Funnily enough, with all this talk of heavy-handed security, we witnessed an incident where we were appalled at their complete inaction!

Yes, we noticed heavier presence of security this year and were surprised that the fence was so crap; and we heard about the same number of reports of tent robbing as last year, although this year that included a friend and not just random people we met, so for us it was worse.

But the most shocking thing was watching several security and at least one medic refuse to do anything beyond try and talk to the guy when a bloke in the tent next to us lost it totally (most likely acid) and went on the rampage. As the guy thrashed around on the floor attacking one of our tents they just kept saying that he'd get better, ignoring the obvious fact that it was getting worse and worse by the minute, and that his convulsions were getting greater and greater and the risk of him injuring himself escalated. Eventually after more than an hour of this, the bloke stood up and started staggering round and attacked another neighbouring tent; security still did nowt, and then he went on the rampage. If me and my partner hadn't been stood ready to defend the rest of our camp he'd have trashed it - he lunged straight for our shade structure and if we'd not stopped him the next tent in line for attack would have been one in which by some miracle of earplug technology my sister-in-law was sleeping through the episode, so he would probably have caused her injury. Yet still the security did nothing. After we stopped him rampaging through our camp he set off in another direction, jumped on top of two or three other tents and ended up in another group shade structure where there were enough people to jump on him; while he rampaged people were yelling at the security to do something, and their response was that they didn't want to hurt him; they rejected the argument that he was likely to injure himself and others by attacking tents. It was only when the guy seemed under threat from this other group ready to jump on him that he was restrained, and it was the police who eventually did something about it more than an hour and a half after he'd started his attack. Apparently about half an hour into it an ambulance appeared, assessed the situation as needing no attention and buggered off again. It took at least three quarters of an hour of other festival-goers asking (with increasing irritation and frustration, as you can imagine) before the security got a medic.

So there you go - seems from comparing this thread with our own experience that things were heavy-handed when they didn't need to be and inactive when they needed to be forceful.

I'm not saying this was an easy situation to deal with, but really their response couldn't have been less competent if they'd tried. We ended up with no faith in the provision for things going wrong - if that sort of thing ever happens to me I hope I'll have a group of friends with me with enough nouse to drag me to the medical tent for sedation and not leave me to the mercy of ineffective staff.

Heavily sarcastic thanks go out to the people who thought it would be helpful to go up to the poor guy having the fit and yell at him or imitate him. When someone is screaming like he's being attacked by monsters and isn't responding to anyone trying to talk to him do you really think he's going to feel less under attack if people scream in his face? Do people really think that someone who's having the worst possible bad trip needs to have people shout "well you shouldn't do drugs mate" at him (and that was from one of the security... grrr....)? Helpful - not. The poor guy needed help.

Perhaps incidentally to this thread, if any of the guys mates are reading this, I really hope he's OK after it all, and would appreciate knowing how he is because we were seriously worried about his long-term health. He was looking pretty flat the next afternoon when he got back from A&E, not surprisingly...

shocking. not many people want to intervene with a freak out, they don't know how to deal, or fear freaking them out even more. shocked to read that no-one, not even ambulance personnel, could direct someone like this to the welfare tent?

where was his mates, it's not very responsible to trip out on your own, or let someone, especially at an event where kids can be witnessing this

Lady_Jane wrote:It's almost certainly down to the location. People that close to London don't care for their "half-a-million pound for a 2 bed shack" peace & quiet being disrupted by people from the cities out to have a few days fun in the countryside So the pressure on the organisers is so much higher than if we went to an old coal-mining district where there was not much employment left - those people would probably welcome us all with open arms, a spliff and let us turn all the amps up to eleven, 24/7 for a week.

A bit off-topic, but the above may get put to the test in my area in a few weeks, as a bunch of eco-protesters are setting up camp close to three of the biggest coal-fired power stations in Europe. I had actually toyed with the idea of trying to put on a festival in that area in the past but shelved the idea. Think I may look into it again, depending on how this camp goes.

