Glastonbury 2003: the Council's own report

Mendip District Council's Regulatory Board - who are responsible for granting the licence - met two weeks ago to consider a reports from Council officers and other involved agencies on the running of Glastonbury Festival 2003. The reports from this meeting have been published.

The Council's own report, prepared by Glen Crocker, the General Manager Health and Facilities, gives its summary as follows:

• The event was very successful
• The Milestone Conditions were, one by one all satisfactorily met by the set deadlines.
• There were no significant breaches of the Licence Conditions.
• MDC monitoring of the event was the most comprehensive and thorough ever.
• The Festival was thought by most to be the safest and best ever.
• The negative impact on local communities was significantly reduced.
• The multi-agency partnership working should be seen as an exemplar for major events such as this festival.
• Many aspects of the event demonstrate the site to have been at or very close to capacity.

It goes on to say that

A festival of this size and complexity can always be improved and this is no exception. The current event management has responded very positively to suggestions previously made and has been hugely innovative of its own volition. The baseline of 2002 standards has been surpassed.

The achievements of 2003 should equally be built upon for any future event, taking the good as a baseline, modifying where appropriate and improving where possible.

At the meeting, The Regulatory Board accepted the report of the 2003 Festival as compiled by their Council officers.

This is great news for the Festival, as it appears that the Council believe that all the hard work put in by the Festival organisers over the last three years - since the 2000 Festival - has been instrumental in turning the event around into one that they are now happy to licence, providing that these efforts are maintained and built upon. Hopefully, this will result in the Festival gaining a Public Entertainments Licence for 2004 without the difficulties experienced for this year.

Our thanks - and we're sure the thanks of all those who attended this year, and who will attend in the future - go out to all the Festival staff, who make such great efforts to bring us the UKs most outstanding event. Long may it continue!

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