In May 2025, the organisers of Harborne Family Carnival announced that the event, scheduled for 22 June 2025 and which would have been its 28th edition, would not go ahead. The reason was not weather, not finance, and not lack of interest. It was a risk-based judgement, made after consultation with Birmingham City Council’s Safety Advisory Group, West Midlands Police, and the Home Office, that the carnival could not be staged to the standard now expected of an open-street community event in the United Kingdom.
For organisers, councils, and security planners across the country, the Harborne decision is worth studying in detail. It is one of the clearest recent examples of a long-standing community event being cancelled not because anything had happened locally, but because the risk picture around open-street festivals had shifted, and because the controls needed to meet that picture could not be delivered in time. The underlying question — when do you adapt an event, and when do you stand it down — is one every organiser will face at some point.
What was decided, and on what grounds
According to the organisers’ statement, attributed to Carnival Chair Paul Burgess MBE, the decision followed an extensive security review. Enhanced security requirements, particularly around protecting the side streets that connect to the main carnival route, presented logistical and financial challenges that could not be met in the time available. National threat levels and the wider picture of attacks on street festivals abroad were both cited as factors.
Three points stand out. First, the decision was not unilateral; it was made in consultation with the police, the council’s Safety Advisory Group, and central government. Second, the gap was not between “safe” and “unsafe” in any absolute sense, but between the residual risk the organisers were willing to carry and the controls available to bring that risk down. Third, the organisers stated that planning would now focus on 2026, with new locations and formats being explored that can meet current safety guidance without losing the community feel of the event.
The decision framework behind the call
A defensible cancel-or-adapt decision rests on a small number of structured questions. We would expect any well-run event organiser, working with their Safety Advisory Group, to be able to answer the following on the record:
- What has changed in the threat picture since the last edition of this event? National threat levels, recent incidents at similar events abroad, intelligence shared by police, and any local indicators all feed in here.
- What controls would bring residual risk to a tolerable level? This typically covers hostile-vehicle mitigation along approach routes, stewarding density, search and screening at entry points, communications between marshals and police, and medical and evacuation arrangements.
- Can those controls realistically be delivered, funded, and rehearsed before the event date? If hostile-vehicle measures along the perimeter cannot be procured and installed in time, an event with an open street layout cannot simply hope for the best.
- Is there a meaningful adapted version of the event — smaller footprint, ticketed venue, different date — that would meet the standard? Where the answer is yes, adaptation is preferable to cancellation. Where it is no, cancellation is the responsible call.
The Harborne case sits squarely in the fourth category. The side-street geometry of the existing route did not lend itself to a quick fix, and the organisers concluded that the responsible course was to stand down, regroup, and plan a different format for the following year.
What this means for event organisers and venues
Two practical lessons travel well beyond Harborne. The first is timing. The closer to the event date the security review takes place, the fewer options remain. By the time a planner is six or eight weeks out, the choices typically narrow to “accept the residual risk,” “shrink the footprint,” or “cancel.” Bringing the security plan forward into the early planning cycle, alongside the Safety Advisory Group, is the single most useful change most organisers can make.
The second is documentation. A cancellation, like any other significant security decision, should be supported by a written risk assessment that captures what changed, what controls were considered, why they were not viable in the time available, and who was consulted. The Harborne organisers’ public statement is a textbook example of how to communicate that decision without inviting either complacency or alarm.
For organisers planning open-street, free-to-attend events in 2026 and beyond, the practical implications are clear. Hostile-vehicle mitigation along approach routes, well-rehearsed stewarding, defined search and screening protocols, robust marshal-to-control-room communications, and a documented decision log are no longer optional extras. They are the minimum expected baseline.
Need a security review?
Our team works with event organisers, venues, and councils on risk assessments, crowd-safety planning, and SIA-licensed stewarding and guarding across the UK. If you are planning a 2026 event and want a structured review of your security plan before it reaches the Safety Advisory Group, we can help.
Call us on 020 3700 0967, email info@secureonsitesecurity.co.uk, or visit our contact page.
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