As for what people may or may not take at festivals, the laws of the land still apply inside them whether we like it or not. Questions I'd like to see answered though are:

1) Were the security following specific instructions from the organisers regarding searching of punters and tents for illegal substances or were they acting on their own initiative?
2) Why did security refuse to allow individuals to bring in any nitrous oxide from Saturday onwards claiming "there was a contraband on it", when it had been specifically stated that N2O for personal use was allowed?
3) Why also were stalls allowed to sell it openly (with signs) behind the counter from this point?

salx wrote:where was his mates, it's not very responsible to trip out on your own, or let someone, especially at an event where kids can be witnessing this

His mates didn't know what to do, so gave up when attempts to talk him down failed; from then on they were relying on the security and medical staff. You're going to be pretty spooked if one of your mates goes down like that and you've never seen it before. They were probably pretty smashed themselves too, but if I'm honest we thought they could have done way more to help their friend than they did - but not without help, because there were only maybe 2 of them, they weren't big guys and the bloke was thrashing round really violently.

Lady_Jane wrote:

Aaron2k wrote:but worst of all was seeing four of them violently restraining a mashed and terrified skinny little bloke, throwing him to the floor, swearing at onlookers, then trying to bundle them into the van, smacking his head on the way, then giving up and holding him on the floor and shouting at him. he cried out that he just wanted some water and when i came forward and tried to give him some they actually told me to fuck off and shoved me backwards (and I've got my arm in a massive cast all strapped up! ) Absolutely inappropriate wankers.

I saw this incident, i also got told to fuck off. Now i am a very big guy 6ft 6in and stocky, and although a peacefull gentle man i suffer serious physical anger attacks as an effect of panick attacks caused by unecesarrily violent authority. Whilst witnessing this incident i saw countless peacefull people beeing physically and verbally assaulted by security simply for trying to point out that they were doing things in the wrong way. When i got told to fuck off i came very close to snapping and had to follow my physchiatrists advice and take deep breathes, whilst doing this the security guy aggresively told me not to start any trouble, he was the one causing trouble. I managed to keep my calm and walk away even though as far as i was concerned i was walking away from an assault on a defensless guy by a group of bullies. To calm myself i went over to the pussy parlour to get a drink, as i was a bit messy headed and confused after the aggresive incident i didnt notice the que to get in. As i went to walk in i was grabbed by some thug who sounded like he was straight off a belfast council estate who shouted right in my ear "what do you think the fucking que's for", this totally spun me out and i must have just been staring at him when he noticed someone else about to walk in who when spotted did a comic tip toe walk as a joke to which our irish friend bellowed "what the fucking hell are you doing that for you dammned idiot". I was so shocked, that without even thinking i said back quite loudly "because he's tripping and to him this is all fun, it isnt for you is it, why did you work here, try and understand, show some empathy, stop your aggresion" or some such ecstasy fueled peace talk, it ended up with both of us staring at each other up close, him looikng like he wanted to kill me, me feeling abject pity for his hate filled life. As i walked away he said something like yeah you walk. If i had been treated like that whilst not under the influence of MDMA there is a serious change i could have reacted very violently, and seeing how the security struggled to deal with a relativley small guy they would have had a big problem with me. Im not trying to sound big and hard but some people with mental problems enjoy the peace that can be gained from visiting an envoirmnent such as glade and having to witness aggresivness beyond what i normally see by people who are meant to be there to help me is just not good enough.
Next year spend the extra security money on employing educated pleasant security staff, knowlegable in human communication, to deal with the sitautions that arise rather than turn them into a crisis. Keep the monkey men pattrolling the perimeter fence and call them in for serious incidents under the supervision of the intelligient security. This is achievable, we are a cracking crowd and deserve to be repected.

OK, I've had an interim reply from Nick, which he's happy for us to publish:


Hi Paul,

We have hardly had a chance to get in into the feedback as yet - we ar still i post production,
although for us the post festival feedback is one of the most useful aspect of the forums, so we can
improve what we do year on year.

The security issues we are aware of and we will work hard to improve them next time - one thing it
is worth poiting out tho is this years security was a hell of an improvement in terms of making the
site secure - over 500 fence jumpers were caught and thrown out, and tent thefts were down by
70% on last year, which is very good considering there were 3000 more people in the campsites.

Clearly there is a balance to be struck, however, and we will strive to achieve it.

Thanks for your ongoing communication paul - if you wish to post the above then feel free.

Cheers man,

Nick

Im still gutted to hear all these things happened but as mentioned before there was a lot of security staff that worked Glade and alot of us did a proffesional job with no attitdude or alice to any of you.

