The Gwynedd and Mon Community Safety Partnership have hailed this year’s Wakestock Gŵyl y Môr as one of the safest yet.
The festival, which was held between 10 and 14 July in Abersoch, saw nearly 20,000 people attending the event over the weekend with only ten low level criminal offences being recorded during the four day period – a significant reduction from previous years.
This year the focus of the festival was changed and made more family oriented, with families visiting the site during the day.
Chief Inspector Richie Green said:
“New additional preventative measures were introduced this year to ensure that young people and families alike could enjoy themselves in a safe environment. These included the use of a police drugs dog with an accompanying amnesty drugs bin prior to people entering the arena.
Undercover test purchases were also carried out, to ensure young people under the age of 18 were not served alcohol during the event.”
Community Support Officers working on site were also providing regular tweets during the course of the weekend, which contained a variety of safety messages to remind festival goers to enjoy themselves responsibly.
In addition to this the welfare tent was also in situ again this year at Wakestock. The welfare tent provides a holistic care environment for the crowds. People visit the welfare tent for many reasons and the team of volunteers will help as much as possible to assist them through their hardship.
Yvonne Harding, who runs the welfare tent with her dedicated team of volunteers said:
“The tent provides a safe and warm environment for those that may have suffered an accident, have gotten lost or simply need to warm up with a cup of tea. The community of volunteers are on hand to provide everything from massive ‘helping hand’ plasters, to spare pop-up tents, sleeping bags, personal hygiene requirements and much more!”
The welfare tent also acts as a central base for supporting organisations to raise awareness on a range of issues from smoking, sexual health to alcohol and substance misuse in order to educate people and help keep them safe.
The Gwynedd and Anglesey Community Safety Partnership (CSP) is a statutory, multi-agency partnership that brings together a number of agencies including the Local Authority, North Wales Police, North Wales Fire and Rescue Service, Probation Wales, the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and a host of other voluntary and statutory agencies with the aim of making Gwynedd and Anglesey a safer place to live, work and visit.”
