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We once had real worries that our beer, set up two days in advance of our Feast, might be raided by local youths, so we sat up late on patrol and went to bed in sleeping bags in the marquee. Although woken by intruders at 2am, when we saw off the youths, who had probably just come to complain we were disturbing their adolescent rituals with our snoring, we felt that when we could make our bar area more secure, we would.
Nowadays we use Heras fencing, tough metal grids padlocked together,which provides security and a frame to hang our bar items on. At the end of the evening we swing the front into place, padlock it to the roof and walk away! Lately we've taken to surrounding the marquee area with metal fencing for the whole week, because of insurance liabilities and because we know some youths do spend all night getting up to no good. It's a shame, but we know it makes sense.
But security here means more than stopping people getting in without paying. It includes ways of guarding against you falling flat on your face.
Remember one of the early questions - what is the worst that can happen?
Now is the time to head off some of those worst case scenarios. You need to do a risk assessment. Read Health and Safety Regulations, a short guide and talk to environmental health officers, food hygiene experts, emergency services, local informed people, parish counsellors, others who have arranged events in the past. An attempt at a H&S list is provided for you here.
You should be clear about standards of food preparation - effective hand washing and wearing gloves, thorough cooking of meat until juices run clear, separating cooked and uncooked meat and ensuring helpers work on either cooked or uncooked meat or money - but only one of these at a time. Detailed cooking advice is available at The Food Standards Agency. See our section on Food Hygiene.
Insurance
companies will want to know what risks you face and how you expect
to deal with them. There is a view however that asking too many specific
questions of responsible local officials will produce too many rules and
regs which are beyond the scope of local organisers. Ask a safety officer
how to avoid every possible problem and he'll come up with a massive list
of reasons for not having a Feast at all! But that's no excuse for ignoring
Health and Safety. Certainly there's a lot to be said
for thinking through the most likely problems, avoiding the obvious and
the worst, using common sense and just going for it. Local rules and regulations
are likely to prevail over national standards and ignorance is no excuse.
We think it's important to be able to identify the organisers
(for praise, for help or for blame!) and while some people opt for luminous
yellow jackets (valuable in dark conditions and for directing traffic),
and others go for arm bands, (as if the king is dead), we prefer our own
red polo shirts with the Shelford Feast logo.
We wear these for our publicity photographs - and sometimes even our meetings.
At least it suggests to our wives that we're off to a meeting rather than
just sitting in a pub talking and drinking ....
A big festival will start setting up a week or more in advance. A small one may not start until the morning of the Feast itself. Our medium sized Feast mostly began early the day before, erecting marquees, marking out stall areas etc, but even then there were tasks such as digging the pit for the Roast and setting out the beer which were better done earlier.
- For a detailed list or timetable see appendix iv but the Principles are as follows:
- estimate time and manpower for every task, work backwards from zero hour
- calculate optimum delivery times (remembering perishables and hire charges)
- place tasks in order of priority
- make a list of what everyone has to do and when - then publish it well in advance
- try and stick to it!
It works like one of those traditional maths sums. For example if it takes five men four hours to put up a marquee and you want the marquee up before you put the beer to rest and the beer will take 48 hours to settle and you want it ready for midday on Sunday, when should you deliver the marquee to the site?
Probably you'll be surprised at how long in advance you have to begin. If you think it seems too far in advance there are three options:
1. start earlier!
2. get more people in
3. start some tasks much earlier even if they are way down the list of priorities, so you can free up the more urgent time (in this case, Sunday morning and Saturday) for those which can't be done in advance.
In the example above you could also use a different kind of beer, which doesn't need settling, and that is an issue of quality and where that features in your order of priorities.
Much depends on whether you have ready and sole access to the site in advance. If not, then there are only a limited number of things you can prepare - signposts, perhaps marshalling deliveries in one place nearby, prefabricating some stalls .... If you do have secure and sole access you can mark out the site, have deliveries made several days ahead, start digging a pit, setting up barbecues, marquee etc at your convenience.
Security from theft usually involves keys. The only real security is to have a single key but invariably that is inconvenient because it involves a single person being responsible for that key. The answer obviously is to get copies of keys - but that can compromise security ....