As far as the drugs go i have worked a few dance events and clubs where drugs are involved and no fetival organiser in his right mind would put a statement out to inform ssecurity staff that drugs are ok to use at an event. personal use is such a grey area and therefore we were to use out own discresion.

As far as the police are concerned dugs are illegal and in all my years i have never seen a bobby search someone and find some stuff and let them go. They would be taled to the police staion and dealt with.

Regarding the guy on acid - maybe the security or medics did not no how to handle a guy on acid and maybe next year they should have a brief and a document on how to handle certain drugs and there affects.

I didnt mean to patronise anyone in my posts but tried to answer some questions in a sensibel way. I dont have to come on here and answer your comments or take any negative comments about my work

Security always get the bad end of the stick and you dont see many message boards saying secuirty was good at any event.

I hope i have been some help to you guys and girls and hopefully next year we get to work such a great event.....

a few bad people will always tarnish the reputation of anyone else involved with them. also you would have thought that security and medics at festivals would know how to handle people who have taken a few too many drugs.

I have no problem with security but it seems like it was all walk and no talk from them. They looked so mean and scary with their huge black van roaming around the site, looking for trouble. But when it came to actually cracking down on fence hopping etc. they were rubbish! Plus - I've paid for a nice time, I don't want to be snarled at all the time by some power tripped, middle aged, black uniformed foot soldier with no sense of humour or even a smile for anyone. They give off such a bad vibe which then affects the atmosphere and when that happens my enjoyment is limited. They were the only thing I didn't like about Glade, it just felt like organised fun.

im not one to complain but what happen to me on sat morning just after 4am is a bloody piss take , me and me boyfriend were in pussy parlour having a drink , when a beef cake shadow security grabbed my arm and pulled me out my seat waved a bag of powder in my face and said i was dealing cocaine , heavy handedly took me outside where 4 other beef cakes where , there i had to wait to be searched buy a bird security , i was kicking off to say the least in all my years of raving and festival nothing has ever happened to me like this , luckily i didnt have anything on me , but if i had i would of been chucked out . what the fuck !!! is going on with them they completly ruined m festival , driving round on there supped up cars , thinking there the big men , i was scared to skin up , it felt like big fucking brother , they were always fucking watching , go to a festival to be free not to feel like your in a fucking prison . overall the festival was good , but what the fuck happened with the fence ??? decided to spend the money on some beefed up morons instead , not the best move . would well appreciate a reply from one of the organisers .

who sounded like he was straight off a belfast council estate

nothing wrong with havin a belfast accent?

Concerning pirsirsursuaq's post - This must have been the screaming we could here from the other end of that section of camping. Was still wondering what it was all about even now - sounded truely terrifying, hope the chap is now OK.

With regard the security (Shadow) - we had no issues, but we rarely do... Anyways, I clocked what they were going to be like as soon as we got in - there was definately no love lost and to think that we were paying these guys for a service!!

right, i wud like to tell my wonderful fuckin story of my glade thanx to fuckin security!

I got there about Thursday lucnhtime and had no problems wat so ever until Friday afternoon wen...
i was quite happily sitting by my tent when i heard my mate had been caught doin drugs by the breaksday tent, his own fault in my eyes, but its the incidents that followed which fucked things up! My friend was off his head and they made him take him back to his tent to search his tent where me and a group of my friends were! I wud just like to add at this point they had no right too as he only had personnel on him! We heard this as my friend phoned one of us to say they were comin over, so we hid our drugs. On arrival of security i was leaning in my tent when the security stopped me and proceeded to search my tent and take everything i had (drugs and money), they also searched my friends tent and did the same. They filmed it aswell! They then shoved us in the back of a van and took us back to the security bit where instead of just throwing us out, which is wat i was expecting, they called the fucking police! We then spent Friday night in a police cell and we were released on bail for possession wiv intent to supply and now were facin a court case in september! So thank u very fuckin much security! I wud just like to add to this that after we were released we made our way back to the festival and jumped the fence in broad daylight at 5pm saturday afternoon... so your not doin ur job very well are u! Luckily we managed to enjoy the rest of the festival that we had paid for, but now iv got to deal with a court case!

