Lack of Stadium Seating Can Cause Concert Chaos By Eric Jaffa, Friday, November 18, 2005
Concerts should be designed for safety.
As a general rule, concerts should only be given in places where the audience sits on an incline, whether it’s indoor stadium seating or an outdoor slope. The risk otherwise is that the audience will surge towards the stage as they try to see the performers.
There have been successful outdoor concerts on flat ground, like assorted concerts in Central Park in New York. It’s not impossible for that to succeed, but it’s risky. Chaos at a concert in a mall near Minneapolis, Minnesota (November 12, 2005)
Malls are usually bad places to have a concert, because of the flat-ground issue which causes the audience to surge towards the stage, lacking a good view because they're not on an incline. Pearl Jam In 2000, nine people in were killed at a Pearl Jam outdoor concert on flat-ground when the crowd surged forward. The organizers learned from the experience that “life is fragile” but continue staging concerts on flat-ground. The concert was at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. It’s unfortunate that the organizers didn’t learn from this to install stadium seating. There are other factors which affect safety. If it's crowded-a lot of people per square yard-and there is no stadium seating, that makes it more dangerous. Relatedly, it's better if there are chairs, instead of most people standing.
6 Comments
|