Looking back on the summer concert season: How the partnership between Gilford police, BankNH Pavilion gets 'better every year'

GILFORD — Though locals may find themselves once again cheering for an encore, summer is drawing to a close and, with it, the summer concert season at BankNH Pavilion. 

Bringing in more and more big-name acts each year — including a blockbuster season opener by the Foo Fighters in May, three sold-out shows by Chris Stapleton in August and an appearance by Willie Nelson — means mounting challenges for smooth and safe operations. At the venue, Gilford Police Lt. Adam VanSteensburg said, “They get better at doing what they do. We get better at doing what we do. And we’re just really working together as a team and a partnership.”

The venue had more shows, 51, and more attendees, an estimated 360,000, this year than it ever has, according to Operations Manager Jason Jenkins. Not only are they generally selling out more shows, but more artists are committing to multi-day “residencies.”

“A lot of these artists can go to stadiums and sell out 60,000 tickets in a night, and they choose to come to Gilford, New Hampshire, for, you know, 8,000, 9,000 people,” Jenkins said. “We do we really sell ourselves on our hospitality, we go above and beyond for the artists and make them feel at home here. So it's not your typical tour stop.”

To manage increasing numbers, Jenkins said, they are in constant communication with first responder partners and state police in addition to streamlining the work the pavilion’s staff does.

VanSteensburg has been working detail at the pavilion for 14 years, but this was his first season leading the department’s coordination with the amphitheater. 

Planning begins in April, as Gilford police begin meeting with the team at BankNH Pavilion.

“They'll have estimates of what they think the attendance will be per show. And I have sit-down meetings with their operational staff,” VanSteensburg said. “We go over each show and we discuss  what we think that we need there for public safety personnel, basically to keep the venue safe to run that concert.” Many acts come to the venue year after year, he continued, and past experience serves as a guide for how large of a detail that act’s fans will need.

Officers assigned to the detail assist with traffic flow before and after the show and are on-call to event staff during the event. 

Their presence increased this year — in 2022, Gilford police officers did about 575 detail shifts at BankNH Pavilion, while this year they did about 629, according to VanSteensburg. 

“It's the type of shows” behind the increase, VanSteensburg said. Factors in the size of the detail include the attendance and the fanbase. For example, shows that attract younger crowds may need more officers because of higher chances they’ll have to respond to underage drinking concerns. 

In the summer, concert details occupy a significant portion of the department’s resources. The department has 22 full-time and two part-time officers, and a detail could include as many as 20 for a larger show. 

“We've got a lot of partners, law enforcement partners that we lean on that are really always there for us,” he said. “That's a huge, huge part of this.”

During shows, officers are on-call to the venue’s security team. If they encounter someone who is being disruptive or breaking the rules, they may ask that person to leave. If someone is not cooperative with those requests or the interaction otherwise escalates, they call in on-site officers through an on-site dispatcher, VanSteensburg described.

About nine out of 10 interactions police have with attendees end up in protective custody, where someone’s level of intoxication makes them a safety concern to themselves and others, and underage drinking.

“A protective custody arrest is a civil detention, and it's really for the safety of that person and other people. So if the officer is dealing with someone, and they determined that this person is intoxicated — to a degree that they pose a danger to themselves or someone else — then we'll take them into protective custody. And then we try to make every effort to release them to his or her party at the venue,” VanSteensburg said.

For situations of protective custody, officers try to locate someone sober who can take responsibility for the person. If no one is able to do so promptly, the person is then transported to the county jail to be held in protective custody there. 

Anecdotally, VanSteensburg said, “I do think that we were busier” at the venue this year. That’s consistent, though, with trends townwide of increased patrol activity and arrests, notably for DUI.

“There might have been more numbers of smaller incidents,” Jenkins said, noting the staff is vigilant about combatting underage drinking at the venue. “We feel like it's been better ... as far a as large fights, serious injuries, things like that. There's been much fewer than there have been in years past.”

Townwide, there have been 686 arrests to date, 42 more than the same time last year. 

Though there were more incidents with attendees this year, VanSteensburg said, that’s only one part of the support the department provides. 

Traffic management, VanSteensburg and Jenkins said, also saw positive trends this year. 

Improvements last year to the venue's west entrance off Lily Pond Road and increases to the number of cars scanned in at a time from two to six continued this year for marked gains in traffic flow.

“There's always some challenges you can avoid. But we've had almost zero traffic issues since we've made those improvements,” Jenkins said. 

There’s only so much that can be done to manage a sold-out crowd that combines with lake weekend traffic, he said, but signage purchased and posted by the pavilion at strategic points, as well as more efficient parking inside the venue, eased traffic issues. 

As the pavilion continues to grow its profile, both partners said the longstanding partnership between first responders and the venue increases its strength. 

“Over the years, we just continue to improve our working relationship. We’ve got a good think going,” Jenkins said.

“It takes a lot to make something like this work and work smoothly,” VanSteensburg echoed. “And it takes us all working together. And we do that.”