Festivals create magical moments for thousands of people, but behind the scenes, safety is the top priority – and fire safety sits at the top of that list. From massive music festivals in the California desert to food festivals in bustling cities, any event with large crowds and temporary infrastructure faces fire risks. Electrical equipment, open flames in food stalls, generators humming away, and even cigarettes can all spark danger if not vigilantly managed. This guide shares hard-earned wisdom on managing fire, hot work, and hazardous materials (HAZMAT) at festivals. It distills lessons from veteran festival producers around the world, illustrating how meticulous planning and a strong safety culture can prevent catastrophe.
Permitting Hot Work: Escorts, Extinguishers, and Vigilance
“Hot work” refers to any activity that involves flame, sparks, or high heat – think welding a stage structure, cutting metal supports, or using abrasive grinders. These tasks are often unavoidable when building large stages or art installations on-site. However, hot work is also one of the most common sources of event fires if handled carelessly. In fact, a report by the U.S. National Fire Protection Association found that hot work hazards sparked nearly 3,400 structure fires a year over a recent five-year period (www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com). The good news is that these incidents are largely preventable through strict permitting and supervision.
Always require a hot work permit for any flame-producing or spark-generating job at the venue. A hot work permit is essentially a formal checklist and approval process: it ensures the location has been cleared of flammable materials, the team doing the work is qualified, and the timing is controlled. Many local fire authorities and insurers demand such permits for festival sites – and for good reason. Before any welding or cutting begins, appoint a dedicated fire safety escort or fire watch to monitor the work. This person’s sole job is to stand by with a charged fire extinguisher (or even a hose) and watch for any stray sparks catching. They should remain on watch even after the job is done – typically for 30 minutes to an hour – since smouldering fires can start in hidden crevices.
For example, when crews are constructing stages at Glastonbury Festival in the UK, any on-site welding is done under strict supervision. The festival’s safety managers coordinate with local fire officers to ensure all hot work is completed during daytime construction hours and never near public attendees. A fire marshal or safety officer is present with extinguishers on hand, and no hot work happens without their green light.
This approach paid off at Tomorrowland Unite Spain 2017, where a stage caught fire due to a technical malfunction but was contained safely. Over 22,000 people were evacuated from the Barcelona festival site without injury (time.com) – a testament to having professionals and plans ready when anything involving fire is underway or goes wrong. Even more recently, the main stage at Tomorrowland’s home festival in Belgium was destroyed by a blaze just days before opening in 2025 (elpais.com). Thanks to rigorous safety protocols, the incident occurred during setup with no attendees present, and the organisers managed to rebuild an alternate stage within 72 hours (elpais.com). These examples highlight why no festival should ever treat hot work lightly. When you permit it, plan it and guard it every time.
Practical tips for hot work:
- Choose the right time and place: Schedule hot work during off-peak hours (before gates open or after crowds leave) whenever possible. Do it in a controlled area away from tents, stages, or anything flammable. For instance, if metal cutting is needed for a stage repair mid-festival, consider moving the piece to a clear open zone rather than doing it amidst décor or wiring.
- Fire watch on standby: Never allow hot work without at least one person (preferably two) assigned to fire watch duty. They should have appropriate fire extinguishers (e.g. a dry powder or CO? extinguisher for electrical fires, water or foam for wood/material fires) and know how to use them. Their full attention must be on the task and surrounding area – no distractions.
- Protect and isolate: Remove or shield any flammable materials within a 35-foot (10-meter) radius of the hot work area. Use flame-proof welding blankets or screens to catch sparks. If welding near a stage backdrop or roof, ensure that fire-retardant tarps cover those structures. Many stages use flame-retardant materials by design; even so, extra shielding during welding can’t hurt.
- Permit and log: Use a written hot work permit form and checklist. Log the time work starts and ends, who performed the job, and who was on fire watch. This creates accountability. It also provides a paper trail if authorities or insurance ask for proof that you took proper precautions.
- No permit, no fire: Make it a strict policy that any contractor or crew member who lights a torch or turns on a grinder without permission faces immediate corrective action or removal. It might sound harsh, but when thousands of lives and your event are at stake, there’s zero tolerance for rogue hot work. Build this expectation into contractor briefs and training.
