Since 2015, Curve IT has provided the WiFi connectivity for Brighton Pride, widely regarded as the UK’s biggest and best Pride festival. Having a guaranteed temporary WiFi network and reliable connectivity is critical at the event for the organiser’s payment processing and for their continuous site-wide communications.
Held annually over the first weekend of August, the spectacularly colourful Pride Community Parade kicks things off. Other events include the Pride Village Party in Kemptown, Pride Dog Show and Brighton Pride Festival in Preston Park. In total, Brighton Pride attracts over 100,000 visitors across the weekend.
The Project
Curve IT’s remit in 2015 was to provide connectivity throughout the outdoor event via a temporary WiFi installation for:
- Main box office – for card ticket sales paid by card through 18+ till points, ensuring PCI compliance (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard).
- Entry Gate – live entry scanning system for pre-purchased tickets and to monitor exit and re-entry.
- Bars – PCI compliant card payments at the 10+ on-site bars.
- Essential Communications – the WiFi supplies site-wide connectivity to the internet for the Organisers, Media and Emergency Services. The mobile phone signal often crashes during the event because of the heightened demand, so guaranteed WiFi to provide the communication channel is vital to the organisers, the media and the Emergency Services.
- VIP’s – for communication on site and on social media channels.
The remit in 2016 was expanded to include a temporary WiFi network to the new Pride Pleasure Gardens – a combination of venues, bars and food stalls located in further sites including Victoria Gardens and the Old Steine Gardens.
Connecting Brighton Pride
- The ticketed Pride Festival site is located in Preston Park, Brighton. It presents plenty of challenges for WiFi coverage; it is approximately 600m in length by 300m wide; contains lots of large trees, stages, funfairs plus food and drink stalls. And in excess of 45,000 people! Cabling is difficult so the connectivity must be predominantly through WiFi.
- For Curve IT, connecting Brighton Pride Festival requires meticulous planning which we start months before the event. However, the lead time of the install is very tight, as we can only get onto the site three days before Pride takes place. When the party is in full swing, we operate a 24 hour service, ensuring that the WiFi is fully functioning all the time. We extract the system in just four hours when the Festival finishes. On the day of the Festival our team walk approximately 25km each!
- We launch leased line capacity onto the festival site and redistribute to each of the 20+ Ruckus Access Points. This provides high-speed WiFi throughout the site with speeds up to 100mb.
- Curve IT established connectivity to the additional sites for Pride Pleasure Gardens to deliver WiFi to an additional Pride Box Office, four more bars and to enable all the Pride Team to remain in continuous communication across the multiple sites.
Temporary WiFi Network Benefits
- It enables an essential communication method among the organising team during the build and the event when the mobile phone signal is unreliable.
- The temporary WiFi network provides a live ticketing system for card payments and for registering entry and exit which eliminates fraudulent ticket activity.
- Connectivity allows for card payments, including American Express, at the 10+ on-site bars. This is far more convenient for customers than carrying a lot of cash and leads to increased bar revenues.
- It facilitates live communications for the attending media and VIPs to broadcast and publicise the event.
- The WiFi facilitates live communications with all Emergency Services who are constantly monitoring Pride Festival in readiness to respond. They can also access procedure documents from the Cloud.
We’re very proud to be a part of such an event as Brighton Pride. Our friendly approach combined with our knowledge and expertise means we deliver intelligent IT solutions that have a positive impact on revenues and efficiency. To talk to us about WiFi for your event, call 01273 806220.
