Open Air Business April 2017
The UK's outdoor hospitality business magazine for function venues, glampsites, festivals and outdoor events
The UK's outdoor hospitality business magazine for function venues, glampsites, festivals and outdoor events
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EVENTS<br />
Field to<br />
Festival<br />
Make monetising your spare field a reality with these tips<br />
from Katie Tann, founder of Field Lover - an online portal<br />
matching field owners with ‘field seekers’<br />
people. If you are hiring in external services,<br />
such as a marquee company, fireworks<br />
display team, temporary power provider<br />
or catering company, then each individual<br />
supplier should undertake their own risk<br />
assessment for their activity and provide the<br />
event organiser with a copy or a certificate<br />
of compliance with the relevant safety<br />
regulations.<br />
WE LIVE IN A ‘sharing economy’ world<br />
with an increasing number of online<br />
marketplaces at our disposal for renting out<br />
our surplus assets. The sharing economy<br />
is a real trend and one that is growing,<br />
creating new markets out of things that we<br />
wouldn’t have previously considered to be<br />
monetisable.<br />
Field Lover aims to fill a gap in the microland<br />
rental market assisting landowners to<br />
advertise and rent their land to field seekers,<br />
who are primarily looking for short-term<br />
land rental for a variety of activities. From<br />
a simple day rental for the local church fête<br />
or amateur dramatics performance, to a<br />
sporting event such as Tough Mudder, popup<br />
open air cinema or local music festival<br />
- the list is ever growing. Outdoor events are<br />
fast gaining popularity, can be profitable<br />
and provide a valuable contribution to the<br />
community and local area.<br />
As the landowner, you choose whether<br />
you rent your land to a third party who<br />
organises an event or whether you organise<br />
and run an event yourself. When hiring<br />
your land to a third party you have a duty<br />
of care to those assisting you and to people<br />
attending the event to ensure the site<br />
is risk assessed, hazards clearly marked<br />
and adequate signage is in place. Any<br />
activities related to the event itself are the<br />
responsibility of the event organiser, who<br />
has ultimate responsibility to carry out a<br />
more detailed risk assessment.<br />
It is good practice, regardless of your<br />
event size, to undertake a risk assessment<br />
to identify the risks versus actions required<br />
for the prevention of accidents during<br />
your event. Once your event is assessed<br />
you can assign actions to the relevant<br />
WHERE TO START<br />
First and foremost it is worth spending time<br />
carrying out some sound market research.<br />
Ask yourself questions such as, “What type<br />
of event?” and “Is it best suited to my site?”<br />
Consider your land from an outdoor event<br />
viewpoint – think about:<br />
› gradient<br />
› boundaries (walls, fences or hedges)<br />
› natural hazards (rocks, lakes, rivers or<br />
streams)<br />
› do any of the features of the land hinder<br />
the event requirements?<br />
› is the site within easy access from a main<br />
road?<br />
› is there sufficient space for traffic and<br />
suppliers to navigate the site and park?<br />
› how does the land cope after rainfall; will<br />
parking areas need stabilising and are<br />
you able to provide assistance if cars get<br />
stuck?<br />
52 WWW.OPENAIRBUSINESS.COM