Planning festival lighting

After dark, people at a festival need light to find the stage, the food, the toilets and the way out. Planning the lighting early gives you time to sort out power, cables and the people who will rig it.

Start with what needs light

A site plan is a good place to begin. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) keeps a planning list for event power. It starts with the layout: performance areas, traders, public areas and access routes.

The same list names stage lighting, emergency lighting and exit signs. It adds catering, first-aid points and the control room. Each of these needs power for as long as it is in use, so a timetable of when each one is on helps.

If the event is in a street, the HSE points out that street lights and other street furniture can affect your layout.

Mains or a generator

The Purple Guide Lite, written for smaller events, says bringing electricity onto a site can be expensive. It suggests checking what a venue already has when you choose it.

Where mains power is available, the HSE asks organisers to find out where it is and how it can be reached. They also need to know about any overhead power lines or buried cables on the site.

Where possible, generators and the main intake go where crew can reach them, kept apart from the public. The HSE suggests danger signs around them.

Rain, wind and the IP rating

The HSE says equipment that could be rained on needs suitable covers, enclosures or shelters. Cables should be chosen to cope with the weather they will face.

Electrical equipment is often marked with an IP code, which shows how well its casing keeps things out. The first number covers fingers, tools and dust, on a scale of 0 to 6. The second covers water, on a scale of 0 to 9. An X in place of a number means no test applies to that part.

The charity Electrical Safety First tested outdoor products bought from third-party sellers on online marketplaces. Of the festoon lights, 89% failed to meet safety standards, and 81% of all the products failed tests for keeping water out. The charity warns that a product sold as "outdoor safe" carries no guarantee.

Wind needs thought too. The HSE notes that lights and speakers on towers can weigh up to 500kg and hang 6m or more above the ground. Purpose-made outdoor towers are designed for wind, and most stand on a base loaded with ballast.

Running cables safely

The HSE suggests routing cables where people are least likely to trip over them, with cable ramps where they cross a path. Running them along fence lines works well. Keep vehicles and cables apart wherever you can.

A cable carried overhead across a roadway should sit at least 5.8m up so most vehicles pass beneath. Warning notices go up in both directions.

Buried cables should ideally go in ducts or pipes, and no joints should be left underground.

For a small event plugged into an ordinary socket, Electrical Safety First's advice is to use an RCD, use leads made for outdoor use, and never plug one extension lead into another.

Lights up high

For anyone rigging a lighting grid, the HSE starts with simple questions. How high is it? What will the ladder or platform stand on? Is the ground level? Is it raining hard or very windy?

Each light hung overhead should have a safety chain or wire. Nothing flown should hang from a single cable, clamp or bolt. If anything could fall, keep people out of the area beneath the work.

If you hire access equipment, the HSE asks that you know how to use it safely. The hirer can give instructions or help.

Neighbours and the night sky

The countryside charity CPRE describes three kinds of light pollution. Skyglow is the pink or orange glow over towns and cities, which spreads deep into the countryside. Glare is the uncomfortable brightness of a light. Light intrusion is light spilling past a boundary, sometimes through people's windows and curtains.

CPRE also says artificial light upsets wildlife's natural rhythms, such as migration and feeding.

The Purple Guide Lite asks organisers to think about the effect on local residents when they choose a venue. For outdoor lighting schemes, CPRE points to the Institution of Lighting Professionals' guidance on reducing obtrusive light. That guidance covers curfews, the hours after which stricter lighting limits can be set.

Questions for a hire company

The law in brief

The HSE says event organisers, contractors and anyone else using electrical equipment at an event must do all that is reasonably practicable to keep it from causing death or injury.

In England, artificial light from premises can be a statutory nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. If a council finds a nuisance, it must serve an abatement notice, which can require the light to stop or be limited to certain times.

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