Heat waves, heavy rain and high winds – extreme weather phenomena are increasingly threatening the livelihood and safety of outdoor events. To give festivals the means to prepare for such incidents, YOUROPE and YES Group have developed the Weather Preparedness & Resilience Toolbox.
Across Europe, storms, heatwaves and enduring rain disrupted a lot of outdoor events during the past years, festivals being no exception. Weather is no longer a background risk; rather, it is now shaping the core of festival planning. The climate is changing, and festivals must change with it. Storms develop faster, gust fronts are stronger, heatwaves are longer, rainfall is more intense and even wildfires are now a feasible threat. Microclimates on festival sites – created by trees, valleys, asphalt or temporary structures – make predictions even harder.
This also leads to pressure from authorities and insurers and rising expectations from the public which must be addressed.
As part of its Future-Fit Festivals (3F) project, the European festival association YOUROPE has developed the 3F Weather Preparedness & Resilience Toolbox, a comprehensive collection and sharing of knowledge, tools and good-practice examples intended to help festivals prepare for, manage, and respond to weather impacts.
What the Toolbox offers
The Weather Toolbox is a modular, expandable knowledge platform. It contains templates, checklists and decision matrices, case studies and good practices, delivered by practitioners and weather experts. On top of a lot of tools aiming at production and planning, it includes learning tools, emergency scenarios to practice, and also material to hand out to the audience.
Topics covered
- Weather Hazard Awareness
- Risk Assessment & Planning
- Monitoring & Early Warning
- Decision-Making & Communication
- On-Site Implementation
- Training & Learning
- Educating the Audience
- Case Studies & Lessons Learned
- Research & Resources
The 3F Weather Preparedness & Resilience Toolbox was developed and curated by the YOUROPE Event Safety (YES) Group, a network of leading safety professionals from across Europe.
Many of the tools, templates and examples included in this collection come directly from festivals within the YOUROPE network. Others were contributed by practitioners from the wider community, who shared documents, lessons learned, and good-practice approaches developed over years of working in the field.
The result is a toolbox built by the sector for the sector, combining academic insight, operational experience, and the lived reality of festivals facing increasingly unpredictable weather.
Holger Jan Schmidt, YOUROPE General Secretary said: “Climate change is real, and it is not going away. That is a fact – and it is the reality festivals must deal with today. In our pan-European festival promoter surveys, we see weather emerging as an increasingly significant challenge year after year. Regular feedback from the safety community within our YOUROPE Event Safety Group (YES Group) also confirms that weather is the decisive factor in this field.
“Festivals and other outdoor events must prepare for more frequent and more extreme conditions. For this reason, the relevance of what the YES Group has developed with the ‘Weather Preparedness & Resilience Toolbox’ can hardly be overstated. It is an unprecedented resource, addressing all types of weather – from drought and heavy rainfall to storms – and supporting event organisers in preparing themselves and everyone involved in their events to operate safely and responsibly.”
Check out Toolbox (PDF & online version):
https://yourope.org/weather-toolbox
Download Toolbox PDF:
https://yourope.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/weather-prepardness-resilience-toolbox-yourope.pdf
About YOUROPE
Since 1998, YOUROPE – The European Festival Association has evolved into the most important association for popular music festivals in Europe. As of January 2026, YOUROPE counts 136 festivals and associated organizations from 31 European countries among its members. The overall aim of the association is to strengthen and improve the European festival scene as a whole and promoting arts and music while connecting different cultures.
In its working groups, YOUROPE focuses on different topics at the heart of festivals: sustainability, climate action and environmental protection in the GO Group (Green Operations Europe), security and crowded spaces management in the YOUROPE Event Safety (YES) Group, and mental health & DEI in the WIRE (Wellbeing, Inclusion, Responsibility, Equity) Group.
Further, YOUROPE hosts the biannual European Festival Conference (EFC), publishes the European Festival Report (EFR) after every season and organises the annual European Festival Awards (EFAs).
About YES Group
The YOUROPE Event Safety (YES) Group is working as a think-tank in the field of Event Safety, Security and Crowded Spaces management, influencing and promoting best practices in this field across Europe. It is led and managed by a team of high-profile experts in event safety and crowd management, representing some of the most respected venues and festivals in Europe.
The Group has organised numerous meetings and seminars between Event Safety managers and experts for the past 20 years, to enhance learning and encourage the exchange of experiences in the field.