The Understanding of Crowd Management for Music Festivals - Coursework Example

Running Head: Crowd Management at Outdoor Music Festivals Name Course Lecturer Date Executive Summary Crowd management at outdoor music festivals are complex events to organise and manage, this is because of many exceeding the number expected to attend. There is uncertainty of the participants, their behaviour, the number of attendees, the weather and other factors. Such gatherings pose risks such as safety and health risks to the attendees as well. Every year there are reports of deaths and severe injuries from outdoor music festivals; there is much that organisers of such events can still improve on in order to avoid such risks. There are new and standard safety and security measures that music festival organisers can take to improve on security. The objective of this report is to discuss how to manage crowd at outdoor music festivals and concerts. Showing more interest as well as concern on all aspects of crowd management in music festival provides lifetime experience as well as safety environment for all the participants. Table of Contents Running Head: Crowd Management at Outdoor Music Festivals 1 Executive Summary 2 Crowd management at outdoor music festivals are complex events to organise and manage, this is because of many exceeding the number expected to attend. There is uncertainty of the participants, their behaviour, the number of attendees, the weather and other factors. Such gatherings pose risks such as safety and health risks to the attendees as well. Every year there are reports of deaths and severe injuries from outdoor music festivals; there is much that organisers of such events can still improve on in order to avoid such risks. There are new and standard safety and security measures that music festival organisers can take to improve on security. The objective of this report is to discuss how to manage crowd at outdoor music festivals and concerts. Showing more interest as well as concern on all aspects of crowd management in music festival provides lifetime experience as well as safety environment for all the participants. 2 1.0 Crowd Management at Outdoor Music Festivals 1 1.1 Introduction 1 2.0 Analysis of Crowd Management at Outdoor Music Festivals 2 3.0 Recommendations 4 4.0 Conclusion 6 5.0 References 7 1.0 Crowd Management at Outdoor Music Festivals 1.1 Introduction Managing crowds in outdoor music festivals includes significant risks. The severity, extent and exposure to risks vary depending on various factors. Outdoor music concerts and festivals are a spectacle that interests local people as well as visitors from outside (tourists). Interestingly, the higher, bigger and well known the music festival becomes, the higher the risks are. Nowadays, there are dangers not only in the urban places but also in rural areas where outdoor music festivals and concerts are held. There is no outdoor music 1festival or concert with risks, these calls for high crowd management to avoid the risks and whence keep the crowd safe (Gibson & Connell, 2012). There are numerous risks and the probability of such risks happening depends on several aspects such as the number of attendees, the nature and size of the festival or concert, the time of the day, the type of music events (classical, rock, jazz, and pop), the consumables (food, refreshments, water, alcohol), the age of the participants, the weather conditions, and the location of the venue (Anderton, 2008). For these reasons, any outdoor music festival that expects the public to attend requires a clear crowd management plan developed by skilled and experienced personnel. There is need to ensure that the right measures to control crowds are in place. There should be a clear and comprehensive crowd safety management plan that is based on various factors indicated above. This report provides an overview of crowd management at outdoor music festivals and concerts. 2.0 Analysis of Crowd Management at Outdoor Music Festivals A year barely pass without reports of crowd related deaths and severe injuries from outdoor music festivals and concerts. For instance, one very recent example of such crowd deaths and injuries that still stand in the minds of many people is the tragic events that took place during the “Love Parade in Duisburg” Germany in year 2010. A total of 21 people lost their lives and more than 500 people were injured in a crowded tunnel. Helbing and Mukerji (2012) report that the cause of the misfortune is credited to complex interplay of causal interdependences aspects (Bowdin et al., 2012). They report that there was a complex system failure where crowd management eventually failed. Crowd management is the determinations to shun such accidents by guiding and managing large crowds in safe ways before, during and after the festivals. It is a difficult assignment that increases in complexity the greater the crowd being managed as Soomaroo & Murray (2012) notes. As Baum et al., (2009) asserts, it is very important to understand the challenges or arranging an outdoor music festival and concert, understanding what kind of music festival and concert is being arranged should be the beginning of crowd management. The event managers are tasked with knowing the kind, they have to organise the whole event as well as attain the expectations and needs of the participants and also the requests of the client or the host. To be able to manage the crowd, the event managers must think about the type of music festival it will be, the reason why they are holding it (the purpose), the attendees, when will the festival take place (day and time, season and place), the personnel available and the resources available. After addressing these issuers and resolving them, the next step is to consider the security and safety measures that must be arranged for the different aspects. There are also public health risks in outdoor music festivals. Minimising and or eliminating public health impacts at such events are very essential. This can be achieved by event planning and management. Medical services are needed in outdoor music festivals and concerts in form of treatment for alcohol and drug abuse, minor ailments, serious injuries, as well as emergencies of all sorts (Stone, 2008). Essentially, it is clear that the primary factor in assuring safety and comfortable environment for crowd in outdoor music festivals is planning for the management. Understanding the crowd behaviour is paramount zit helps to have an effective plan. The characteristics of the audience helps to have an effective safety and security measures in place before the event takes placed. Hiring additional staff would enhance management of crowd, crowd management personnel or trained security or police officers helps to maintain safety and security during and after the music festivals. The staff members should be given specific responsibilities to avoid mix up. Public awareness should also be applied in crowd management during outdoor music festivals; it plays a pivotal role in successful management. As such, educating the patrons on the behaviours of the attendees would allow them to understand the crucial role they play as well as how their actions can impact their safety. The