LIVE: Festival task force tour starts at Rock Ness.

A NEW NATIONWIDE SECURITY TASK FORCE to cut crime at UK festivals is being launched this weekend after the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) awarded the contract to Showsec.

Scotland's Rock Ness will see the debut of the new special security outfit, with the Leicester-based crowd management and security company set the task of slashing crime at festivals by working closely with local police forces to identify criminal gangs who travel around the country during the outdoor music season.

The June 12-14 gathering will mark the official launch of that job, but as the festival's producer Jim King explains, the preparation work has been going on for some time. "Intelligence work by police is undertaken in the run-up to every festival, but until now that has not been shared outside of those events," says King, who as a director of Loud Sound is involved in a number of summer events from this week's event in North Scotland to Bestival in the Isle of Wight.

The idea is that Showsec can start gathering information at Rock Ness before sharing it among other AIF members to ensure promoters and security companies can be better prepared to tackle crime at each event.

As the UK's largest specialised event security company, Showsec is well equipped to lead the AIF crime task force. But King points out that there are many other firms involved in making outdoor events as safe as possible and Showsec's remit will be to inform all their peers about their observations.

"It's rare that you get just one security company involved at a festival -usually it's two, three or four - so all the information that is gathered will be made available to these security companies, as well as to each police ...