Daily Inspections of LPG, Kitchens, and Generators
Large festivals can be as populated as small cities, and they often have the makeshift infrastructure to match. That means dozens or even hundreds of LPG cylinders for cooking, piles of fuel for generators, and ad-hoc kitchen setups feeding staff and artists. Each of these is a potential hazard if not maintained. A tiny gas leak in a food stall, a frayed wire on a generator, or grease buildup in a kitchen tent could spell disaster if a flame is introduced. The key to prevention is daily inspection and maintenance of all these potential trouble spots.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) lines and cylinders deserve special attention. LPG (propane or butane) is commonly used by festival food vendors because it’s efficient and portable – at Glastonbury’s 175,000-person festival, over 400 food vendors rely on LPG to cook for the crowds (www.liquidgasuk.org). With that much gas around, safety teams must be vigilant. Every morning before the festival grounds open, have safety officers or qualified gas engineers walk through all vendor areas to inspect gas setups. They should check that:
- Cylinders are stored upright and secured so they can’t tip over.
- Hoses and connections are in good condition with no cracks or leaks (a soapy water spray can reveal bubbles from a gas leak).
- Regulators are functioning properly and fitted correctly.
- Each vendor has easy access to a suitable fire extinguisher (and ideally a fire blanket for kitchen stalls) on hand.
- No combustibles are stored directly next to burners or cylinders.
If any vendor’s setup is questionable – for example, a hose looks damaged or a connection is hissing – shut it down immediately until it’s fixed or replaced. It’s wise to keep spare hoses, regulators, and clips on site for quick swaps to minimize downtime if something fails an inspection. Many festivals in the UK work closely with the Nationwide Caterers Association (NCASS) or local fire authorities to train vendors on gas safety and even provide pre-event LPG safety workshops. Some require vendors to have a Gas Safe engineer’s certificate for their appliances. For instance, Boomtown Fair in England mandates that all traders using gas have their equipment certified and on record with the festival’s safety team.
Daily checks are equally critical for generators and electrical gear. Power generators are lifelines of a large-scale festival, running stage sound, lights, and countless other systems – but they combine fuel, electricity, and heat, which are three ingredients for fire. Assign a technical crew to inspect each generator area at least once a day (if not once per shift). Fuel tanks should be examined for leaks or damage. Drip trays or bunding (secondary containment) should be in place to catch any spilled diesel. Ensure no rubbish or dry foliage has accumulated around generator units (a common issue when festivals are in fields or forests). Verify that cooling vents are clear of obstructions and that the generator isn’t overheating.
Critically, never refuel a running generator. Plan generator refuelling for a calm period when you can shut down the unit, allow it to cool for a few minutes, and then refuel with a proper fuel can or pump – all while a crew member stands by with a fire extinguisher. There have been horror stories of refuelling accidents at events; one classic mistake is pouring petrol or diesel into hot equipment and ending up with the fuel igniting. Even outside the festival world, industrial accidents have taught us the importance of this rule. It might mean a brief power interruption, but that’s better than a blaze. To avoid noticeable outages, festivals often use multiple generators in rotation or backup generators that can take the load while one unit is serviced.
Don’t forget kitchen tents and cooking areas beyond just the public vendors. Staff catering tents, artist hospitality areas, and any on-site kitchens (even those backstage) need checking. Make sure cooks have proper firefighting equipment (at least a Class B/C or Class K extinguisher for grease fires, plus fire blankets) and that they know how to cut off the fuel supply quickly in an emergency. Cleanliness is also a safety issue – a buildup of grease on a stove or in a flue can catch fire. Daily wipe-downs and clean-outs, especially for deep fryers or grills, will mitigate this hazard.
Finally, log all these inspections. Use a checklist for vendors and generators that the inspector signs off each day. Not only does this instill discipline, but if an incident ever occurs, you have documentation to show authorities that you were taking appropriate precautions.
