By Claire Huggins, RLSS UK Senior Communications Executive
27 June 2019

As Drowning Prevention Week comes to a close, this week saw me wave six of my good friends off to Glastonbury without me and a quick check of the traffic report suggests that they were in for plain sailing en-route, only adding to my sizable pang of jealousy!

It’s festival season already…and the 175,000 expected at Glastonbury, forms only a tiny portion of the thousands of others attending UK festivals this year.

And before you even head out of the door, there’s lots of things to think about, aren’t there?

Tickets, transport, accommodation, clothes, sustenance, the weather (!!), the list goes on and on and it occurred to me, that very few people probably give any real thought to the issue of water safety on site.

It tends to be taken for granted that any open water on a festival site, is properly secured and supervised and it is a testament to the robust measures event organisers take towards keeping their sites safe, that losses of life to the water are mercifully rare. 

RLSS UK continues to play its part in keeping festival-goers safe, having provided staff for regattas, open water swims, festivals and triathlons for a number of years now but as drowning still claims more lives in the UK, than house fires or road cycling accidents, there is work we can do to ensure key water safety messages are received, particularly to our young adults.

The RLSS UK website is a comprehensive resource for water safety advice, for every body of water and everyone but as the weather hots up and people head off to their outdoor events, there is one thing we can all do for ourselves, our friends and our families:

SHARE A MESSAGE AND SAVE A LIFE

👍🏽 Look out for your mates
👍🏽 Stick together
👍🏽 Stay away from the water
👍🏽 Know what to do in an emergency

For all our water safety advice click here.