'Badly organised' Hope and Glory Festival caused serious risk to public safety

An independent report's revealed the collapse of the Hope and Glory Festival on St George's Plateau was caused by the organisers poor planning which resulted in a 'serious safety risk' to the public

The event was marred with problems back in August, and saw the second day completely abandoned, after reports from festival goers of over crowding, and cancellations.

The report commissioned by the Mayor of Liverpool found that the event organisers tinyCOW, which have since ceased trading were responsible for the event's collapse.

It also claimed that the Council and it's partners missed opportunities to identify potential problems in advanced of the event taking place.

“We can’t accept anything that jeopardises our hard-won reputation. This is why I commissioned an independent report to spell out exactly why this privately organised event failed, and look at what the public sector could do to mitigate this happening again.

The report by the Event Safety Shop said found:

“It’s clear in retrospect that the failure of the event was down to the mismanagement of the organisers and our staff did tremendous work on the first day sorting out a wide range of issues and enabling the event to continue.

• No signage was installed, staff weren’t briefed and there was confusion around the queueing system, with some customers being given incorrect tickets

• There was no designated area for lost children or vulnerable adults

• There was no emergency evacuation plan in place

• Acts on the main stage ran behind schedule and there were very long queues at the bars and toilets

• Members of the public felt there was significant risk to public safety

• The event manager left the site, was uncontactable and wasn’t seen again until the end of the day

"Our opinion is that the event was poorly planned and suffered from failures of management and operational control.

Serious risks to public safety resulted. Whilst cancellation of the Sunday event was no doubt a disappointment to many, it was an appropriate course of action

"People attending large‐scale events have a right to expect they have been planned and produced by a competent Organiser."

"We conclude that the discomfort, confusion, anger and disappointment caused to ticket‐holders at the Hope and Glory festival, were a direct result of the organiser’s planning and operational failures."

It also found that background screening checks into tinyCOW through professional bodies or trade associations would not have stopped their application from being progressed.

It also found that background screening checks into tinyCOW through professional bodies or trade associations would not have stopped their application from being progressed.

Mayor Joe Anderson said: “We are a city renowned for staging large scale, successful events, and as a result of our reputation, we have more and more interest from the private sector in staging events here.

“We can’t accept anything that jeopardises our hard-won reputation. This is why I commissioned an independent report to spell out exactly why this privately organised event failed, and look at what the public sector could do to mitigate this happening again.

“It’s clear in retrospect that the failure of the event was down to the mismanagement of the organisers and our staff did tremendous work on the first day sorting out a wide range of issues and enabling the event to continue.

“This report was all about learning lessons, and although our procedures have served us well for the past ten years, the context and environment for staging events has changed in recent years, so we need to be honest with ourselves and reflect on the processes and procedures that are in place and react to the recommendations put forward.

“As a result of this report, we will work with our partners to put in place enhanced planning procedures for event which will find the right balance between scrutinising documents and not making the process too bureaucratic for organisers