Leeds Festival: New Security Measures to be introduced

06 July 2003

Leeds Festival organisers Mean Fiddler are introducing a host of new security measures to prevent a repeat of the vandalism that marred the end of last year's event.

The festival is, this year, being moved to a new location: Bramham Park (from Temple Newsam Park) to herald a 'fresh start' in the wake of the problems that blighted the event in recent years - particularly the Sunday night toilet-burning scenes, that very nearly put an end to the festival for good.

A spokesperson for the festival said: "The new measures are part of making the festival safer and more enjoyable. We hope music fans agree that it runs better because of them.

"In return we expect festival goers to respect the local environment and help us to make this year's event safe and trouble-free. The future of festivals in general is threatened by the behaviour of a tiny majority, so don't let these few people spoil it for everyone. We are determined to stop the mindless minority tainting the weekend and we need your help to do it."

The new improvements include:

Instant supermarket - Shops are a fair distance from the campsite so a festival supermarket will be built on site to provide vital provisions.
New toilets - Toilets and camping will be separate this year and the new toilets will be metal, so even if some prick wanted to set fire to it they couldn't
New Lighting - Extensive lighting will be installed on telegraph poles throughout the camping areas to make them safer at night.
No campfires - No fires will be allowed of any size. This was successfully trialed at this year's Glastonbury Festival
No glass bottles - Plastic bottles are welcome on the campsites but no glass bottles will be allowed. Why you'd be carrying heavy glass bottles in the first place we don't know - stick to cans.
CATs on site! - New this year are the Campsite Assistance Teams who will have offices at each campsite to help festival goers with information and problems. Their offices will be open from 7am to 11pm. They'll also be able to help if music fans spot any antisocial behaviour.

Tickets are on sale now in the Virtual Festivals Ticket Shop.