Headliners JLS (on their farewell tour) supported by Little Mix, winners of The X Factor 2011, helped ticket sales reach 15,000 for Saturday’s Ponty’s Big Weekend show, an increased capacity of 5,000 from the event’s previous years. Showsec’s Wales and west country office provided stewarding.
Cardiff based Orchard Media has contracted Showsec for event security and crowd management services since the event began in 2008. This year area manager Martin Lewis worked with them and Rhondda Cynon Taf Council to plan for the increase in numbers and run crowd management over the two day festival.
Dave Driscoll, Orchard Event Manager and Promoter for Ponty’s Big Weekend said: “This year’s audience for Ponty’s Big Weekend was the highest yet, with some 15,000 mainly young people turning up on the Saturday. As event organisers and promoters it’s reassuring for us to know that their welfare is looked after by Showsec, whose professional staff are licensed and appropriately checked by the company to work on events of this scale, and who work closely with us to ensure that all aspects of the concert run smoothly and safely.”
Given the artist profile, the audience was mainly of teens, and being a traditionally local event they had come from the surrounding area. Sunday’s free event day saw more of a family audience. Showsec supplied 70 event security staff from the Cardiff and West Country office, whose day began managing the enthusiastic queues. Martin said: “The young fans began queuing at dawn, so our staff’s first concern was the welfare of the kids in the queue. A lot of them were there 15 hours before the band went on, so we were particularly attentive to their condition in the very sunny weather on the day. Attracting JLS was a coup for the organisers and there was a special atmosphere throughout the event that will stay in people’s memory for a long time.”