Whatever you do, the rule must be to make the sure the doors or metal Heras fencing is locked and the key secure somewhere else. How many times have we seen a door bolted and barred like a castle but the spare key under the mat? Or the back door left open? Or the key left in the lock? As a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, security depends upon human attention to rules as much as the strength of the padlock. We now go for a key rail within the lockable bar; the keys are deliberately not named or identified but are hung together for convenience.
If you are organising a small Feast for a few hours you may think this talk of security is over the top. You may be right. But in your worst case scenario how would you feel if someone nipped around the back of your tent and stole all the burgers just as the Feast began? Or if someone walked around the stall holders collecting their takings - and was never seen again? You see, it could happen, and even outside of cartoons dogs have been known to run off with sausages in full view of the organisers ... Jerry ran a two day bar for a nearby village and slept in his car between the two nights. Unfortunately thieves got into the boot of his car while he slept and stole the whole day's takings. So yes, it can happen ....
As explained earlier we now have metal fencing to create a cage around the beer and other valuables. We have a movement-sensing burglar alarm in the marquee. We have parked a car or caravan on site while we take turns to sleep in it as guards. More recently we buy in professional security guards, which is expensive but effective and saves a little on insurance. You may find paying someone a small sum to sleep there overnight would be money well spent. I have passed many an entertaining evening with a pal and a couple of beers in the marquee before falling asleep in sleeping bags beside the bar.
We also have the use of a small building nearby. It's a Scout Hut with toilets, running water and electricity and it's our base for The Feast. We run power from it (we improved the standard of output at our own expense), deal with the Beasts in it, wash in it and have deliveries made to it beforehand. During the Feast itself it's our counting house and our store room - a secure room for our operations. A larger Feast than ours might have a mobile building delivered; a Feast without an excellent base like ours might feel it worthwhile erecting a wooden shed, a smaller enterprise might make do with a van or caravan. Whichever you go for, deliver your takings to the bank as soon as possible. Most banks can arrange access to the night safe if requested in advance. And remember outside the bank itself is the least safe place to stand with a stache of coins and notes.
After years of putting stuff away in our own sheds and garages we realised we needed a longer term storage plan. We opted for an old container which, patched and painted, now stores our tables, tents, utensils, signs, boards, lights, roast kit etc. It's a fantastic advantage to have a store on site and could save money if you acquire kit and keep it securely over the years. Don't let it get to be a dumping ground, though. Do try to pack it in the order you want it unpacked.
The weather is one thing you can't count on. If you're lucky it will be brilliant and you'll wonder how it ever could have failed; if you're unlucky the weather will keep people away in their droves and disaster will loom. The trouble is you may be planning this six months or a year in advance and there's no way of predicting or avoiding the weather.
Or perhaps there is. It really is worthwhile asking around and checking weather patterns for the year before your Feast. Ask people with birthdays on the date and see if they remember, when you're checking on other events which could clash with yours (you don't want everyone in the area to be going to another event nearby do you?) ask people if they can remember what the weather was like. If their events are habitually swamped you have two choices - plan for a covered event or move the date. This is your front line of weather insurance.
A second line of insurance, which I think we can dismiss because of prohibitive cost, is a professional insurance policy. These are usually of the kind which covers your fixed costs if the whole event is called off, and there are precise definitions of how bad the weather must be before the policy is activated. In my experience it is most unusual to entirely cancel an event and more common for the attendance to be reduced because of weather. No one is likely to insure you against a fall in revenue, which anyway will partly depend on your ability to provide shelter from the weather.
If you want to insure against cancellation, find out about policies and hope the policy won't make too much of a dent in your profits. Otherwise provide shelter - lots of it. And do make sure your electrical connections are very well protected from the wet.
For fire see below. The insurance will probably require you to have a number of extinguishers.
You will need fuel (wood or charcoal traditionally though bottled gas or electrical hot plates are also used) for a barbecue but should also allow for electricity (light, spit roast motors, fridges), gas (bottled usually for portable barbecues - and make sure you have spare bottles, you can get them on a sale or return basis if they're unused) and water (hygienic washing, fun and games), plus drainage for overflowing marquee gutters and washing up water.
