A 13th year at Worthy Farm
Glastonbury Festival 2017 ran from 22 to 25 June. Once again 150,000 ticket holders came to Worthy Farm at Pilton, Somerset, to see Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Ed Sheeran, Stormzy, Lorde and hundreds of other acts on a site of 1,100 acres.
It was the 13th year that Mojo Barriers supported the festival. In 2017 the service expanded again, with new systems introduced to improve audience safety.
1,400 metres across 16 stages
Mojo supplied aluminium stage barriers to 16 of the festival's stages, 1,400 metres in total. That included the new Death Metal stage in the Shangri La area.
Project manager Jim Gaffney had been a Glastonbury supplier for nearly a quarter of a century and has shaped the barrier layouts at the festival over the years. 2017 was no different.
New gates for a known bottleneck
The entrance from the arena to the campsite in the south-east corner had been a queuing point in earlier years. For 2017 Mojo set up 15 Line-up gates and one Mega Gate there, which reduced the queuing at that bottleneck.
The new gates we introduced at the south east corner worked perfectly and eradicated the problems that have occurred there in the past.
Secondary systems at the two largest stages
At the Pyramid Stage and the Other Stage, Mojo again set up secondary barrier systems. The Pyramid Stage system was introduced a few years earlier to cope with the larger capacity of that area. The Other Stage system followed in 2016, when changes were made to open up the audience's sight lines.
The secondary systems for the Pyramid Stage and Other Stage once again gave the audience a safer event and also allowed security staff more access to the audience.
Jerry Milichip was site manager for the Pyramid Stage in 2017. He had overseen many events that Mojo Barriers supplied and played a pivotal role in the smooth delivery of the barriers.
Jerry and our crews work very well together. He understands the way we work and why we do certain things because of his experience with barriers. Having him in a senior role was a huge help as he had made all the ground preparations we needed and logistical details like having enough forklifts at the right time to make our installation quick and efficient.
