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What do you need to do?

Case study: Outdoor music festival

Staff at a major music festival were exposed to very high noise levels without adequate care for their safety. This was a large music festival with more than 50,000 people present and with two major outdoor stages.

The following problems were found:

• Security staff were less than one metre from the front of the bass speakers for the main stage.
• Food vans for the main stage were facing the stage and positioned close to the PA delays.
• There was no refuge from the noise. Sound levels in staff rest areas reached or exceeded 79 dB, and there were no quiet areas or refuges where staff were working.
• There was little or no evidence of control of the noise levels that the staff were exposed to, or limiting of the time spent in the noisy locations, or warning of the risks due to the noise.
• Hearing protection had been provided without training on its use. In some cases security staff receiving the highest exposures were choosing not to use any hearing protection.

Hearing protection had not been considered for staff at the food outlets.

The Table below gives the daily noise exposure for workers at the festival.

Job	Location	Hearing protection	LEP,d dB
Paramedic	Side of main stage	Muffs	100
First aider	Tent at side of main stage	Muffs when outside tent	97
Food service	By PA delays of main stage	None	100
Gate security	Side of main stage	None	101
Gate security	Wheel chair area for main stage	None	95
Door security	Secondary venue tent - 1	None	99
Stage security	Secondary venue tent - 1	Ear plugs	108
Door security	Secondary venue tent - 2	None	103
Drummer	On stage	None	104
Bass guitarist	On stage	None	101
FoH sound engineer	Tower approx. 30m from stage	Earplugs	99
Monitor engineer	Side of stage, behind PA	None	96

Commentary

The use of noise control and hearing protection was inadequate. Both the event organiser and the individual employers were in clear breach of the law.

Under the law employers have a duty to protect their own employees from the risks associated with high noise exposures. In addition there is a duty to other workers who are also put at risk by their noisy activities. These duties had clearly been neglected.

Exposure needs to be reduced by means other than hearing protection as outlined in this chapter. Where a risk still remains the correct fitting and use of hearing protection needs to be enforced.

Employees have a duty to use hearing protection provided for them if their exposure is likely to exceed 85 dB.

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