Godiva Festival - Case Study

Project Background: The Godiva Festival returned to Coventry’s War Memorial Park for a three – day music festival.?With a capacity of 40,000 people the festival is named after the city’s famous former inhabitant Lady Godiva.?Over 69,000 tickets were sold for the festival which was celebrating its 24th anniversary, up 15,000 on last year’s event.?As always, the festival featured a diverse programme with performances from Tom German, The Libertines, Bananarama, Katy B Apache Indian and the Feeling to name but a few.? The Godiva Festival is organised by Coventry City Council who take the safety and security of all their event goers extremely seriously.

Products Chosen: Coventry City Council required a variety of temporary hostile vehicle mitigation solutions to meet various operational requirements and security threats across 10 separate locations around the park.??In areas where pedestrian permeability was key to allow crowd flow.?Crowdguard installed ATG Access Surface Guard solutions which are a pedestrian permeable certified Vehicle Mitigation Barrier. Surface Guard allowed a free flow of pedestrians throughout the weekend with zero impact on flow rates for the 69,000 event goers who needed to gain easy access and egress to and from the park.?The pedestrian permeability of the product ensured that access was freely given to people, wheelchair users and those with small children and pushchairs as well as those turning up to the event on bicycles.?

In two areas the covers for the surface guard was branded up even on one location incorporating the famous elephant branding which is on the Coventry coat of arms and signifies strength.?Certainly, true from this hvm solution which is designed to stop a 7,200 kg vehicle travelling at 32kph.?The system also needed to work around uneven cambers which is not a problem for Surface Guard due to its modularity.?The main access route for deliveries and blue light access was fitted with a designated authorised vehicular access point and extension plates.?This was manned for the duration of the event by competent trained individuals ensuring that all procedures for vehicle entry were fully enforced.?

Crowdguard also installed The Claw which is a versatile drop and go barrier successfully impact tested and easy to install.?With a 3m width this is a perfect solution to provide advertising and wayfinding for any event.?At The Godiva Festival this 3m banner was wrapped with the Action Counter Terrorism important messaging to #Be Safe Be sound and to remind event goers of the important message that if they see something out of place to report it to security.?Thus proving that Security and safety doesn’t have to look unwelcoming.?In fact the highest levels of protection against vehicle as a weapon attacks can also enhance the location with branding, signage, wayfinding and information

Crowdgaurd also installed the Mobile Vehicle Security Barrier RB50 in 3 key locations across the park.?RB50 is a quick versatile HVM solution that can be wheeled out of the way quickly for authorised vehicular access.?Successfully impact tested the RB50 is a rated mobile vehicle security barrier that has been tested and stopped a 3,500kg and a 7,500kg vehicle. The RB50 has been tested in certified in a 4m array which makes it easy to install in its ‘as tested’ configuration.

All in all, Crowdguard installed 126 metres of rated HVM, which amounted to 24 tons worth of equipment.?This was all installed within 10hrs over 10 different locations.?The team all worked incredibly well and it was commented by event organisers, security officers and the general public, how efficient and easy the team made the installation look and how aesthetically pleasing and ‘non threatening’ the overall security solutions looked.

PROJECT OVERVIEW: Crowdguard arrived for first thing in the morning at the war memorial park and the trained and dedicated team safely deployed the HVM over 10 locations.

Danny Greene - Senior Events Officer for Coventry City Council commented

"It has been a pleasure working with Crowdguard during Godiva Festival 2022, which requires the audience of 70000 over three days to access and egress the event safely.?Crowdguard provided a high quality service with a detailed series of checks and controls to ensure a complex installation is designed and deployed according to the brief, with an eye on the aesthetics of the product appearance, and extra care was taken when working in the sensitive environment of a public park".??

Deborah Ainscough Founder and Director for Crowdguard said

“I feel so proud of our team this weekend.?Teamwork was instrumental to ensure a successful and safe installation of 4 of our temporary surface mounted solutions across the 10 locations.?It was also lovely to see so many interested members of the public saying how much safer they felt knowing that we were providing this protection.??Well done to forward thinking Coventry City Council and the Godiva Events team for utilising these solutions and prioritising the safety of their event attendees”