Abstract
This article will report on a study undertaken involving volunteers at an outdoor music festival in Australia. The study was designed to assess the volunteers’ knowledge and skills in emergency management. The findings are based predominantly on self-report data. Findings from the study indicated that a major proportion of the volunteers in the study expressed some level of confidence in dealing with an emergency situation within their work locations at the festival. This level of confidence was associated with volunteer training and knowledge of public health and emergency management. However, less than half of the study participants had knowledge of emergency and public health management for the festival. Furthermore, less than one quarter had knowledge of the festival’s emergency management plan. It was evident that there was a need to increase the number of volunteers with knowledge of public health and emergency management for the festival. All these findings support continued volunteer training programs to improve emergency and public health management at the festival.
