Stuart Security at the Glade Festival

Hi,
I was all excited about going to the glade festival this as I had been to the last two and had a fantastic time. Arrived Friday night and began enjoying the festival. Fab night until the following morning. A friend of mine had got in without paying which I thought was very wrong. Any way he decided to try and take a wristband off a sleeping man and he woke up ! He got reported and the security came down. Obviously he should have been removed (no problem with that, he hadn't paid) But when the security came over the were very aggressive, insultive and provocative. This was not acceptable. YES he should of been removed but the laid in to him verbally like he had just stolen the crown jewels!! There were about 5 security guys being very aggressive toward him so we spoke up and said come on your being a bit hard. OK he needs to leave we totally understand that but they we’re acting as though he was a serious criminal. Because we spoke up (we’re all very calm people) they then started picking on everyone else. YOUR OUT and YOU and so on. They took our friends away and after about 10 minutes they were back harassing us. This provoked a girlfriend of mine to chuck a shoe. Again they came down extremely hard. RIGHT YOUR OUT ! They put her in a 4 wheel drive with 4/5 other security guys. My other girlfriend saw this and asked to go with her as she was not happy that it was one girl with all these security guys. She was bluntly told no ! She then told them again that she was not happy with one girl going in the vehicle with all those men, the security guy then grabbed my friend head and pushed it to the ground hitting her head on the ground. She got up and was then put straight in the car and taken out of the festival.
I later found out that after the security men had taken my two girlfriends out of the festival they continued to chase and harass them up the road until the girls knocked on a local houses door to get away from the security men !!
A totally bad experience received from rude, non-people person skilled, aggressive, arrogant, ignorant men using their job position to frighten people into submission.

I then met up with all my friends at the gate after about half an hour when things had calmed down. The manager then cam down and apologised for the incident and offered to let us back in !! Talk about an insult. Any way we politely refused and went home.

Thanks very much to reading this complaint. We have reported it to the police. Also the Glade who have now offered free tickets to use for next years festival.

Many Thanks

Jenny

Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:24 pm Post subject:

Awwww crap that`s awful. I know and understand that people who fence jump should be kicked out but that`s it.... drive them 5 miles out to nearest town and leave them there. but no need for harrassment to your friends. I was bit put off by them piling through ID Spiral sunday night shining their torches on everyone...

What a complete bummer i hope the police take the complaint seriously.. we ain`t footy hooligans out for a fight ffs most of us are very peace loving and would prefer to chat our way out of conflict.

Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:27 pm Post subject:

simple solution:
don't knock around with thieving fence jumpers who prey on sleeping people or muppets with spare shoes.

Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:30 pm Post subject:

pesh wrote (View Post): › simple solution:
don't knock around with thieving fence jumpers who prey on sleeping people or muppets with spare shoes.

Simpler one: don't hire security guards who can't tell the difference between anabolic steroids and oxygen.

Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:32 pm Post subject:

I saw a couple of seriously bad incidents concerning the 'security' at the festival, for one the incident after Autechre was simply DISGUSTING. And a lot of people were witness to the brutality and incompetence of the security here. I may send Glade an email about it.

However, your mate tries to STEAL a sleeping persons wristband? (theft is a serious crime) And someone 'calmly' throws a shoe at the security?! They may have dealt with you heavy handedly, but you didnt exactly put yourself in a blameless situation...

Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:37 pm Post subject:

i totally agree with a lot of the comments about the security, but at the end of the day they were there to deal with jumpers and thieves and this guy was both.
i'd rather have a few of them than a few thousand thieves, i thought it could end up like glasto 2000 and was relieved when it didn't

Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:52 pm Post subject:

No, they weren't blameless Chardy - but whatever the fencejumper might have done, the security guards had no right to treat those girls the way they did simply because they tried to protect their friend from a beating from a group of men who (even if you take the other reports with a ton of salt) have a track record in violence and a blatantly inappropriate attitude towards people at the festival.

