Hundreds working behind the scene to keep all safe at SnowGlobe

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CALIF. - Leading up to SnowGlobe, days have been filled with meetings and emergency drills, staffing instructions and planning, all to create a safe atmosphere for the thousands of people in South Lake Tahoe for the three-day music festival.

As the show got underway Friday, December 26, there was a heavy presence of law enforcement and safety personnel, though many of them could not be detected as they moved about the venue in plain clothes. A drone was also in the air, surveying the crowd below.

150 security guards, 10 South Lake Tahoe police officers, 7 El Dorado County Sheriff's deputies, as well as California Highway Patrol officers and Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) agents will be on duty throughout the festival.

"We can't afford to cut on security," said SLT Police Chief Brian Uhler as he walked through SnowGlobe. He said law enforce is there to watch for possible, significant threats.

Besides law enforcement there are also firefighter medics from South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue. SLTFR Chief Jeff Meston will be at SnowGlobe with four staff members, including a battalion chief who will be riding quads to provide needed services around the venue which is at the SLT Community Fields. They will be outfitted in new Disaster Management System (DMS) Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) packs that are a mobile triage with multiple tourniquets and rapid trauma advanced life support intervention equipment. Tourniquets were found very useful during the recent mass shooting in Las Vegas.

Meston has wanted the packs, which are also partially bullet-proof, for use in South Lake Tahoe which attracts large groups, including SnowGlobe festival goers.

The firefighter medics will be joined at SnowGlobe by a 50-person strong medical team of nurses, doctors and surgeons from Rock Med, all who volunteer their time at events.

"We could not support this event without Rock Med. True professionals in every sense of the word," said Meston.

In 1972, Bill Graham asked the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics to staff a medical care tent at his Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin outdoor concerts. That was the start of a vision that was formalized in 1973 by Dr. George "Skip" Gay. More than 40 years later, Rock Med is still providing free, non-judgmental care and setting the standard in event medicine.