Leadership / 12.08.21

Astroworld: IAVM's Mark Herrera's 6 Ways to Mitigate Risk During a Crowd Crisis

Access Staff

VenuesNow (11/30/21) Borba, Ryan

International Association of Venue Managers Director of Education Mark Herrera says mitigating hazards that led to the deadly crowd surge at the Astroworld Festival in Houston is integral. "Those behavioral patterns that are creating the crowd surge have to be identified way in advance, and there has to be an interjection — utilizing teams to diffuse, control, remove, whatever it is — before that spools out of control," he notes. "But if you're not training teams to do that, we're becoming very reactive." Herrera cites six areas to focus on to prevent similar tragedies, starting with doing a better job of recognizing and reporting conditions that may require crowd movement. The second area involves understanding crowd movement dynamics and methods, while learning the response plans and evacuation protocols for all venues and all kinds of events is the third. Herrera's fourth tip is to make everyone willing to help and direct people to safety during an incident. The fifth safeguard entails continuing to search areas to make sure they are clear all the time, and the sixth tip is to be able to aid first responders as directed.

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Tags: Security , News , Leadership