Bray Air Display

The Bray Air Display, run as part of the Bray Summerfest, is Ireland's largest free public air display, attracting upwards of 88,000 people annually. With the crowd gathering on a stretch of beach and seafront stretching around 3km in length and a packed programme of aerial entertainment, we put a lot of work into the proper planning of the event to ensure it was safe for all.

The town of Bray itself is a beautiful seaside one, but is not without its challenges from an infrastructure and transport perspective. Bringing an extra 80,000+ people into the area on a Summer weekend results in pressure on a variety of services and needs competent management and coordination.

The air display element itself and the programming of same is done by a specialised and experienced person, whose expertise and advise is then incorporated into the planning of the overall event. Naturally, our focus is more on the safe movement and thorough enjoyment of the large numbers of people attending. 

The Challenge

Planning a safe & enjoyable air display event in a small seaside town attracting almost 100,000 people annually, with crowds gathering on approximately 3km of beach & seafront.

Our Solution

We coordinated a significant multi-agency approach to the meticulous planning of this event. Working with a volunteer festival team, statutory agencies, transport providers and many more stakeholders, we all made it work.

VIEW

The Result

With the crowd growing year on year, we succeeded in establishing a professional approach to the planning and management of the event. This helped ensure the large crowds could be properly catered for with no detrimental impact on the show itself.

VIEW

We coordinated a significant multi-agency approach to the meticulous planning of this event. Working with a volunteer festival team, statutory agencies, transport providers and many more stakeholders, we all made it work.

What we did

There was a lot of work in this one, particularly the first year we became involved. The event had grown steadily in popularity and, while there were some good people involved, it didn't yet have a professional approach to the planning and crowd and event safety elements.

We were brought in to ensure the planning and execution was all done to best-practice, which is exactly what we did on this and on all our projects.

We provided:

  • Capacity Calculations
  • Comprehensive Risk Assessment
  • Crowd & Event Safety Guidance
  • Event Management Planning
  • Provision of Safety Officer
  • Statutory Liaison

With the crowd growing year on year, we succeeded in establishing a professional approach to the planning and management of the event. This helped ensure the large crowds could be properly catered for with no detrimental impact on the show itself.

What we did

We worked closely with the festival team and the relevant statutory agencies, in particular An Garda Siochana (police) and the Civil Defence. We ensured we learned as much as we could about the event and experience from previous years so that our planning would be fully informed.

A collaborative approach is vital when we're brought in to work on something that's already established but has reached the point that it needs professional input from people like ourselves.

The air displays were hugely successful each year, both from a programming and planning perspective. 

Bray Air Display worked with Safe Events. Their input and professionalism ensured the success of the event.

David Forde
Deputy Festival Director
Bray Summerfest