Crowd control barriers that help your events take centre stage

Barriers are often needed for site enclosure, crowd control and general demarcation for a wide range of events. From sporting events and concerts to festivals and parades, wherever crowd control barriers are used they should allow the event to take centre stage.

Barrier specialists for events (like us) go through a thorough process. From the initial planning of events right through to the event time installation. Continuous collaboration, exhaustive fact checking and regular meetings help make sure everyone is on the same page.

Health and Safety Implications

A responsible barrier supplier will advise on health and safety implications. They’ll also inform Logistics and Safety, Health, Environmental and Quality departments if they feel barriers will cause obstructions to spectators and participants in the case of sporting events.

It’s vital to have the knowledge to highlight where barriers could cause any potential issues. Event organisers can also expect their suppliers to proactively communicate any pinch points that may cause congestion from restricted flow of pedestrians.

Barrier suppliers should also advise on any bracing needed to reduce the pressures of wind-loading on any branded areas of routes.

Working with local authorities to address health and safety and scheduling concerns, to reduce an event’s impact on the wider populace, is a given. The incorrect placement of a single barrier, amongst thousands, has the potential to trip a world champion, unseat a rider or disrupt and derail an event with the eyes of the world watching.

On the other hand, a perfectly configured set of barriers on a finishing straight can frame the photographs that capture sporting history. The project team must recce routes many times, pre-installation, to decide operational details and to discuss routes at every point.

Expert Engineering Team

An expert Engineering Team is crucial to safely maintain areas and ensure intimate knowledge of any routes to alert crews about any issues. Our expert Engineering Team minimises the impact of the use of our equipment on the localities in which our products used. Whilst also allowing maximum foot flow for the general public and spectators. Our Engineering Team evaluates and minimises impact on local businesses, wheelchair and pram users, cyclists and pedestrians.

Experience Counts

At Sunbelt Rentals, we’ve been supplying barriers and fencing for prestigious events all over the country for many years. The London Marathon, Glastonbury Festival, Farnborough International Airshow and the Great North Run are all events where our products are relied upon year after year. And there can be no greater testimony than being asked to supply crowd control barriers for the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

We had a key role to play in the wedding preparations, supplying over 19,000m of barriers and fencing. Tasked with strengthening safety and security during the event, our crowd control system was installed through Windsor town and the Long Walk. This protected the wedding party and ensured the procession route remained unobstructed.

More recently, our barriers have even been used by retail giants during the Covid-19 pandemic to direct shoppers and allow social distancing rules to be complied with. As schools and colleges start to reopen, crowd control barriers are being used to manage the flow of students to help with social distancing.

Such is the variety of our experience, that some events can require tens of thousands of our products to be deployed. Spread over hundreds of kilometres or condensed into snaking routes in towns and cities.

The next time you are a spectator at a major event, whether on site or on TV, take a moment to see what the barrier and fencing set-up is. The less you notice, the better the job done!