Festival organisers respond to security concerns at Weekender

Tuesday 04 September 2018

Weekender organisers have responded to reports emerging on social media of their UK-contracted security team using excessive force or aggression.

The island’s biggest music festival brought together over 16,000 music fans over two days, but the weekend did not pass without incident.

Three islanders were arrested on separate charges relating to drugs and an alleged assault, while reports are now emerging on social media of members of UK-based Gainsborough Events Management (GEM), who were hired to help police the event, using excessive force to diffuse situations at the festival.

Amid these reports, a video, which originally circulated on social media platform Snapchat, has come to light showing a festivalgoer being manhandled by three members of the GEM team.

Pictured: A still from the video circulating on social media of one festival-goer being manhandled by three security team members. (Facebook)

A spokesperson for the Weekender told Express: “Sadly, any video or photo is a snapshot of a wider context. Social media concentrated on a situation that was actually a man being pulled up from the ground before he tries to headbutt a member of security.

“The security staff have considerable experience in dealing with attendees that breach the terms and conditions relating to good behaviour. They unfortunately have to deal with force and aggression toward them from people that fall below the standard expected.”

However, the spokesperson added that organisers were pleased with the conduct of their security staff. They said: “...The feedback has been that security overall was very good.”

Express has reached out to GEM for comment and is awaiting a response. 

Pictured: Thousands of music fans flocked to the Royal Showground in Trinity to see acts such as Dizzee Rascal, Rita Ora and Rag'n'Bone Man. (Weekender Jersey)

Festivalgoers also took to social media to complain that the BLKOUT dance tent was closed during Sunday evening. Of this, the festival spokesperson said: “The tent was at capacity, the crowd wishing to enter became very large and unruly and in accordance with safe crowd management, the safest way to handle the crowd issue was to close the tent to ensure it dispersed.”

According to the Police, a total of three men were arrested over the weekend, with the youngest being only 17 years old.

A spokesperson for the Police told Express that the 17-year-old man was arrested on the first day of the festival on suspicion of grave and criminal assault and has since been bailed. 

Pictured: The Police made a total of three arrests at the festival over the weekend.

A 21-year-old man was also arrested on the Saturday for being disorderly on licensed premises and possession of a controlled substance. He has also been bailed.

Another young man was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of breach of the peace by fighting, but it was later deemed that no further action would be taken and he was released.

Despite these reports, there has been an abundance of positive feedback about the festival, including from the Weekender's charity partner, Jersey Action Against Rape (JAAR), who were selling water to festival goers over the weekend. Jayne Gruchy, on behalf of the charity, said: "Due to the fantastic position of our stand we had many people not only buying water but talking to us and asking about the work we do. That kind of exposure is invaluable to a small Charity such as JAAR. Also, I am delighted to say that we raised a whooping £2,152.23 from the water sales [for] which we cannot thank you enough."

Meanwhile, festivalgoers enjoyed a series of top tunes from acts including Dizzee Rascal, Rita Ora, Sister Sledge, Sigrid and Rag'n'Bone Man - the latter of which led the thousands in singing 'Happy Birthday' to his sound man while a giant glass of tequila was passed to him from the stage and across the crowd.

The organisers are now looking ahead to next year's event, saying that they hope islanders will show Weekender 2019 the same amount of support as this year's festival.

They also extended their thanks to "island music lovers, the brilliant local parishioners who support the need for local live events, the local emergency services and mother nature, all of whom contributed to making this year’s Weekender so special, allowing Jersey to get 'lost in music!'"