Staff working in ‘brutal’ conditions at some of UK’s biggest festivals, union says
Staff working in ‘brutal’ conditions at some of UK’s biggest festivals, union says
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Some staff work 18-hour days, some sleep on floor and some have no access to drinking water, finds research. Staff at some of the UK’s biggest music festivals are working in “brutal” conditions, according to research. Crew members, including sound engineers and behind-the-scenes production staff, were asked to work 18-hour days, some suffered heatstroke, others slept on floors and had to use toilet facilities that were overflowing. In some cases the crew camp areas had no access to drinking water.
A report from the performing arts union Bectu, which collated the experiences of 100 music festival workers, found about half of the respondents said they felt unsafe at work, while a third had experienced a risk to their physical safety. The Bectu head, Philippa Childs, said that at the moment festivals felt like the “wild west” in terms of safety and working conditions, with some organisations using the seasonal work’s reputation as being “fun and fast” to avoid meeting basic standards.
“I’m used to hearing about difficult working conditions from across the creative industries, but some of this is extremely concerning,” she said. The current environment for the music festival sector is challenging. Last year 78 music festivals either cancelled or postponed, according to figures from the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF).
While the biggest festivals can sell out in minutes, smaller organisations are folding at an unprecedented rate. Many cited the same reasons: rising supply chain costs, debts incurred during the Covid pandemic and slower ticket sales, stymied further by the cost of living crisis.
