A free downloadable ‘Safer crowds, safer venues‘ document is online. The 76-page document is by numerous practitioners in event security and stewarding and related fields, such as the current and previous chairs of the UK Crowd Management Association (UKCMA), Anne Marie Chebib and Eric Stuart.
Some 15 chapters cover just about anything you can think of, relating to a safe event, taking the reader through an event’s phases from ‘planning and preparation’ before the doors open to a debrief afterwards. Chapters cover staffing; arrival and entry; the show itself; egress and departure; Zone Ex (a phrase from the licensing body the Sports Ground Safety Authority’s paid-for Green Guide, defined as the geographical space from, for example, a car or bus park or railway station to the venue, when responsibility for those coming and going to the event may be vague, neither quite the responsibility of the venue operator or event holder, or the civil authorities; which may matter in terms of (another chapter) counter terrorism.
The three appendices may well be of use to event managers – a ‘show stop’ policy (when and how to halt an event when there’s a risk to life requiring the musical or other entertainment to stop, even if it may ruin the experience for the paying customers), ‘stop and search’ of patrons entering, and whether and how to write an ‘alcohol plan’ if alcohol is served or allowed in.
Also covered are ‘safeguarding, welfare and accessibility; medical arrangements; and the weather. While high-profile security and safety near-misses or tragedies such as the Manchester Arena suicide terror attack, the Wembley disorder around the England-Italy Euro football final in July 2021 and the Brixton Academy fatal crush of December 2022, the ‘tragic incidents in recent years underscore the critical need for standardised and effective crowd management practices’, said Anne Marie Chebib. She said: “This guide represents a milestone in our collective efforts to prioritise safety and well-being in performance and licensed spaces.”
Anne Marie Chebib added: “The UKCMA is delighted to be working with partners at NTIA [Night Time Industries Association] and LIVE [industry body covering music venues] and to launch the supporting documentation on Safer Crowds, Safer Venues. In recent years there have been several high-profile incidents which have resulted in loss of life or serious injury due to failings with operational crowd management. The document has been written voluntarily by the industry, for the industry. The purpose of this supporting work is to provide venue operators, organisers and their stakeholders with a general outline document of what currently constitutes accepted good practice in terms of crowd management for performance spaces and licensed venues in the UK. This document is a combination of accepted good practices written by experienced individuals which will assist in the process towards safe operations. It exists to assist small to medium sized venues, to try and protect their patrons and staff, with the most current specialist knowledge, yielded from the most recent experience in the field of crowd management.”
More in the May print edition of Professional Security Magazine.
To download the document, visit https://safercrowdssafervenues.com/.
Background: see also on the LIVE website, recent research on whether audience behaviour is settling into a ‘new normal’ after the suspending of crowd events in the covid lockdowns of 2020.
Photo by Mark Rowe: Dublin.
