In the Wake of The Astroworld Tragedy, Venues and Security Weigh In
Pollstar.com
November 10, 2021
“It’s a tragedy; we all feel for the families that lost people at this event,” said venue security consultant Dan Donovan. “There’s a history of these types of events with this particular performer. Your risk profile goes up significantly and we need to factor that into our overall plans.”
Building temporary infrastructure for a large festival is a challenge in itself, not to mention the crowd control piece. Donovan said it’s more difficult to handle thousands of people in a festival format vs. an NFL stadium concert, where officials have greater control over a GA floor that can hold about 10,000 fans apart from the seating bowl. “There needs to be a significant amount of additional concert barriers that break up the sections so you can minimize the push,” he said. “Bike racks just don’t hold the crowds back. It’s costly but it’s important from a crowd control perspective. Based on the news reports, this is more about the push than anything else.”