As an example of vigilance paying off: Mahakumbh Mela – one of the largest religious festival gatherings in India – experienced a major tent fire in 2025. In response, the local administration immediately issued mandates for more frequent LPG cylinder checks and deployed technical assistants to monitor gas safety during the event (economictimes.indiatimes.com). This came after it was found that an LPG leak might have caused the blaze that engulfed multiple tents. The lesson is clear: constant inspection and maintenance of gas and power lines isn’t overkill; it’s essential preventive medicine for festivals.
Clear Emergency Lanes for Fire Crews
When a fire does break out, every second counts. The difference between a minor incident and a major tragedy can often come down to response time. Emergency access lanes – clear paths for fire engines, ambulances, and other responders – must be planned into the festival layout from day one and kept unblocked at all times. This is non-negotiable. On a large festival site, especially one with camping, it’s easy for paths to get obstructed by a parked supply truck, a misplaced barrier, or even throngs of people who don’t realise they’re standing in a fire lane. As a festival organiser, you need to ingrain in your team and contractors that an obstructed fire lane can cost lives.
Design your site map with a grid of access routes. Typically, festivals will work with local fire departments to determine the routes that allow fire vehicles to reach all critical areas: stages, vendor zones, campgrounds, and power installations. For example, Bonnaroo in the U.S. (an 80,000-person camping festival in Tennessee) lays out its campgrounds in a structured grid of roads and names them clearly – this not only helps attendees navigate, but also ensures emergency crews can find their way to an incident as fast as possible. Glastonbury Festival has internal service roads crisscrossing its 900-acre site, and these are always kept clear enough for a 4×4 fire response vehicle to get through. Many European festivals similarly maintain what are sometimes called “fire lanes” or “emergency corridors” through dense crowd areas. It might mean sacrificing a bit of space that could have been used for more tents or attractions, but safety demands it.
It’s not enough just to draw these lanes on a map – you have to enforce them on the ground. Station volunteers or security personnel at critical junctions to act as human reminders. Use fencing and signage liberally: a simple “Emergency Access – Do Not Block” sign can deter a lazy vendor from unloading equipment in the wrong spot. Before the festival opens each day (or continuously, if it’s a 24-hour event), do a slow drive-through of the emergency routes with a utility vehicle or bicycle to confirm nothing is in the way. Remove any hazards or obstructions immediately. If your event has multiple entrances, ensure gate staff keep those clear too – it’s common for a delivery truck to linger too long near an entrance, inadvertently choking the path that an ambulance might need later.
Consider also the worst-case scenarios: if you had to evacuate a stage area due to fire, are the exit routes wide enough and clear enough for people to get out and for responders to get in? In the Tomorrowland Barcelona stage fire, evacuation was smooth largely because exits were well-marked and pathways were open for the crowd to move out while fire crews moved in (time.com). In contrast, think of less fortunate incidents like the 2003 Station nightclub fire in the U.S. – not a festival, but a cautionary tale where poorly planned exits and blocked paths led to over 100 fatalities. That tragedy prompted event organisers worldwide to rigorously assess and improve exit route management. Your festival likely already has an evacuation plan on paper; make sure those paths stay real and usable on site.
Some festivals take extra steps, like stationing on-site fire teams or volunteer firefighters with smaller rapid-response vehicles (ATVs or golf carts equipped with firefighting gear) around the venue. At Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) Las Vegas, for instance, the organisers work with local fire departments to have units on festival grounds due to the huge attendance (400,000+ over a weekend) and complex pyrotechnic stage shows. These crews can reach an incident inside the crowd much faster than a full-size fire engine could. However, they can only do their job if you’ve kept the access routes open and free of congestion. Remember: planning for an emergency is just as important as planning the main stage lineup. You hope you never need to race a fire truck into your festival, but if you do, you’ll be thankful every barricade was in the right place and every lane was clear.
Briefing All Teams on Ignition Sources and Protocols
Fire safety isn’t just the domain of the production or safety team – it’s everyone’s responsibility. One of the most powerful tools to prevent fires is simply awareness and education. Every person working at the festival, from the food vendors to the artist liaisons to the cleaning crew, should receive a basic briefing on fire risks and response protocols. By creating hundreds of extra “eyes and ears” in your staff, you drastically increase the chance of stopping potential fires before they start.
