What are crowd surges? And what should you do if you get caught up in one? We asked the experts

Eight people have died and many more were injured following a crowd surge on the opening night of Astroworld, a festival founded by Travis Scott. 

The tragedy has raised serious questions about event-management, as well as concerns around how people can stay safe if they get caught in a crowd surge. 

GLAMOUR spoke to Steve Allen, a Registered Consultant at Crowd Safety, and Dr. Anders Johansson, Associate Professor in Engineering Mathematics at the University of Bristol, to find out what causes crowd surges and, crucially, what you should do if you get caught in one. 

How do crowd surges happen?

Steve Allen highlights the importance of event-planning to ensure that crowd surges don’t happen, saying that, “Events should have suitable and sufficient crowd management plan in place that has been produced by a competent person, well versed with this type of event in this type of venue (stadium, arena or greenfield site).

“This plan would identify the crowd demographics, historical issues, the speed in which the show sold out, if it’s all seated or a mixture of seated and standing, capacity on the floor and the crowd density calculations.”

Steve also identified the following factors which can cause crowd surges:

• A desire to get as close to the stage as possible
• Compression when the main artist comes on stage
• Encouragement from the artist
• Poor design
• Rumours (such as terrorism or gun man in the crowd)
• Fire and similar incidents whereby crowds rush away from a specific area

What can you do prevent crowd surges happening?

Steve places the onus on event managers to “plan accordingly using competent personnel who specialise in this area. 

“We put thousands of people in an audience, who we encourage to drink alcohol, some may be under the influence of illegal drugs and all are understandably out to have a good time. None of these are sat in a confined seat with a seatbelt sign and as such, there is always a high risk at events, where large crowds gather, not just concerts.

Steve highlights that event organisers must have a “Showstop Procedure,” which is a “last line of defence for any life threatening incident relating to the crowds. 

“This may be a crowd collapse that is prolonged with signs of distress, a structural collapse, fire or other tangible emergency.”

What should you do if you get stuck in a crowd surge?

According to Steve, “You have to have faith in the people providing the crowd safety for the show and the people they have in place to monitor for signs of distress along with their swiftness to respond and stop the show temporarily to gain control of the situation, alleviate pressure in the crowd and reduce the density.