I really want to go to Glade '07, but if the security are going to be from the same company and have the same bad attitude then I probably won't. It's blatantly obvious these guys had absolutely no idea how to deal with the kinds of situation they were likely to come up against - such as people on bad trips, and people who actually care enough about their friends to risk their own safety for them. My guess is they're used to lager-louts & the like in townie clubs & at the big commercial festies, and that's an entirely different kettle of fish.

All of you who intend going to Glade next year with your partner, imagine seeing a security guy forcing them to the floor and causing them physical harm. How would you react? I'm hoping Petey will be able to come to Glade next year, and the chances are he will, but there is no way I'm going to feel comfortable with him being at Glade next Summer if I don't trust the security guards.

Well fence jumping is one thing, but robbing of other festi goers tents and assaulting them while they are sleeping in them is completely unforgiveable in my book and yes does make him a serious criminal and deserves to be treated severely. Many people assaulted in their sleep in their own tent would have done a lot worse to the robber than Stuart Security appear to have done in this case, so looks like he might have got off lightly. Maybe it's because my tent got turned over last year that I find it very hard to be sympathetic to these poor tent thieves/robbers or their friends who know what they are up to and stand by doing nothing. Chardi and Pesh are both spot with their posts.

rant over/

However, I would prefer not to have Stuart Security at Glade as I just dont like their attitude. But if we must have them to deal with the minority who try to spoil the majority's festival, I would like them to stay outside the site perimeter wherever possible and the ideal action in this case would have been for them to have handed him straight over to the Police for 'due process' back at the station.

are you sure this was stuart security and not SHADOW security they were the heavies at the festival (stuarts the first level) and there are plenty of complaints on several message boards about shadow all at the same sort of level.

First off, trying to steal someone's wristband is very very low.

As for Stuart Security, you haven't seen anything yet. The fact that they are at Glade could stop me from buying a ticket next year.

I've seen so much extreme brutality at their hands over the years, yet i'll only talk about it in person these days.

Just remember though, they love finding an excuse to kick the crap out of you. It doesn't matter whether you're a thief or a festival goer, male or female - get in their way and you've just made their day a whole lot more fun.

As for Shadow, i've never heard of them before. A few people who i was camping with, saw them ejecting naked purple guy from site though. Confused

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 7:36 am Post subject:

Automatic Fantastic wrote (View Post): › As for Shadow, i've never heard of them before. A few people who I was camping with, saw them ejecting naked purple guy from site though. Confused

Now I really don't like them. That guy wouldn't hurt an amoeba!

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 7:55 am Post subject:

tavdy 79 wrote (View Post): ›

pesh wrote (View Post): › simple solution:
don't knock around with thieving fence jumpers who prey on sleeping people or muppets with spare shoes.

Simpler one: don't hire security guards who can't tell the difference between anabolic steroids and oxygen.

I'm with tavdy on this one.
The security guys were a bunch of red-neck facist arsholes. I personally didn't have any problems with them but what I saw was horrendous.

I'm not sure who the fuck they thought they were but they should have stayed at school and got a proper Job at a more serious and proffesional security agency.

That's probably my only moan about the festival, but it was a problem if you ask me. thumbs down

Oh, I'm on about shadow by the way, don't know the rest of 'em. Confused

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 8:51 am Post subject:

http://www.shadowsurveillance.co.uk/
http://www.stuartsecurity.co.uk/index.html

Copied from Stuart Security's website:

All our Event staff are further trained in accordance with HSE recommendations and to Home Office standards for Event Stewarding.

Training subjects include:

• S.I.A
• Personal conduct
• Crowd dynamics
• Access control
• Crowd management
• Emergency procedures
• Interpersonal skills
• Searching
• Legal responsibilities
• Communications
• Emergency first aid
• Use of fire extinguishers
• Drug recognition

Well now I'm getting really pissed off!
Jenny has already said in her post that it was fair enough that the fencejumper friend should have been kicked out and it sounds like the police should have intervened on this occasion however the behaviour of the security guards is completely unacceptable and has put me right off going to the Glade next year. No one has the right to treat people like this and the security always need to be sound to create a vibe that the Glade has achieved in the past 2 years. I'm really pissed off that our money has gone to these brutes and am seriously considering not attending the Glade as a result. As much as I love the Glade I cannot support people being bullied and treated indecently in any shape or form.
I am really saddened and disappointed and it has left my whole experience tainted! Sad

There were loads of fencejumpers this year, friends saw them piling in the back fence, some where arriving with tents and their own belongings and seemed to be genuinely coming for the festival and others were blantantly arriving with empty packs and only one intention. There was no security in site and by the time they were informed nothing could be done.
Definately not supporting the fencejumping issue but there is no excuse for the securitys behaviour.
Purple Naked man being kicked out is just so wrong and I hope he is offered a free ticket next year!

