Events & Entertainment SWMS Templates

Yes. Entertainment rigging that involves suspended loads over people, work at heights above two metres, or use of energised electrical installations meets the high risk construction work (HRCW) triggers in WHS Regulation 2025 Schedule 3. This makes a SWMS legally mandatory before work commences. Truss load-in, motor rigging and lighting grid suspension over audience areas all engage the duty. The SWMS must be prepared in consultation with riggers and signed off before bump-in, kept on site, and reviewed if conditions or the rig design change.

Yes, in nearly all cases. Under WHS Regulation 2025 Part 4.5 and Schedule 3, intermediate or advanced rigging high risk work licences are required where loads are suspended using cranes, chain hoists or where structural members are erected at height. Basic rigging covers movable structures and pre-cast elements. For touring truss rigs with motor-driven hoists and grid flying over audience, an advanced rigging licence is typically required. License class and number must be recorded against each named worker on the SWMS.

Trigger wind speeds are device-specific and must come from the manufacturer's engineering certificate or AS/NZS 1170.2 design assessment. As a guide, AS 3533.4.1 sets a typical operational ceiling for inflatables at around 40 km/h sustained wind, with full evacuation and deflation required. Marquees vary widely — engineered structures may be rated higher, but unbraced pop-up marquees should be de-rigged well below this. The SWMS must specify the rated wind speed, the anemometer location, the monitoring frequency and the named person authorised to call shutdown.

Entertainment rigging SWMS address risks specific to live events: suspended loads over paying audience members, fast-paced touring schedules, dead-hang and motor-driven flying, performer flying systems, and pyrotechnic interaction with rigging. A general construction rigging SWMS focuses on structural steel, precast and crane operations. Both reference WHS Regulation 2025 Part 4.5, but entertainment SWMS additionally engage venue-specific load capacities, AS 1170 dynamic load factors for moving audiences, and the show-stop authority chain that doesn't exist on construction sites.

Both. Pyrotechnic discharge requires a state or territory explosives licence and a licensed pyrotechnician, and is regulated under state Dangerous Goods and Explosives legislation in addition to WHS Regulation 2025. The SWMS sits alongside the explosives shotfire plan and addresses workplace exposures: exclusion zones, fall-out radius, audience demarcation, fire-watch, adjacent rigging interaction and emergency response. The SWMS does not replace the licensed shot plan but documents the PCBU's coordination duty under WHS Regulation 2025 section 46 where multiple duty holders share the site.