A small afternoon Feast could use a few jerrycans of water, with greasy utensils taken home afterwards for washing. That's fine, but we have graduated to extensive plumbing using flexible hose in a covered trench leading to a freestanding sink with an electrically powered hot water geyser. Hot water and liquid soap near food preparation are important features of food safety. Here's the setup - water heater at the top against a back board, sink and drainer (with beer mug) and the drain goes to a bucket behind that bin. So far drainage is into a bucket and thence dispersed manually onto the needy grass of the recreation ground. |
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We need electricity for heating water, maintaining food fridges and bar cooling, lighting, public address system and for the extensive equipment brought in by Bands - amplifiers, lights, synthesisers etc. Now I don't know much about electrics, but fortunately some of our people do and we have moved from a couple of sockets in our base plus miles of extension cable (simple but potentially dangerous and always prone to fusing) to our present system of three-phase cabling back to the main board with giant junction boxes such as this (see left) providing high ampage sockets for every need. |
Basically it offers lots of different sockets and if one line does trip out the rest should keep going. But don't mess with electricity or mix it with metal fences or rainy downpours. Whatever you do, don't do as my flatmate Grame did and wire everything up to a single socket using bare wires and matchsticks - get a good certificated electrician.
See elsewhere for how to make and use a barbecue fire. Read
the above for a reminder that electricity + water + metal fencing = danger
and risk of fire. Note First Aid too.
This is to remind you about fire safety. Marquees and barbecues are a
flammable mix. Do situate the barbecue fires well away from the tents.
Don't be tempted to build a shelter over them to guard against rain unless
it is very high indeed. Remember heat rises and a fence panel ten feet
high above flames needs only minutes to burst into flames.
Make sure smoking is banned in the marquee. Leave buckets of sand at all
entrances. Have a number of fire extinguishers - water based for inflammable
materials and CO2 based to cope with electrical fires. Hire them, or if
you buy have them checked annually.
Also undergo fire training with a competent trainer. He'll give you the chance to practise using a high pressure extinguisher and answer questions about dealing with gas barbecues, burning tents or fat that bursts into flames (clean that barbecue drip tray now!). The good thing about a marquee is that it's reasonably easy for folks to escape from it if it bursts into flames. But don't minimise the risk of panic injuries and don't forget less able people.
If you're planning an indoor event you can mainly miss out this bit (though check your barbecue is at least partly under cover)
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For the rest of us the usual answer must be a marquee. Left is a traditional ridge marquee. It has central poles and can be extended almost infinitely along the ridge with extra panels.These may be hired at a rate depending on size and date. They may well be expensive but the advantages are that they are usually erected by skilled workers inclusive of the price. Additional features such as attractive linings, porches, staging and flooring can also be provided along with chairs and tables if required. The complete package may be more attractive if it is in use for events over a week (so spreading the load of repayment over several events, see finance) and if seen as the best insurance policy against bad weather in that all stalls and many activities can continue, the cost may indeed seem cheap. |
A modern type of marquee has a metal frame and is also extendable. To our mind it is more practical - if not as atmospheric - as the traditional. A cheap supplement, or an alternative if you can't get a marquee, would be awnings for some stalls, encouraging as many people as possible to bring their own tents, plus lean-to shelters over the roasts and barbecues (but mind the heat). Scaffolding can provide the basis for substantial shelters and smaller shelters can be constructed from 2x2 timber with large spring clips to hold plastic sheeting taut over the frame. |
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For a central tent, perhaps doubling as a beer tent, ex-army tents are sometimes available cheaply for purchase and scouting groups sometimes will loan out their large tents at a reasonable rate, frequently erecting it themselves.
For some years we used a very moth-eaten army bell tent vintage 1944; (see left, behind Tom, Graham and John in this shot from 1994). It let in water in several places but was nevertheless really useful for storing things, shading us from the sun and on the rare occasions it was needed, offered adequate protection from the rain, even if you had to walk around buckets!
