FEBRUARY | REVIEW
London’s New Year’s
Day Parade credits:
» Parade Production
Director: Garin
Wilby, Destination
Events
» Traffic Manager:
Olly Radford, RS
Events & Traffic
Management Ltd
» TV production
company: Ultimate
Sound & Vision
» TV Producer: Rob
Jones
» TV facilities:
James Wilson at
Cloudbass
» Health and Safety
Manager: Brian
Cleary, Safety
Geeks
Left: Docklands Security
Barriers on NYE
Right: New Year’s Day Parade
46
BARRIERS FOR SUCCESS
London’s New Year’s Eve fireworks
are a national spectacle, but some
of the Mayor of London’s suppliers
go the extra mile to ensure a
seamless experience. Matthew
Barrett, sales director, Docklands
Security Barriers talks to Access…
New Year in Central London
is one of the busiest times of the
year. Tens of thousands of people
line the Thames to catch site of
the spectacular Firework displays
to see in the New Year. Docklands
Security Barriers welcomed the
enquiry from the organisers to
assist with road management
and closures using our excellent,
mobile Hostile vehicle mitigation
barriers, the MVB 3.
Specially designed to be flexible
and simple to use our barriers were
installed in multiple sites in and
around the area. Their advantage
over many similar temporary
barriers is the unique pivot system
which creates a gated section that
allows authorised vehicle to enter
or exit a sight within seconds. The
modular system allows for any
width to be secured quickly and
effectively.
With a Pas 68 and IWA rating to
7.5 tonnes we were confident that
he had fulfilled the client’s criteria
for the evening which passed,
thankfully, uneventfully.
LONDON’S NEW YEAR’S DAY
PARADE
No longer is London’s New Year’s
Day Parade in the shadows of the
Capital’s firework fiesta
From relatively humble
beginnings in 1987 – this free
family event, owned and operated
by Destination Events – has grown
to become a much-cherished turn
of year tradition. Co-Founder and
executive director Bob Bone says:
“We took a risk and decided to
broadcast to television stations
around the world free of charge.
People must have thought we
were a little bonkers to do so – but
we were immensely proud of our
event and the city which it serves
and wanted it to be a shop window
at a very important time for
holiday bookings.”
More than 200 TV stations in
the USA screened the entire event
live this year.
The 2020 parade also featured
on screens in the UK, Latin and
South America and China.
Destination Events has more
than 500 operatives on the street
on New Year’s Day. The route,
from Piccadilly to Parliament Sq
via Piccadilly Circus, Regent St St
James’, Pall Mall, Trafalgar Sq and
Whitehall is barriered with more
than 3,500 mobile grandstand
seats rolled in for the occasion.