Start with the basics: make sure everyone knows what the common ignition sources are on site. This should be part of the all-staff orientation or daily briefings. For example, explain that generators, heaters, kitchen stoves, stage lighting, pyrotechnics, cigarettes, and even electrical outlets can all start fires if misused or if they malfunction. Something as simple as a stack of cardboard boxes left next to a diesel heater could light up. If your festival involves any special fire elements – like a pyrotechnic show, bonfires (common at cultural or tribal events), fire dancers, or art installations with flame effects – ensure all crew know when and where those will happen and to keep their distance unless they’re part of that show. Also, remind staff that smoking should only happen in designated areas and never near fuel storage or inside tents. It may sound obvious, but under festival stress people can forget, so lay it out clearly.
Each team member should also know how to report a fire or hazard quickly. In the chaos of a festival, a small flame can grow big while someone is wondering, “Should I call this in, and how?” Provide a communication channel for emergencies: for instance, a two-way radio code (many events use a code word like “Red” or just “Fire, Fire, Fire” on the radio), or an emergency number if you have an internal phone system or app. During training, instruct staff to never hesitate if they see or smell something funny – gas odour, smoke, something overheating – they should alert the control centre or safety officer immediately. It’s far better to double-check and find nothing than to stay quiet. Reinforce that no one will get in trouble for raising a false alarm made in good faith.
Consider conducting a brief fire extinguisher training for key teams. Many festivals give their security staff and area managers a quick tutorial on how to use fire extinguishers properly (remember the PASS technique: Pull pin, Aim at base, Squeeze trigger, Sweep). This doesn’t turn them into firefighters, but if a small fire breaks out – say a bin catches fire from a cigarette – a nearby staff member who knows how to respond can put it out in seconds. By the time a fire crew arrives, that quick action could mean the difference between a ruined tent and a multi-million dollar disaster. As an example, at Coachella 2019, a fire erupted in a campsite shower unit in the early morning hours (people.com). Staff and onsite emergency responders moved swiftly to contain the blaze within minutes, and no one was hurt (people.com). The responders knew what to do immediately, and attendees in the area were instructed calmly to stay back, preventing panic. This incident shows how important it is for crew on the ground to be prepared and empowered to act fast when something ignites unexpectedly.
Beyond just briefing on hazards, cultivate a sense of collective vigilance. Encourage teams to do informal checks of their areas: a vendor making sure their stove is off when closing for the night, a stagehand noticing a light is running hotter than it should, or a camping manager patrolling for illegal campfires. When everyone is looking out for risky situations, the entire festival becomes safer. Some festivals even institute a reward system – for instance, if a staff member reports a serious hazard and prevents an incident, they might be publicly thanked or given a small reward. That might seem gimmicky, but it reinforces positive behaviour and signals that management truly values safety awareness.
The Culture of Fire Safety in Practice
All the rules, checklists, and equipment in the world won’t help unless there is a culture of safety pervading your festival organisation. Culture in this context means that every team member, from the festival directors to the newest volunteer, shares the mindset that safety is a core value – “how we do things here.” Fire safety, especially, must be more than just protocols in a binder; it should be woven into the daily life of the event.
What does a fire safety culture look like in practice? It looks like production managers double-checking each other’s stages for hazards at the end of the day, just as a friendly routine. It looks like vendors willingly attending that morning safety briefing about turning off gas valves because they know it’s important. It looks like the festival leadership investing in proper training and not cutting corners on safety budget, even when under cost pressure. And it looks like everyone – everyone – feeling comfortable to speak up if they see something unsafe, without fear of being ignored or ridiculed.
Building such a culture starts at the top. Festival organisers should openly prioritise safety in meetings and communications. When planning the event, involve your safety officers early and listen to their requirements even if it means adjusting plans. For example, if the safety team says “We need a larger fire break between the camping area and the fireworks launch zone,” the leadership should support that fully rather than pushing back for a closer crowd view. Actions speak loudly: if the crew sees that management always puts attendee and staff safety first, they will follow suit.