Shelter for the spit roast and barbecues is a bit more of a problem. The best answer I've seen is corrugated iron clipped to scaffolding poles and raised very high over the pit. Less substantial awnings will suit for barbecues but make them as high as possible. Shelter from the sun may be had with parasols, and windbreaks can be helpful in some conditions. When planning, remember that barbecues throw out heat from below and the sun from above. An enclosure to keep out sun or wind risks retaining the barbecue's own heat so either the canvas - or the person operating the barbecue! - is likely to burst into flames. Also, sudden gusts of wind can cause feeble canvas or plastic covers to blow away, taking a stall with them; you certainly don't want flapping canvas or plastic near the flames of a barbecue.
Syd had an idea - he rested wooden fence panels on a scaffolding frame over the pig roast - only to watch them burst into flames after a couple of hours. Make a note: hot air rises and the heat from a pig roast is immense!
Our choice of a very large marquee does more than insure against rain on the day, it is an advertisement for the Feast several days in advance - and it sends the reassuring message of security to all-comers. "At the worst we can retreat here," "Our Feast will still go on even if it rains."
The only way to avoid failure is to plan for the worst disasters. The "what if" scenario mentioned in chapters 1 and 4 as "what is the worst that could happen" takes a practical turn in this chapter. Insuring and ensuring against disaster will involve having a plan to cope with a sudden downpour - and having an organiser who will make the decision to put it into action.
Consider these options:
- Having space available within the marquee where the stalls will go if necessary
- Having a reserve plan as to where each stall will go.
- Calling in all stall holders to an emergency meeting in the marquee.
- Having stewards in wet weather gear patrol the site and keep people clear.
- Issuing stall holders with plastic sheeting and bulldog clips.
- Moving to solid ground such as a school playground or car park if the ground is too boggy.
- Moving indoors if there is anywhere available.
What is your wet weather plan? Under what circumstances will you put it into operation? How wet does it have to get? Who will implement it?
This has already been mentioned as a way of avoiding clashes with other events and maximising your chances of good weather. Let's re-emphasise this now and add that planning lies at the heart of all successful events.
It will help to know:
- The preferences of your target customers - what they want to buy and for how much
- Costs and hire charges for everything, with alternative quotes, alternative sources of supply, promises of cut price rates etc
- Who has offered to help, their phone numbers and their expertise (see Chapter 9)
- Local organisations who might benefit from your profits and also who might be in a position to help if asked
- A list of popular stalls and events based on other fetes which you've attended (see appendix v)
- List of tips and good ideas based on other fetes which you've attended
- Photographs of previous years' Feasts
- Comments based on your evaluation of previous years' Feasts (see Chapter 10)
- Specifications of important equipment
- The size and character of your site
- Rules and regulations governing
- i third party insurance for your event
- ii use of your site
- iii health and safety
- iv fire
- Dates of other events at the same time as yours to minimise clashes - and not forgetting
- The effect of school holidays and bank holidays, which can work either for or against you.
It is rare that any mishap should take place requiring first aid (unless you're having piano smashing ...), but the smallest problem can have consequences and we feel that First Aid should be provided on site. We have used St John's Ambulance Brigade and Red Cross, both of whom have provided excellent service in return for a voluntary contribution and a couple of beef burgers. At times they seemed to positively welcome customers!
It is also advisable to have a designated emergency telephone, which in these days of mobile phones seems easy to arrange, even in a field - but take care that the phone, being mobile, doesn't walk from its emergency point, and that instructions for its use are clear.
First Aid prevention is also something to consider. People on barbecues need soft drinks or water with their hot work; stall holders will need shade; stewards will need hats; people chopping wood for the spit roast will need gloves and boots; protruding timbers on stalls need covering and guy ropes and tent pegs should all be flagged with a white cloth. I have seen the best intentions of stewards go awry when their "safely" roped off areas have caused rope burns on people who blundered into them because they couldn't see the ropes. We have used plastic red and white striped plastic tape to good effect.
Any unsafe activities might benefit from a signed agreement absolving the organisers from responsibility - but you still need to take all reasonable precautions.
And whatever you do, make sure the guy who takes part in the yard of
ale doesn't go straight on to the piano smashing ...
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