Safety Considerations When Hosting Outdoor Events

Hosting festivals and events outdoors could be a great idea as they allow participants to appreciate the good weather condition. It'll also open an opportunity for a greater audience due to the large available space compared to regular indoor events.

Because they occur outside, outdoor events come with drawbacks, such as bad weather conditions and hygiene. By taking precautions and having a safety plan to ensure the success of your outdoor shows.

Security is of utmost importance

Event organisers are met with the challenge of ensuring the safety of participants. Some shows may pull out crowd spanning vast areas, while some pull throngs of people to open spaces.

For this reason, experts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing that such logistically complex and extensive events are safe by providing safety guidelines that help participants feel safe.

Reach out to members before your event

To ensure your attendees' comfort during your outdoor meetings, try engaging them with the discussions about the idea. You should give them relevant information about how they can help ensure that the event is safe and fun-filled.

Outline and agree on precautionary guidelines to follow. Here are some critical topics to discuss:

• The importance of wearing a mask all the time.
• Maintaining social distancing.
• Hand sanitisers and why you need them
• Why they should not attend if they have symptoms relating to Coronavirus.
• Participants should be asked to check their temperature before coming for the event.
• Individuals who are at high risk of having a severe disease are discouraged from attending the event.

Plan the logistics

To have a safe outdoor show, planning the event logistics are critical. With sufficient planning and help from a co-organiser to run the event smoothly, members are informed and well equipped for their safety during the events.

When planning for your outdoor show, established below are some important parameters to evaluate:

Location

One of the critical aspects of hosting an outdoor show is finding the appropriate venue. The venue has to be comfortable for participants who have to travel to the venue. It should be spacious for efficient social distancing and adaptable to different weather situations.

Do your research and then make an early reservation for covered areas if available. Also, be punctual on the event day. Community parks are good options for hosting outdoor events.

Timing

Daytime events could be scheduled early in the day. This could help prevent troubles if your event runs into delays or goes for longer than expected.

Event duration

By making events unnecessarily lengthy, you can help reduce the risk of transmission of the virus due to the reduced time spent by participants together.

The threshold for the number of participants

Your local government will provide you with guidelines for the maximum number of people that can attend events. You must follow these guidelines. Make clear to attendees if they are permitted to bring other people to the event.

Faction sizes

As you reduce the size of your exhibition, make sure to consider breaking participants into factions. Communicating through masks can be difficult. Considering the need for social distancing, separating your attendees into smaller groups could help fix this drawback.

Communication about items

To help limit the number of items shared by them, inform members about what they need for the event. These items may include stationery, sports gear, or a chair.

Locating your event

The event page may not precisely specify to attendees the gathering point, so you will need to leave a concise plan or, better still, wear coloured shirts or place signs so members can locate you.

Event setting

Inform attendees about the seating configuration and emphasise the need for seats to be placed far apart. You could help by sectioning areas 6-feet apart before their arrival, which is especially important if attendees are expected to bring their chairs.

Consider the safety of crowds

For a successful event, confirm that the location isn't overcrowded. Also, make sure that exits are available and distinctly marked. By counting attendees, you would prevent overcrowding and ensure you are within your population limit. Prepare for sub-event and reserve some space in anticipation of essential activities. Using random entry times could save the trouble of people scrambling in at the same time.

Safer food

By collaborating with your health department, you could help ensure food vending points at the event are safe, tidy, and healthy. These food vending points are expected to be in tents or under canopies to prevent contaminants and rain. All food is required to be covered and kept above the ground, particularly in windy conditions.

It is also recommended that you have handwashing sites in all the food vending points.

Besides displaying your business products and allowing your attendees to enjoy the wonderful outdoor event under your custom-built marquee, you may serve them the food where they are. Because marquees are not weighted properly, you are advised to use special marquees that are wind resistant. This will help keep food vending points from being knocked off by the wind.

Weather safety

The weather can change at any moment. Secure your marquee using weights or tethers, so it doesn't get hoisted off balance by lousy weather. Even insurance companies urge clients to place at least a 25-pound heavy material on the stakes of their stands. It doesn't matter if you are insurance covered, you are advised to follow these guidelines.

Structural safety

Marquees and tents are helpful, most especially on outdoor occasions. However, one can't compare the structural integrity of these temporary constructs to that of permanent facilities.

When exposed to drastic weather conditions or overcrowding, marquees and tents are likely to get destroyed since these structures, in such a situation, can be quite dangerous due to their unpredictability and unsteady nature. However, by working with competent engineers, these problems could be avoided.

Have a backup plan

One important quality of an event organiser is flexibility; event organisers should make changes where required. Mainly, you should have a general protocol to limit your attendees' exposure to any potential risk. Many circumstances could prevent you from hosting your outdoor show. For this reason, you need to have backup strategies.

As stated earlier, showing up early could help and prevent a lot of problems. Always have alternative locations for your outdoor events. In cases where you run out of space as more attendees troop in, you could re-direct members to your alternate location.

Make available verification schemes. This will serve as a point where your team members may check for alternate venues and other issues. Issues and FAQs should be posted on a meet-up application or a social media chat group that's made specifically for your event.

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