From the Festival of the Sun, to Tastings on the Hastings, the Beer and Cider Fest and everything in between.

It is why the police want to make aware just how proactive they are in the lead up to these festivities.

Licensing sergeant John Lawrie is always on the front foot, planning weeks if not months out from the event to ensure a safe time for people who attend, and those who do not.

“We work with event organisers, the council, and other organisations who are involved in the weeks,” he said.

“It’s about being proactive and involving everyone, including the surf club, ambulance and fire services.

“This has been the norm for us for quite a while now. Whether it’s the beer and cider festival, Tastings on the Hastings, FOTSUN and any other event.”

The fact the police are involved so early in the process ensure there will be significant officers on duty, plus user-pay patrols.

“We get onto it early, we look at what we need to do, have a briefing prior to the event and also a debriefing after the event,” Sgt Lawrie said.

“It’s about minimising the affect on the local community who may not want to attend, and to make it safe for everyone who does attend.”

Scott Mesiti, of MJR presents, plans to hold an event in February at Town Beach reserve and met with Sgt Lawrie this week.

“The proactive approach with the police is something we are very supportive of. There’s kind of an unspoken procedure in place as soon as we have an ide,” he said.

“We put site maps together, present them to council and to police, and go through a basic overview of everything required for the event.

“We know what we have to achieve to make it a safe event. An extreme amount of planning, a lot of paper work and budgets go into an event, more than what the general public probably know.”

Another upcoming event is the Red Hot Summer tour and will be one of the major events for 2017.

It will be held on February 4 at Westport Park and features a host of Australian music icons, including John Farnham.

“We expect about 5,000 people at Westport Park for that event and we have been planning for it for some time,” Sgt Lawrie said.

“The organisers are a company from Victoria who do these events and travel all over Australia.

“We deal with them from the early stages, and have a blue print on how we want to run the event.

“They pay for user pay police as well as our normal rostered police. This includes proactive police such as plain clothes officers and drug detection dogs.”