Festival on high alert
Splendour in security crackdown
EXTRA security measures will be enforced at the weekend’s Splendour in the Grass as experts warn the popular three-day music festival in Byron Bay will be more vulnerable to a terror attack than any similar event in Sydney or Melbourne.
New steps introduced for this first time this year will include the banning of backpacks and personal searches with electronic “wands” prior to entry.
Sniffer dogs, officers on horse back and the Sydneybased riot squad will form the 160-strong police presence that will be on the ground when the doors open today at the Byron Parklands.
The event’s rural location and spread out format is expected to make policing possible threats more difficult than a festival held in urban locations, according to counter terrorism expert Greg Barton. Mr Barton said festivals were a soft target for low tech terror attacks.
“In a Splendour in the Grass it gets much more messy, you’re not going to be able to make everything secure,” he said.
“If there’s an attack, we are probably more likely to have one or two people with knives, or some sort of sharp weapon, doing something low tech but effective.
“In that rural setting, you have people milling around all over the place, it is not easy to know how to keep it safe.”
Tweed/Byron Local Area Command Inspector Gary Cowan said the implementation of the extra precautions were for “the sole purpose of creating a safe environment for festival-goers.”
It’s a sold out audience of 32,500 attending the event this year and 19,500 of those are camping on-site.
Splendour in the Grass coproducers Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco said the new procedures were a direct response to recent terror attacks around the world.
“Our top priority is always our patron’s safety so in light of recent events around the world, over the past few months we have reviewed our festival’s safety policies in consultation with Police and security,” the pair said.
.