The Glastonbury Festival has secured a new premises licence that will enable it to continue to hold the event at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset, until 2024.

The new application received only a few representations, of which all concerns were satisfied by the deadline. In the past, Glastonbury Festival's licences have been subject to scrutiny in a public hearing because of objections from the public or concerns from those with an interest in the safety of the event such as the police, fire or ambulance services.

As one of the world’s largest cultural events without any permanent infrastructure, Glastonbury Festival requires large amounts of temporary event infrastructure and seasonal operational expertise. 

Ensuring safety at the music festival will fall under the watch of Nigel Hunt, building control manager at Mendip District Council and interim head of the proposed Somerset Building Control Partnership.

“This is an enormous festival and no one can afford to be complacent – we will continue to work with the organisers to ensure this remains one of the safest events anywhere, and if we have any doubts about this we will take action,” said Mr Hunt. 

“Thankfully, this year everything went without a hitch and my team did a superb job as ever.”

His structures monitoring team, which already has many years of Glastonbury Festival experience, is responsible for all temporary structures including the Avalon Inn, the Irish Piano Bar and the new BBC studio in The Park, as well as all the stages and platforms.

Building control teams are involved as part of the licensing team at sporting and cultural events. 

“This is my second year working at Glastonbury and I still can’t believe the size and scale of the festival, the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes and the number of miles the building control team have to walk every day on their shifts,” said local authority building control (LABC) director of training Anna Thompson, who attended this year’s festival as part of the structures monitoring team for Mendip District Council.

The Qatari government is set to sign up to $50bn in infrastructure contracts over the course of 2014, according to Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud al-Thani. This represents a massive escalation in construction activity as the 2022 FIFA World Cup draws nearer.

The contracts will include transport and energy projects. A tender for phase one of the Doha Metro has already been issued, according to unnamed sources speaking to Reuters, with a contract expected to be signed by the end of August. 

The $50bn figure, announced by Sheikh Al-Thani at the Qatar Projects 2014 show organised by Meed Events, significantly exceeds previous estimates. Speaking a month before the event, Edmund O’ Sullivan, the chairman of Meed Events said contract awards for big infrastructure projects in Qatar in 2014 were “likely to hit $24bn”.

The recent upturn in spending follows a slow start to the world’s biggest infrastructure project. 

According to Reuters, state spending rose by just 2.2 per cent in the year up to March 2013, while a government report projects state spending to rise by 11.6 per cent in 2014.

"Even with Qatar's means and ambitions, the resources of time, space and human capital are not endless, especially when concentrated on a mere 10 per cent of its soil,” Tilman Engel, managing director of Sport Business Consulting International told HOST CITY. 

Engel advised and directed the Qatar professional football league from 2007 to 2009, during their process of reorganisation and professionalisation in line with AFC and FIFA directives. “Given the enormity of both the World Cup and the National Vision 2030, it is no day too soon for Qatar to launch the projects key to make both visions work."

Infrastructure projects in Qatar accelerated over the course of 2013, overtaking the UAE midway through the year with $12.2bn of contracts awarded, said O’Sullivan. “The bulk… came from the multi-billion-dollar tunnelling packages awarded as part of the Doha metro project.”

On winning the host city election for the 2022 World Cup in 2010, Qatar stated that it would spend $140bn on civic and sporting infrastructure. This figure was soon upgraded, with a report by Deloitte in September 2013 stating that Qatar plans to spend $140bn over the next five years on transport alone.

$200bn is due to be spent over the next 10 years on construction. A further $20bn is to be spent on tourism infrastructure to prepare for the influx of football fans, the Deloitte report said. Since then, an investment of $45bn into tourism by 2030 has been announced.

The UK-based Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) has announced that its first lecture tour of the Middle East will take place on 13-17 March. Sir John Armitt, Vice President International of ICE and Chairman of the London Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is to speak in Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dubai. 

The series of evening lectures, entitled "Developing Modern Infrastructure", will specifically address the challenges of planning and executing large-scale infrastructure projects.

The chairman of the London 2012 ODA and former chief executive of Network Rail, Sir John will share his knowledge and insight into the challenges of planning and delivering large-scale infrastructure projects. 

The lectures will make particular reference to the London 2012 Olympic Games in the light of the many new and ongoing infrastructure projects in the Middle East, such as World Expo 2020 Dubai, Qatar 2022.

Sir John will speak in Abu Dhabi at 6:30PM on 13 March, Doha at 6:30PM on 16 March and Dubai at 6PM on 17 March. For more information about these free lectures, contact melanie.hill@ice.org.uk