staff should be intimately aware of the plans for crowd management as well as the overall security and safety procedures and policies. Training manuals are good example of helping the personnel to understand the procedures and policies (Bowen & Daniels, 2005). Essentially, crowd management in outdoor music festivals is the consideration of every possibility and component of the safety and protection of the participants from probable and unforeseeable risks of harm. 3.0 Recommendations These recommendations are at forefront of improving crowd safety at outdoor music festivals and concerts. Managing crowds is one of the most significant tasks of security personnel and all the people’s responsible events in an outdoor music festival. Managing crowds in music festivals requires significant expertise, knowledge and experience as Szczodrak et al., (2011) concur recommends. The members of the public judge how well security personnel and event manager achieve crowd management if it is done effectively and fairly. Protection and professionalism is one way of improving crowd management at outdoor music festivals (Zhan et al., 2008). Protecting the staff members working with the crowd is essential. It is important to ensure there are communication, dialogue as well as maintaining a stand by unit with full protective equipment in case of accidents or demonstrations. This unit serves to protect the public as well as the staff members from harm. Their main purpose is to safeguard people. This should be combined with an emergency response team; there should be an emergency response team ready to attend to any eventuality that may happen. Proper leadership plays a key role in ensuring protection and professionalism in outdoor music festivals (Van der Wagen & Carlos, 2005). The music festivals organisers should not allow highly flammable liquids and objects in to the festivals. They should also ensure that the attendees do not bring objects that can harm other people. As such, there should be proper screening of all the participants of the festivals in order to identify such objects (Bailey, 2008). Another recommendation is thorough planning and preparation. This should be based on a wider range of ‘what if’ scenarios including unexpected scenarios. After thorough planning and preparation, there should be adoption of system wide strategy of approaching the crowd (Doukas, 2005). There should also be good coordination between all personnel involved like the security team, hosts, entertainers, event manager and the ground staff. This can be more successful if there is involvement of personnel with plentiful first hand skills, knowledge and experience in planning as well as managing crowds. Moreover, communication is essential especially during emergency situations. There should be proper communication between all persons involved in the crowd management. There should be one person responsible for communication both with the other staffs and with the crowd, this helps to maintain calmness and to avoid anxiety and nervousness among the crowd especially when there are emergencies such as stampede (Georgoudas, Sirakoulis & Andreadis, 2011). It is important to recognise and acknowledge small problems cropping up before and during the music festivals (King, 2006). This is because such problems may end up having significant impact on the success of the festival when combined together. The objective of crowd management should not only ensuring safety and security but also for ensuring that the event meets the needs and expectations of the participants. This is by necessitating smooth flow of activities as planned so that the participants can enjoy the music festival and hence return home satisfied. Notably, it is important for the event organisers to understand the type of crowds as well as their likely behaviour; this would help them to prepare in advance accordingly (Yamin & Ades, 2009). 4.0 Conclusion The increasing importance of security in music festivals in outdoor arenas to every participants both organisers and the members of the public, is not only to achieve success but to comply with regulations as spelt in public health and safety act 2009. There is need to provide useful information about the risks and safety issues related to outdoor music festivals in order to induce the organisers to make more secure events. This report set out to explore crowd management for outdoor music festival. There are safety and health risks in crowded places, as such, it is important to ensure that there are emergency services available in case of any eventuality on the same. In addition, the report provided recommendations on possibilities for improving crowd management in outdoor music festivals. The recommendations include protection and professionalism, limit of accessories in to the festivals, thorough planning and preparation, effective communication, acknowledging small problems and understanding the crowd behaviour. Essentially, the report provides deep understanding of crowd management for music festivals. 5.0 References Anderton, C. (2008), Commercializing the carnivalesque: the V Festival and image/risk management; Event Management, 12(1), 39-51. Bailey, S. (2008), managing the crowd: rethinking records management for the Web 2.0 world; Facet Pub. Baum, T., Deery, M., Hanlon, C., Lockstone, L., & Smith, K, (2009), People and work in events and conventions: A research perspective, Cabi. Bowdin, G., Allen, J., Harris, R., McDonnell, I, & O'Toole, W, (2012), Events management: Routledge. Bowen, H. E., & Daniels, M, J, (2005), does the music matter? Motivations for attending a music festival: Event Management, 9(3), 155-164. Doukas, S. G. (2005). Crowd management: Past and contemporary issues, the Sport Journal, 9(2). Georgoudas, I. G., Sirakoulis, G. C., & Andreadis, I. T. (2011), an anticipative crowd management system preventing clogging in exits during pedestrian evacuation processes: Systems Journal, IEEE, 5(1), 129-141. Gibson, C., & Connell, J, (2012), Music festivals and regional development in Australia: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. King, M. (2006), from reactive policing to crowd management? Policing anti-globalization protest in Canada: Jurisprudencija, 79 (1), 40-58. Soomaroo, L., & Murray, V, (2012), Disasters at mass gatherings: lessons from history: PLoS currents, 4. Stone, C. (2008), The British pop music festival phenomenon. International perspectives of festivals and events: Paradigms of analysis, 205-24. Szczodrak, M., Kotus, J., Kopaczewski, K., Lopatka, K., Czyzewski, A., & Krawczyk, H. (2011), Behavior analysis and dynamic crowd management in video surveillance system: In Database and Expert Systems Applications (DEXA), 2011 22nd International Workshop on (pp. 371-375). IEEE. Van der Wagen, L., & Carlos, B. R. (2005), Event management: For tourism, cultural, business, and sporting events, Prentice Hall. Yamin, M, & Ades, Y, (2009), Crowd management with RFID and wireless technologies in networks and communications, 2009; NETCOM'09, first international conference on (pp, 439-442) IEEE. Zhan, B., Monekosso, D. N., Remagnino, P., Velastin, S. A., & Xu, L, Q, (2008), Crowd analysis: a survey, Machine Vision and Applications, 19(5-6), 345-357. Read More