Training and drills are another hallmark of a strong safety culture. Some large festivals run full emergency drills with their staff – practicing an evacuation or a small fire response – before gates open. This not only tests the plans but also sends a message to everyone involved that safety isn’t just paperwork. Even on a smaller scale, doing a walk-through with key team leads about “what we’d do if scenario X happens” can improve readiness.
Peer learning is also valuable. Encourage teams to share near-misses or past incidents in a blame-free way so that lessons are learned collaboratively. One crew might say, “Last year we found a smouldering cable behind our stage because a floodlight was too close – now we always double-check spacing,” and another crew benefits from that knowledge. Internationally, festival producers are increasingly sharing safety best practices with each other (through conferences, associations, and online forums) because a fire at one event is a wake-up call for all. When the Love Parade tragedy occurred in 2010 (a crowd crush incident in Germany), it sent ripples through the global festival community about crowd safety; similarly, any major fire or disaster prompts collective reflection. A community that learns together creates safer events everywhere.
An often overlooked aspect of safety culture is engaging the attendees. While you can’t train your audience like staff, you can certainly influence their behaviour. Clear communication to festival-goers about what is allowed and what isn’t – for example, banning personal campfires, lanterns, or BBQs in tents – and why those rules exist will garner more compliance. Some festivals distribute pamphlets or include safety dos and don’ts on their mobile apps. Others make safety announcements from the stages if needed (for instance, during a high heat day, a reminder not to throw cigarette butts on the grass). If you’ve built trust with your audience over years by showing you care for their well-being, they are more likely to respect your safety requests.
Finally, celebrate the wins. When you go through an event with zero fire incidents or you successfully handle a small fire quickly and save the day, acknowledge it. Thank the teams that worked hard to achieve that. Share the success story in a debrief. This reinforces the behavior you want to see. A culture of fire safety isn’t built overnight; it’s instilled by consistent effort, show of commitment, and positive reinforcement over many festival editions.
Conclusion
Fire safety at festivals is a 24/7 job – not a one-time plan that sits on a shelf. Especially for large-scale festivals, the sheer number of people, temporary structures, and ignition sources means vigilance can never slip. The most experienced festival producers in the world will tell you that a safe event is the product of countless small actions: a contractor taking the extra minute to get a hot work permit, a vendor tightening a gas valve all the way, a crew member moving a fuel can out of the sun, a security guard shooing cars away from the fire lane, or a stage manager double-checking that all pyrotechnics were properly doused after the show.
When these practices become habit, you’ve created something powerful: a festival where fire safety is truly culture in practice. The result is not only the avoidance of tragedy but also a smoother, more confident festival operation.
Attendees might never notice the emergency exits you widened or the fire extinguisher behind the food stall – and that’s okay. It means you’re doing it right. In the end, the greatest evidence of effective fire safety is absolutely nothing catching fire at all.
Key Takeaways
- Permit and Guard Hot Work: Always use hot work permits for welding, cutting, or any flame jobs on site. Perform hot work in controlled conditions with a dedicated fire watch (with extinguishers) present at all times.
- Inspect Fuel and Kitchens Daily: Check all LPG gas lines, fuel storage, generators, and kitchens every day. Fix leaks or hazards immediately. Don’t allow equipment to run unattended or be refuelled hot. Require vendors to have up-to-date safety checks on their gas and cooking gear.
- Maintain Emergency Access: Designate clear fire lanes and emergency exits in your site plan and keep them obstruction-free. Brief all staff and contractors that these routes must remain open. Quick fire department access can prevent a small incident from becoming a major disaster.
- Educate and Empower Staff: Brief every festival team on common ignition sources (generators, heaters, electrical equipment, smoking, pyrotechnics). Establish easy reporting channels for any fire hazard. Train key staff in using fire extinguishers so small fires can be tackled immediately.
- Foster a Safety Culture: Make fire safety a shared value. Lead by example – prioritise safety in planning and budgeting. Encourage everyone to stay vigilant and speak up about risks. When safety practices are part of the festival’s DNA, you create an event where everyone from crew to attendees helps keep the fire risk low.
27th September 2025