Public event safety

Event Organiser

The Event Organiser and/or owner of the property or land where the event is staged has a responsibility, or duty of care, for public safety before, during and after the event. This is regardless of the size of event. This page will help you in meeting those obligations.

Fire Sa​fety

Event Organisers are responsible for taking steps to protect people attending the event from the risk of fire. This includes employees, contractors, volunteers, the members of public attending the event or any other person who has a legal right to be there.

Fire is a real risk to the safety of public events and Event Organisers should recognise their statutory responsibilities to undertake a comprehensive Fire Risk Assessment and to put in place effective control measures to mitigate against these risks.

As the responsible person you are required to carry out and maintain a fire safety risk assessment for your event.

The risk assessment that you must carry out will help you to ensure that your fire safety procedures, fire prevention measures, and fire precautions (plans, systems and equipment) are all in place and working properly.

Depending on the nature, size and complexity of the event, a Fire Risk Assessment may be carried out by the Event Organiser or a member of the events team, etc. providing they have the necessary skills, experience, knowledge and understanding.  Alternatively, it may be more appropriate to employ a fire safety specialist to carry out the Fire Risk Assessment.

Safety Advisory Groups

Each local authority has a Safety Advisory Group (SAG) to provide advice on event safety matters and to ensure that public safety is maintained.  A SAG considers all event-licensing requests and offers advice and guidance to all parties concerned.

Notification for a public event should be made to the relevant Local Authority where the event will be held. On application, the Local Authority will contact you to discuss your event planning further.

Legal Obligations for Fire Safety

The key piece of Fire Safety Legislation that applies to events is the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order 2005.

Further information can be found in the fire safety risk assessment guidance documents to help keep your event safe. These are available for free download from Gov.uk. The following documents are relevant for organising the safety of public events:

• Open air events and venues
• Small and medium places of assembly
• Large places of assembly
• The Purple Guide to Health, Safety and Welfare at Music and other Events

Planning for an event

All events will need some form of Event Management Plan, the detail of which will depend upon the nature, size and impact of the event.

Your event management plan should include your fire risk assessment, an emergency plan and evacuation strategy, safe occupancy capacities, how they will be controlled, and the method used to calculate them.

For any outdoor event to run safely it is essential that there is suitable and sufficient pre-planning.

The National Fire Chief Council Event Safety Group has developed a suite of guidance documentation and Fire Safety advice to enable a consistent approach to information giving, gathering, planning and recording. These include:

• Event Or​​ganiser’s Chec​klist – This document has been produced to provide valuable and consistent information and guidance for new or inexperienced event organisers when planning for small to medium sized events and festivals.
• Fire Risk Assessment Templates
• Food Concessions – Suitable for all mobile food stalls and caterers at events
• Traders – Suitable for all mobile traders and market stalls
• Temporary structures – Suitable for all temporary structures at an event, including, marquees, stages, raised platforms
• Semi-permanent Tented structures – Suitable for structures sleeping Accommodation e.g, yurts, Super tents, geo dome. This guidance also covers these types of accommodation units for festivals and the like, which are located away from the actual festival/event site

These documents are intended to supplement, and be incorporated into, the event organiser’s Event Management Plan (EMP).