Protest planning that promotes safer festivals and events

Hundreds of civic events are held throughout this nation of 65 million people to not only remember the six million Jews who died but also the victims and survivors of genocides all over the world.

In 2025 I served as the chair of the HMD in Edinburgh and a few minutes before the ceremony was to commence I was informed by city officials that a protest group was assembling in front of the War Memorial just outside the city chambers. In just a few minutes we were scheduled to join the Lord Provost of Edinburgh in laying a wreath upon this sacred site.

The city official looked at me with concern and asked me what would like to do? I asked her to please contact Police Scotland for guidance. A few seconds later a Police Scotland constable approached me and said “Our recommendation is that you proceed with the wreath laying. That memorial belongs to all of us.”

We followed the advice of Police Scotland and there were no further incidents. However, this experience did make me pause and think about the thousands of festivals and events throughout the world that have been frightened, disturbed, interrupted, or even cancelled due to protests relating to world events.

According to Frank Supovitz, author of What to Do When Things Go Wrong, the man who was in charge of the US NFL Super Bowl, NHL Stanley Cup, and Indy 500 as well as a former IFEA annual convention key note speaker, “Event organisers must imagine, prepare, execute, respond and evaluate.”

Supovitz basis his theory and strategy is derived from the many high profile events he has led over many years. His first recommendation to imagine the worst possible scenario reminds me of the days following the tragedy of September 11, 2001 when the US Department of Homeland Security was rapidly created and the leaders of this new department invited Hollywood directors to help them imagine the worst case scenarios that could strike major events. Their imaginative thinking helped the bureaucrats in Washington, DC better identify scenarios and as a result learn how to prevent or manage future catastrophic events.

The role of preparation is in my view one of the most important actions taken by an event team, however, it is too often the work of small group of senior stakeholders. To be effective, preparation must be a wholistic effort involving front line as well as senior festival and event workers.

Likewise, the efforts to execute, respond, and evaluate similarly require strong command and control mechanisms that have been reduced and thoroughly described through a clear set of instructions that include an easy to understand chain of command procedure.

The Edinburgh International Festival presented an Israeli modern dance company and nearly 100 persons demonstrated at the front door of the theatre. The performance was interrupted numerous times by protesters in the audience who rose wearing backpacks (which caused additional alarm) and shouted vitriolic criticism at the dancers.

A few days prior to the event Police Scotland notified the director of the Festival and a meeting was arranged with the director of the dance company. The police officials explained that in situations where there are protests in the theatre the protocol was typically to lower the curtain, raise the houselights, and evacuate the entire audience.

The director of the dance company asked the police officials if instead if they could keep the curtain up, lower the stage lights as the dancers momentarily posed their performance, and then invited the ushers (with police support) to escort the protestors from the auditorium. The director went on to say that the protesters want to disrupt the performance. We want to dance. Let us not allow them to win.

It worked. Over and over again, as the dancers stood in silence, within seconds the protesters were easily removed from the theater and the show went on.

This made me think about how we keep the curtain raised for our festivals and events during these challenging days of global and local protests.

I believe that in addition to the Supovitz five step process we might incorporate my acronym FIND to insure the safety, security, and indeed over all positive outcomes remain permanently enshrined in our events.

F reminds us to always seek the facts behind the protest such as who is likely to be involved and what might the protestors do to disrupt your event. Only with facts can you plan precisely.

I is for information that you may then pass along to health and safety organisations within your destination to work together to form a preparation and response plan. Providing your safety and security partners with a risk assessment brief at least two weeks prior to the event is crucially important.

N insures us that we will always constantly seek new information about the protest groups and their actors so that our preparation and decision making is being made in real time with the most current information. Circumstances within protest organizations may rapidly change and therefore it is important to monitor, measure, and continually update your information resource.

D guarantees that no matter the threat, as festival and event makers, our job is to deliver safe, secure, and successful events for our audiences. By working with local health and safety agencies as well as for larger events state, regional, and federal agencies, we can insure the curtain remains raised for all who wish to safely and securely experience our festivals and events.

Whilst it is impossible to identify and plan for every potential threat, by using a systematic approach as described by Supovitz within the context of the FIND model above may help you the next time someone approaches you a few minutes before the curtain is due to rise so that you more effectively work together with others, collectively grab the ropes to raise the festival and event curtain, and pull together to insure freedom of speech is protected along with the welfare of your audience that will help insure the successful outcome of your next festival or event.

Professor Joe Goldblatt is the author, co – author, and editor of 40 books in the field of planned events. For more information about his views visit www.joegoldblatt.scot