The Association of Independent Festivals have announced that the first deployment of their previously reported 'security task force' was something of a success.

The AIF team were involved in security at the recent Rock Ness festival in the UK, where theft fell 95%. Apparently there were only five reported thefts at this year's Inverness music fest, compared to 95 last year.

AIF have teamed up with security firm Showsec to ensure co-ordination between independent festivals on security issues - especially with gangs who target tents at festivals. The AIF security task force work with each festival's own security team and local police to plan onsite action, and it's thought the pre-festival briefings and planning supported by the task force helped cut theft levels at Rock Ness.

At Glastonbury at least 131 arrests were made over the course of the weekend, mostly drugs related, which easily tops last year's figure of 89 – although one man was arrested for being naked (somewhat surprisingly).

30/06/09