What first aid setup is required for large public events like music festivals?

Short Answer: A music festival needs two layers of first aid. Patrons are usually looked after by a contracted event health provider working from a medical centre or first aid posts, sized to the crowd and the risk profile of the event. Crew and bar staff are workers, so the organiser also has to provide first aid kits and trained first aiders under the Safe Work Australia Model Code of Practice, as any other workplace would. State health guidelines and council permit conditions set most of the detail, and New South Wales adds specific legislation in the Music Festivals Act 2019.

Festivals put large crowds outdoors for long hours on temporary sites, so before planning the medical setup, you also need to consider the following:

•      How does crowd size determine kit capacity?

•      What heat and dehydration risks must be considered?

•      Are on-site medical tents mandatory under regulations?

•      How can organisers source compliant bulk supplies?

How does crowd size determine kit capacity?

Crowd size sets the baseline, but it works through two separate numbers. The first is personnel. A staffing guide from St John Ambulance Australia, published by several Victorian councils for event planners, starts at two first aiders and one first aid room for crowds under 500 and climbs to 22 or more first aiders across four rooms once attendance passes 10,000. Those figures assume senior first aid training as a minimum, and they rise further where alcohol or a remote location lifts the risk.

The second number is consumables, and this is where kits are often undersized. Research covering 26 Australian outdoor music festivals found that over two-thirds of presentations were minor illnesses such as headaches, with injuries concentrated in cuts to the face and hands, and around 15 per cent of presentations linked to alcohol or other drugs. That pattern calls for high volumes of adhesive dressings, wound cleansing supplies, gloves and cold packs rather than a handful of specialist items. A multi-day camping festival multiplies the demand again, because blisters and camp stove burns keep arriving overnight.

Distribution matters as much as quantity. A well-stocked medical centre can still be a 15 minute walk through a dense crowd from the far stage, so kits should sit at bars and stages as well as the entry gates and each campground zone. Staff at those points can handle small injuries on the spot and radio the medical team for anything serious.

What heat and dehydration risks must be considered?

Australian festivals run through summer, and heat is the condition most likely to turn a routine day into a busy one for the medical team. Dancing for hours in a packed crowd generates heat faster than the body can shed it, and alcohol and stimulant drugs make that worse. Heat exhaustion shows up as heavy sweating and dizziness, while heat stroke brings confusion or collapse and needs rapid cooling and an ambulance.

Prevention is largely the organiser's job. NSW Health's music festival guidelines require free drinking water wherever alcohol is supplied, with at least four litres per person recommended for a single-day event and one water outlet for every 500 people. The same guidelines encourage shade over queues and suggest starting summer events later in the day. Overhydration is a risk too, because drinking very large volumes of water quickly can push blood sodium down to dangerous levels, particularly in people who have taken stimulants, so messaging should encourage steady sipping.

First aid stock should reflect that risk. Cold packs and cooling towels let first aiders start cooling a patient immediately, while oral rehydration sachets help someone with mild dehydration recover before it progresses. Free sunscreen at first aid posts deals with the most predictable summer complaint of all. Crew working bump-in under full sun face the same risk, often without the shade and rest breaks that patrons can seek out.

 

Are on-site medical tents mandatory under regulations?

There is no single national rule, so the answer depends on the state and the size of the event. In New South Wales, the Music Festivals Act 2019 requires every music festival to prepare a health and medical plan covering first aid arrangements and the qualifications of health staff, and festivals designated for closer oversight must have that plan agreed by NSW Health at least 60 days out. NSW Health's guidelines for those festivals expect a central onsite medical centre for triage, led by a senior critical care doctor, with first aid posts handling minor problems.

Victoria regulates the providers rather than the tent. Since late 2021, every commercial first aid service operating at events has needed a licence under the Non-Emergency Patient Transport and First Aid Services Act 2003, so an organiser hiring a provider should confirm that licence first. Queensland's 2024 event health and medical care guidelines tie medical posts to the identified level of risk rather than making them compulsory, and ask organisers to notify the Queensland Ambulance Service six weeks ahead.

In practice, the requirement usually arrives through a permit. Councils and liquor licensing authorities commonly make a medical plan a condition of approval, and for a festival of any real size a dedicated medical area is the only practical way to meet it. Separately, the festival operator is a PCBU, and the Model Code's obligations to its own workers apply whatever the patron arrangements look like. In Western Australia, the state's first aid code of practice, updated in November 2024, covers stage crews and bar staff in the same way.

How can organisers source compliant bulk supplies?

Start by separating the two layers. The contracted health provider normally brings its own clinical equipment and medications, while the organiser supplies workplace kits for bars and back-of-house areas. Buying those from a single supplier keeps contents consistent, so any staff member can open any kit and find items in the same place.

Compliant means kits built to AS 2675-1983 with contents aligned to the Model Code's recommended list, topped up with the modules a festival actually uses. Bulk packs of adhesive dressings and instant cold packs cost far less per unit than individual kits and make restocking between sessions quick. Anything stored in a site container needs protecting from heat, which weakens adhesives and can spoil cold packs before they are ever opened.

Order with a buffer. Quantities for a multi-day event are best calculated from the previous year's patient records where they exist, with a margin for a hotter forecast, and staged on site before bump-in so nothing depends on a delivery truck reaching a locked-down site.

Furthermore, a special duty is placed on the PCBU to ensure that all first aid kits are routinely inspected and maintained, which at a festival means checking crew kits daily rather than at the usual interval. SURVIVALSWAP restocks used and expiring items on a managed schedule, so kits that come back half empty after one event are complete again before the next date on the touring calendar.

 

Related Question

Should food and drink vendors at a festival carry their own first aid kits?

Yes. A vendor running a food truck or a bar at a festival is usually a separate business with its own workers, which makes it a PCBU with its own first aid obligations under work health and safety law. The festival medical centre is set up for patrons, and a cook with a burn needs cool running water and a dressing within seconds rather than a walk across the site. Vendor agreements commonly require stallholders to bring a kit suited to their activity, and kitchen operators in particular should carry a burns module along with blue detectable dressings for food handling. Organisers can keep this simple by listing the expected kit in the vendor information pack and checking it during the pre-opening site walk.

Conclusion

A festival first aid setup works when the medical service for patrons and the workplace kits for crew are planned together and stocked for both the crowd and the heat. SURVIVAL supplies Australian first aid kits built to AS 2675-1983, along with cold packs and other accessories for topping up kits across a festival site between sessions. If your event is inside its planning window now, settling kit numbers alongside the health and medical plan avoids a scramble at bump-in.