Case Studies

Impact in Action

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Music & Arts Festivals

Keeping Hyde Park Pristine at British Summer Time Festival

The British Summer Time Festival returns to London’s Hyde Park each July, staging nine headline shows over ten days and attracting up to 585,000 music fans, staff and VIP guests annually. As a large-scale outdoor event, BST presents unique cleaning challenges: expansive park grounds, variable weather, high visitor throughput and environmental obligations. Ryans Cleaning partners with festival organisers from pre-event site build through final clearance, delivering comprehensive cleaning and waste-management services that preserve the park’s natural setting and uphold guest experience standards.

Challenges

  • Expansive Outdoor Footprint: Covering over 350 acres of lawns, pathways, catering zones and performance stages, requiring extensive ground sweeps and trash collection across a broad area.
  • Variable Weather Conditions: Rain, wind and heat during festival days impact waste distribution, soil erosion and pathway cleanliness, necessitating weather-adaptive cleaning protocols.
  • High Visitor Throughput: With 585,000 attendees moving between stages, food courts and rest areas, litter and spillages accumulate rapidly, placing pressure on waste stations and cleaning teams.
  • Environmental Regulations: Operating within a major public park requires strict compliance with local authorities on waste disposal, noise control and protection of flora and fauna.
  • Logistics & Access: Temporary fencing, vendor villages and security perimeters restrict vehicle access, requiring mobile cleaning stations and foot patrols for efficient coverage.

Solution

  • Scalable Workforce Planning: Ryans Cleaning deploys a core team of 150 trained staff during build and teardown phases, scaling up to 500 crew members on peak festival days. All staff receive site-specific inductions and environmental training.
  • Modular Cleaning Stations: Mobile hubs equipped with power washers, litter grabbers, eco-friendly detergents and water refill points are positioned at 50 key locations, ensuring rapid near-instant response to litter and spillages.
  • Weather-Responsive Scheduling: Cleaning rosters adapt hourly based on weather forecasts—accelerating ground sweeps after rainstorms, deploying extra staff during midday heat for hydration station maintenance, and prioritising shaded rest areas.
  • Integrated Waste-Sorting System: Four-stream bins for recycling, compost, general refuse and plastic deposits are placed throughout the site, with nightly compaction units reducing transport volume and minimising landfill usage.
  • Restricted-Access Protocols: Lightweight, battery-powered equipment and collapsible cleaning carts allow teams to navigate through narrow festival walkways and fenced areas without vehicle support.
  • Real-Time Operations Dashboard: A digital platform tracks crew location, bin fill levels and incident reports, enabling supervisors to reroute teams and resources dynamically during the event.

Overview

Location

Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom

Attendees

585,000 annually

Main Challenge

Managing the expansive outdoor footprint under variable weather

Key Service

Modular cleaning stations and scalable workforce deployment

Specialised Task

Real-time waste removal and weather-adaptive protocols

See Also

Electric Picnic

Music & Arts Festivals

Latitude Festival

Music & Arts Festivals

Results:

Over the ten-day festival, Ryans Cleaning processed more than 27,000 refuse sacks, achieved 100% operational availability for washroom blocks and reduced visitor complaints related to site cleanliness by 35%. The modular station approach cut average response times for litter removal to under 10 minutes, while waste-sorting protocols yielded a 65% recycling and composting rate.

585,000

attendees

27,000

refuse sacks

35%

reduction in complaints

TESTIMONIALs

Client Experiences and Feedback

Ryans Cleaning have been our cleaning partner since 2013, and we have this year renewed their contract after a successful tendering process. Having an open and honest relationship, has been the key to the partnership’s success to date. Ryans consistently deliver on service and also have been extremely flexible with regard to changing circumstances, which is the nature of our, business. This allows for changes and adjustments to contract terms which have been discussed and agreed in a positive and understanding manner.

With an adaptable team on the ground, achieving high standards and flexibility, this allows our needs and those of our customers to be meet on a consistent basis. This mind set also assists us with our customer service ethos. I have no hesitation in recommending Ryans as they have, as proven by the length of time they have been with us, consistently delivered a very high standard of work and professionalism. .

Ger Hanratty

Operations & Facilities Executive, Croke Park Stadium

Conclusion & Key Takeaways

Large-scale outdoor event cleaning requires flexible staffing models, modular infrastructure and real-time data to respond to surges in visitor activity and changing weather.

Ryans Cleaning’s scalable crews, mobile cleaning stations and integrated waste-sorting systems ensure Hyde Park remains pristine, sustainable and welcoming—festival after festival.

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