Case study - Connections manages travel
for music festivals

Ticket allocations for major music festivals such as Reading and Leeds are subject to stringent planning controls by local authorities in order to reduce local traffic disruption and pollution. Therefore to maximise ticket allocation, organisers agreed to ensure that a certain proportion of visitors could only purchase combined entrance / transport tickets via approved agencies.

However coordinating travel arrangements on behalf of several thousand visitors is a logistical challenge and one best suited to operations with an established track record in the mass transfer of passengers both in and out of restricted locations.

Transport challenges

Just under 10,000 passengers, opted for the combined entrance / transport ticket last year for Reading and Leeds festivals from See Tickets, one of the country's leading ticket agencies. With both festivals held on the same weekend during the busy summer period, sourcing suitable vehicles from reputable suppliers was key to the provision of service.

Operationally each event required careful management to ensure that vehicles pick-up at locations across the nation at pre-arranged times. To comply with planning controls, each driver then ensured that all passengers were boarded before distributing entrance tickets. At the end of the festival, all coaches were required to be in place in order to transfer all festival-goers back home.

"See Tickets took the decision to employ Connections to supply coaches to several major festivals on their behalf throughout 2008 including V, Reading and Leeds..."

A working partnership

See Tickets took the decision to employ Connections to supply coaches to several major festivals on their behalf throughout 2008 including V, Reading and Leeds, following a successful trial at the Paddock Wood Hop Farm festival earlier in the year.

The ability to source vehicles from an approved supply base of several hundred operators nationwide was a major factor in See Tickets' decision to use Connections as was the provision of on-site managers to coordinate drivers' arrivals and departures safely and on time from events where coach parking is traditionally limited.

Once each event was completed, See Tickets received a consolidated invoice from a single approved supplier with Connections handling all payments to operators as well as settling any invoice queries that arose.

In addition to the above, increasing awareness of the environmental benefits of using coach to ferry passengers in and out of major events, coupled with Connections commitment to offset all carbon emissions produced, should see this being a long-term partnership.