I would just like to add to this that I am not a dealer, I just had a bottle o cid n some liquid k on me. AND... so you all now know the Law on tent searching... the security unless given permission by the secretary of state are not allowed to search your tent without your permission! This is because your tent counts as your private home and the only people who can search it are the police with a warrant! And because of this law im looking at gettin my case thrown out of court cuz all the evidence was gathered illegally! This was the mail i was sent by a trainee barrister friend...

im looking into the legality of the search and it seems as tho the under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 the only people authorised to carry out a search of premises are

''a constable, or other person authorised in that behalf by a general or special order of the Secretary of State''

this is covered under section 23 of the MDA 1971.

it looks as tho you may actually have a case here because i dont think the security guards were authorised to either search you or your premises. only a constable has such powers, so the evidence may have been gathered illegally.

I went to glade last year and had the best time of my life with the security doin there job and stayin on the fence as they were told to do, i undertsnad theft and violence can not be tollerated... but the same laws apply to you security, so next year stay on the fence and the trouble makers will stay out. Saying that i dont know why im telling you cuz if it had anythin to do with me stuart and shadow wud not be employed next year!

Just my ha'penn'orth:

I personally wasn't a victim of the security at any time, but I did see a few things that made me worried over the course of the weekend and I have heard of enough incidents that I'm sure the security were a major problem for many people - there have been concerns expressed on four different websites that I post/lurk on (Gladtalk, eFests, Festivalweather & Donstayin - copies of this post are on all four sites), and in each case discussion has been started by different people, confirming the idea that Security is an issue that needs to be adressed. It makes sense for us (as festival-goers) to have some kind of definable list of issues to present to the Glade organisers. If you disagree with what I say, then say so and make a suggestion. As I understand it, the complaints are as follows:



Complaint one: attitude towards role. From the POV of the festival-goers, Security should be there to make sure the festival runs smoothly, preventing any crimes or incidents occurring that cause (or are likely to cause) problems for festival-goers. That means their main priorities should be:

1. keeping out fencejumpers
2. ending and/or preventing incidents of violence
3. dealing with thieves
4. preventing accidents

In addition to this, they should be treating the festival-goers with respect and courtesy at all times (something the Security at Glade '05 got massively wrong). They should not be actively looking for drugs, since they would then be at loggerheads with all the festival goers, not just the troublemakers. Many drugs (MDMA, Cannabis, Ketamine etc) are likely to make their lives easier anyway, so it's counter-intuitive. Yes, Security have a legal obligation to deal with any drugs they come across, and so removing a spliff or line or whatever is not something we can complain about (even if we don't like it), but if they don't see drug use then they don't have any reason to act. From what's been said, a lot of the security went out looking for drug-users, and the only reason they can have had for that is because they were bored, wanted something to do, and/or went out the the intention of creating trouble. IMHO that means they aren't merely at fault, but they themselves became a threat to the festivalgoers by actively causing incidents of violence, the precise opposite of their role as defined above.



The second complaint is concerning their general conduct dealing with, and attitude towards, festival-goers. A few incidents I have heard of include:

1. restraining then stamping on the head of a man on a bad LSD trip
2. removing armbands without the permission of the owner and without consulting the Glade organisers (several incidents)
3. planting drugs on an individual, claiming they are a dealer, then throwing them out
4. financial theft - in the two incidents of which I am aware, a total of over £300 was taken, in both cases from people who Security claimed were dealing drugs (in reality they just had "personal use" quantities)
5. assaulting individuals who tried to prevent them from causing serious harm to others, invariably removing them from the site
6. verbally abusing a festival-goer who had been lying on the ground in a wide open space, doing absolutely nothing at all (other than communing with nature)
7. the assault on "skinny naked guy" in the main arena area, witness by dozens (if not hundreds) of people.

The general consensus seems to be that Security were over-keen on flexing their muscle, and had a tendency to abuse their authority. This is probably linked to issues raised in the first complaint, such as boredom.



The third complaint is their attitude towards health & safety. Driving around a site like Glade needs a lot more caution than normal given the number of munters walking round, yet even on the Thursday I saw them driving around the site too fast, while people were setting up camp. At that point in time people's reactions were likely to be good - but if they were driving the same on the Sunday and Monday, it is literally a miracle that someone did not get hurt or killed, especially if their driving skills were so poor they crashed into and knocked over a lamp-post at one point.