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:26 am Post subject:

Sounds like a bunch of tossers! (Sorry for the language!)

- If everyone that cares enough about it sends off an email or letter to Glade expressing (Nicely!) your concerns, maybe things will be better for next year?

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:34 am Post subject:

Does Glade have a feedback email address?I'm not sure where to send emails...

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:54 am Post subject:

Security had a bad attitude, fortunatly I didn't have any real problems with them, only once...

It was dark, I was feeling a bit sorry for myself so I wanted to be alone with my thoughts for a bit. I found a nice quiet spot, in the middle of an open space on the grass about 400 yards away from everything and anyone. I was face down lying on my stomach. Quite comfortable for a while, thinking, then from out of the blue a Stuart security van drove over from the other side of the field, straight towards me with headlights dazzling me. He drove right up to me, within about 2 meters, then beeped his horn as if to say "get out of the way", to which I looked at the driver with a very sturn face and shook my head like "fuck you if I'm moving out of the way", he could have so easily drove round me, it's not like I was on a path or road, and there was 400 yeards of space either side of me.

I duno perhapse he was just checking I was still alive, but it seemed very rude and antagonising behaviour to me.

What a twat I thought, which got me in an angry mood, which disturbed me. I tried my best to shake off the anger, but found myself getting annoyed at everything!!! Arrrgh! I thought, what have I done. Anyway, I snapped out of it eventually and saw the beautiful things again, thank fuck.

Ok safe, I realise we need heavy security to clamp down on the thieving wankers, but I feel they were a bit too heavy handed.

Festival was not as fluffy this year, a bit on the spikey side if you ask me..... just as spectacular, but more spikey.....

I was sitting at the back of the Glade tent while Juno were on on Saturday night. 3 or 4 security came in an went round in a really agressive manner shining their torches in people's faces and laps (presumably looking for joint rolling) - and taking any drugs off people who were skinning up. They were really agressive and it got me totally paranoid for the rest of the night.

Anyone else see this incident or similar?

I've been to loads of festivals before - Glastos, WOMAD etc and frankly the police on site are less agressive and intrusive.

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2006 10:51 am Post subject:

i really don't want to seem to be sticking up for the security, they were way over the top in a lot of cases, rude, antagonising, and about as intelligent as a dead sheep.
but they did keep the crime WAY down on last year, which considering how much the festival has grown over last years event is a pretty good effort.

they shouldnt be charging round the site acting like a self appointed police force, perhaps the organisers could use plain clothed security to patrol the campsites next year to catch the thieves with instructions to leave the festival go'ers alone.

but, i'm sorry, i refuse to give a fuck about fence jumpers attempting to rob sleeping people.

as for naked purple/red guy, we had a chat with him early friday morning and he had just jumped in, if you decide to bunk the fence, strip off and paint yourself a primary colour, you have to realise you may attract attention.

i'm glad he got back in no problem, but come on, he was asking for it Mr. Green

Tav, first off, that Shadow Surveillance link has nothing to do Shadow Security, keep googling,
and secondly IIRC this was your first ever festival, i'm not sure your qualified to judge something when you have nothing to compair it with. the chances of Petey getting stomped by security are probably actually lower than the chances of him getting stomped by the utter cunts who jumped the fence last year soley to rob, intimidate and generally fuck with the fluffy hippies they knew wouldn't retalliate.

i'm going to stop ranting because i think both Shadow and Stuart are a shower of shit, and have thought that about Stuart for years, but in this case i do think they solved a few problems as well as creating some others.