Thank you for your comments.  As a 55 year old metalhead who has attended hundreds and hundreds of GA shows with thousands of kids, mosh pits, and often violent behavior I know this kind of tragedy can be avoided. I spent many years on the road with Slayer, who has historically had some of the most aggressive and violent crowds out there. There are many ways to limit this kind of problem. One example are barricades (think breakwaters off-shore) that break up the density of the crowd (running both parallel and perpendicular to the stage) always helped. The trick is the people in charge have to take the possibility of such a problem seriously and be proactive. Slayer had a specific person on the road who was trained in doing this and would have a conversation with the entire venue security staff before every show.  I think often at non-metal shows this kind of preparation does not happen.

Thanks

Marc Paschke

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at GA shows in the UK and Europe, in arenas, there are often barriers across the floor so that only a maximum number of people are allowed into each section.  No price difference, first come first served.  Prevents overcrowding in any one section.

And, yes, the labor shortage is one of the biggest problems, in so many industries.  Tour after tour, concert after concert, I see people desperate for more local workers.

Hadn’t seen an issue with gate-crashers in years; that does seem like something that should be under control.

Toby Mamis

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It’s not just festivals.

We saw Phish at the Gorge this summer. First night, a security crew walked off (we were later told) closing down a venue exit gate after the show. While this was a minor inconvenience to a few thousand people, in 25 years of concerts I had never seen that happen, and it smelled like a much larger, lurking staffing issue.

James Coburn

Rose Ganache

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The video you linked to only shows a portion of the mayhem at the gates. Start watching at 1:42 and you’ll people literally being trampled.

https://youtu.be/eKzcNZ7m43k

Ty Velde

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I worked the Travis Scott concert in Detroit before Covid.

I am in my 60’s and remember looking down on the floor with the mass of young people and being very concerned.  They moved as one swaying forward, back, side to side.

At the time I thought this is so dangerous. Then I thought, I must be getting old because I probably would have been down there as a teen.

But I would say the people in charge of safety must have felt the same way and every concert like this they breathed a sigh of relief nothing bad happened.

At the Twenty One Pilots it was the same. They started lining up early for early entry. It was cold so they all had heavy jackets on. Then they rushed the stage to get as close as they could. Then spent a couple hours there waiting for the warm up act to finish to see Twenty One Pilots. Trying to hang on to a bunch of jackets and getting hotter and hotter.

These are young people who have not ate or drank much in their quest to not miss out.

I was working the service desk that night next to the medic office and quite a few from up front ended up there. Some had fainted, some just  exhausted and could not get out of the pack. They would send in medical to get the out and bring them up.

They know this is happening and has been a disaster waiting to happen for years.

Lily Morozow

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Safe standing needs to be a thing yesterday. Look into them for soccer stadia. Put 4 barricades across the crowd, have a rough capacity for each section, and let people through until it’s full. Crazy to me that this isn’t already in place. Sad to hear about this but these kinds of things can and should be prevented in the future.

Thanks,
Adam Sliger

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After Roskilde, “D” barriers were made mandatory at Australian festivals that had no seating (ie had mosh pits). And we have waaay less attendees than the staggering ticket numbers sold in the US. Is this not a regulation over there? I guess we prefer to kill the vibe rather than kill our concert goers…

Megan Butler

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Mott the Hoople Kings College 5/3/1974, opening act Queen.  There was a scary crush of people before doors were opened.  I thought I’d be crushed, there were injuries.  Inside, glass bottles being thrown onto the stage until the band had to threaten to walk off.  I remember venues requiring assigned seating ever since.

Susan Rad Dorsey

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Back when my Dad was in the concert promotion business, he refused to do festival seating; he just didn’t think it was safe for the fans. Thousands of shows and no stampedes. He was proven right in 1979 and again several times since.

Michael Weintraub

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Ten years ago after the Indianapolis roof collapse, production managers, touring professional and production vendors started the Event Safety Alliance, to enacted guidelines and safety standards for all aspects of the concert touring industry.

There is a lot of great stuff on this web site.

Take care,

Kent Black

https://www.eventsafetyalliance.org/

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Hi Bob,

I just read your post regarding the deaths and injuries at Astroworld.

I want to bring your attention to the work of the Event Safety Alliance, ESTA and the TSP.

Please take some time to read ANSI ES1.9.

ANSI ES1.9 – 2020 Event Safety – Crowd Management

https://tsp.esta.org/tsp/documents/published_docs.php

I hope you can share this with your readers.

https://tsp.esta.org/tsp/index.html

https://esta.org/

The Event Safety Alliance® (ESA) is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting “Life Safety First” throughout all phases of event production and execution. We strive to eliminate the knowledge barrier that often contributes to unsafe conditions and behaviors through the promotion and teaching of good practices and the development of training and planning resources.

Best,

Boxer

Jahn ‘Boxer’ Hardison

Treasurer, Event Safety Alliance

https://www.eventsafetyalliance.org/