The fourth complaint is regarding the attitude of Security towards one of the major purposes of Glade, it's zeitgeist. I'm sure I'm not the only person who believes that Glade isn't just about enjoying good music (and very good food) - it's about the "vibe" of the festival - positive, friendly, loving, caring, reconciliatory & fun. Over the weekend I saw loads of examples of the zeitgeist in action. In one case, while dancing in the crowd at Origin, a friend of mine accidentlally hit another man in the eye as he was passing us. The man did not react angrily, but instead laughed and let my friend know that he held no grudge. They both chose to see the funny side of the situation, rather than have some kind of confrontation. Yet, as has already been established, certain Security men & women were actively trying to instigate violence on the part of festival-goers, actively trying to destroy the zeitgeist, largely for their own selfish reasons.



So, to summarise, the complaints are:

1. Security acted with blatant disregard for their role by actively encouraging violent incidents, the precise opposite of their reason for being there
2. Security acted with inappropriately towards festival-goers, with blatant disregard towards their right to be treated with respect and common courtesy
3. Security acted with blatant disregard for health & safety, endangering the safety and lives of festival-goers, stewards and others
4. Security acted with blatant disregard for the zeitgeist of the festival

Great post tavdy, sums up the issues in a very clear and concise manner.

I'm also really curious to know what their problem with playing stereos on Sunday night was. They enforced a blanket ban on stereos but refused to say why. I doubt this was at the behest of the organisers so I think it again plays into the theory that they were bored and looking to stir up trouble.

Quite simply, they hired security for what should have been a relatively easy gig. Compared to many other festivals incidents of violence are going to be minimal, leaving security to contend with fencejumpers and thieves. However, instead of enjoying the calm atmosphere and working to maintain it, they seemed to regard it as some kind of personal affront and set about doing their best to destroy it.

The dangerous driving issue cannot be over-emphasised either. Lives really were endangered by their actions and for this alone (if nothing else) the same security teams should not be employed next year.

security wrote:As far as the police are concerned dugs are illegal and in all my years i have never seen a bobby search someone and find some stuff and let them go. They would be taled to the police staion and dealt with.

I have been arrested and cautioned for possesion once, i have been caught in possesion and had the stuff confiscated but been allowed to go on 8 seperate occasions. The most i have been caught with and not arrested was two pills, an 8th of green and an 8th of hash. I apprecaite you coming on here and presenting the oposing view to the majority but some of your assumptions are incorrect. In my experience if you are honest about your personal possesion, provided the amounts are'nt taking the piss then the police will let you off.
Please dont feel like im just picking on you but i think this highlights one of my major problems with security over the weekend. Most of them thought that due to there authority they knew best on every subject and it was not only difficult to explain things to them, at times just attempting it would result in verbal abuse.

Big respect 'tavdy79'. You completely summed up how i also feel about the security and its effect.

Peace Love Unity Respect 4 ever.

DBM wrote:OK, I've had an interim reply from Nick, which he's happy for us to publish:


Hi Paul,

We have hardly had a chance to get in into the feedback as yet - we ar still i post production,
although for us the post festival feedback is one of the most useful aspect of the forums, so we can
improve what we do year on year.

The security issues we are aware of and we will work hard to improve them next time - one thing it
is worth poiting out tho is this years security was a hell of an improvement in terms of making the
site secure - over 500 fence jumpers were caught and thrown out, and tent thefts were down by
70% on last year, which is very good considering there were 3000 more people in the campsites.

Clearly there is a balance to be struck, however, and we will strive to achieve it.

Thanks for your ongoing communication paul - if you wish to post the above then feel free.

Cheers man,

Nick

Bumping this reply from Nick Ladd, one of the festival organisers as most people seem to have missed it.

So that's confirmation from the organisers that at least 500 people jumped the fence. Jesus, how many more were there that didn't get caught?

Taloen Loch wrote:So that's confirmation from the organisers that at least 500 people jumped the fence. Jesus, how many more were there that didn't get caught?

You were camped in the area where most fencejumpers got in both this year and last year. Last year I saw several fencejumpers get in, this year I saw none. Last year everybody in our camp had our tents rifled through, this time nobody anywhere near us did.

I have yet to see one shred of credible evidence that crime was worse this year than last. In fact, I'm inclined to agree with Nick that it was considerably lower.