Reports have surfaced that the cancelled NYE Water Festival, which saw nearly 9000 ticket-holders who paid between $110 and $200 to attend the party, stranded on New Year’s Eve, was called off because of security concerns and not “production and transport issues” as was initially stated.
A new investigation by Fairfax Media has revealed that a NSW Police “risk assessment” resulted in “deep concerns” about staffing and security at the event, which was set to take place at the Wet’n’Wild water park in Western Sydney, featuring a lineup of Australian EDM talent.
Meanwhile, Fair Trading investigators were making enquiries about the Prospect theme park’s security supervisor Brad Kisbee, who they suspect of playing a role in an October tender process that saw a lucrative on-site contract awarded to Unimet Security, with which he had been affiliated.
When questioned by Fairfax on Friday, Mr Kisbee said he was “unable to say” if he informed Wet’n’Wild of his ties to Unimet Security when he helped them appoint contractors. “It’s irrelevant,” he said, insisting that he had “no say on the actual selections,” despite his involvement.
While gearing up for the park’s launch, owner Village Roadshow appointed Mr Kisbee, a former Blacktown Westfield security supervisor, as park security supervisor, while advertising a tender invitation for a security company with experience to provide all-hours security for the park.
Unimet Security was ultimately awarded the contract, which involved duties such as VIP hosting and managing crowds of between “15,000 to 20,000” people, despite Unimet’s previous contracts mostly involving static guard work at pubs and dog patrols in western Sydney and Wollongong.
“I know of at least 30 companies, including a few big ones, who submitted a detailed tender for this,” the owner of a prominent security company told Fairfax. Another bidder said several complaints have been lodged about the process and that Unimet’s appointment became “the talk of the industry.”
“It’s been a farce ever since [the security staff’s induction training],” a Unimet source told Fairfax. “Unimet has never had the resources to cope with the contract it received…and several staff left under the pressure.” However, Village Roadshow are calling no foul.
Spokesman Darrin Davies said decisions were finalised by Wet’n’Wild’s general and operations managers following “a thorough and competitive tender process” that included “third party independent advice,” appointing Unimet in “a secondary security role” not part of the original tender.
Meanwhile Unimet are insisting that Mr Kisbee “is not a silent partner” but rather someone who was “a consultant some time ago,” while Mr Kisbee has told Fairfax, “Village Roadshow has told me not to speak further. But when my contract is up in April, I’ll give the full story.”
