Showsec has completed its own equivalent of football’s coveted ‘double’ by playing a key role in the celebrations for each of the 2014-2015 Barclays Premier League and FA Cup winners. The crowd management and event security specialist mounted a major operation for the victory parade to mark Arsenal’s record-breaking FA Cup triumph at Wembley Stadium just six days after the company had featured prominently in supporting and safeguarding Chelsea’s Premier League victory party ten miles away in West London.
Thousands of jubilant fans lined the streets of the capital to hail their heroes following a season in which the London rivals shared all of the domestic honours – the Premier League and Capital One Cup going to Chelsea, with Arsenal victorious in the FA Cup and Community Shield.
The victory parades gave Showsec another opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to be right at the forefront of delivering safe and secure large-scale public events in the capital, while also affording the Leicester-based business the chance to work closely with both clubs’ management teams as well as other key stakeholders.
In the case of Chelsea’s celebration, Showsec was engaged once again by Innovision, the production company with whom it has worked to deliver safety and security for a number of high-profile occasions, the most recent of which was the third stage of the Tour de France’s Grand Depart last summer.
For Arsenal’s second successive FA Cup triumph, Showsec worked with the north London club to activate an extensive crowd management and security operation within hours of the famous trophy having been presented at Wembley Stadium.
Showsec provided security for Arsenal’s FA Cup victory parade in London
Stepping up to the challenge
The strength of the stewarding team fielded on both occasions proved to be a crucial factor in successful project delivery, leaving regional manager Steve Reynolds (who served as head of security for both victory parades) to highlight the way in which key members of the Showsec brigade stepped up to the challenge.
“This was the second successive year that we’ve had the privilege of being involved in these celebrations for the two major winners of domestic honours in English football,” said Reynolds. .”The fact that both events took place within six days of eachother and also coincided with a busy start to our festival season meant that we really had to rely on the strength of the management infrastructure we’ve been developing through our training programmes.”
On that note, Reynolds added: “It was really satisfying to see members of the team step up to the challenge and provide strong leadership for delivery of these events, even when significant challenges were presented to them. In many ways this really demonstrates the calibre of people we have working for us.”
Team effort on both parades
While Dayo Adelugba (Showsec’s area manager for West London) operated in key roles alongside Reynolds on both occasions, operations executives Michael Asimonye (dedicated to the Chelsea event) and Harry Thorn (who worked on the Arsenal victory parade) were given the responsibility of acting as project managers. There was also influential support on hand from many other members of the Showsec operation.
“It required an outstanding team effort for both parades, from all the prior planning and preparation right through to end delivery by every company member on the ground,” explained Adelugba. “The Chelsea parade gave us the opportunity to strengthen our relationship with Innovision, whom we have worked with on a number of major projects in London, while we once again operated in partnership with Arsenal and their stewarding team for their celebrations.”
Adelugba added: “Both operations also involved close liaison with a number of other agencies in developing a strategy for crowd management, road closures and the creation of an environment which made these events an enjoyable experience for the fans while also being sensitive to members of the local community.”
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