibly complex exercises, and they’re incredibly risky businesses,
19:48
but there’s a reason why organizers go through all the effort and risk.
19:52
Done right, they’re also incredibly successful businesses. They’re massively popular among fans,
19:58
and also among artists. In fact, they’re some of the most attractive gigs out there—for headliners,
20:03
the pay is massive; for emerging artists, the crowds are massive. And ultimately this makes
20:08
sense. For a festival to build a 200,000 person city on some empty cow pasture,
20:13
there must be a very good reason why. So let’s say that now that you’ve learned
20:19
about the logistics of music festivals you want to learn about the logistics of ski resorts or
20:23
search and rescue or commercial fishing or the Hajj or coal mining or arms manufacturing. Well
20:28
boy do I have news for you. We made a whole series called the Logistics of X that dives
20:33
into those exact subjects. That’s one of almost a dozen different Nebula Originals produced by
20:38
the Wendover team—we’ve also made a documentary about what happens when you're a tiny Alaskan
20:42
town almost entirely dependent on cruise ship tourism and then COVID stops that entire industry.
20:47
We made a documentary about the political kerfuffles that led to most of the western
20:50
half of the US relying on the Colorado River to deliver them more fresh water than the river
20:54
actually does—the consequences are bad, by the way. We made a documentary about what happens when
20:58
you’re a tiny British territory in the middle of the South Atlantic who was only ever connected to
21:01
the world by a week-long ferry but now you open an airport in 2016 and your entire way of life
21:05
changes. And we’ve made even more than just that, but it’s worth knowing that it’s not just us:
21:10
there are hundreds of creators on Nebula. Everyone uploads their regular videos there
21:15
ad and sponsorship free, and plenty go on to make other great Nebula Originals. I think
21:19
Wendover viewers would particularly enjoy 17 Pages, which is a documentary by Bobby Broccoli
21:24
about one of the biggest scientific controversies of the 20th century. It’s really well-made and,
21:29
frankly, mindblowing. If you value high-quality, thoughtful, independent entertainment, then Nebula
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is the place to be. And in my opinion, what really seals the deal is that it’s quite affordable—when
21:40
you use our link, Nebula.tv/Wendover—you’ll get more than 40% off an annual plan which brings
21:46
the cost down to just $36 a year. That’s not per month, that’s per year. So this is far less than
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really any other streaming service or YouTube Premium, and signing up even helps support the
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channel. We don’t operate a Patreon because we put all of our efforts into Nebula, so once again,
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head over to Nebula.tv/Wenodver to sign up, and thanks if you do!
