Communication is key – be it for your relationship with a significant other, how you handle responsibility at work, or even that one-off text to your grandmother letting her know you’re still alive – communication lies in the center of success. When it comes to guaranteeing the safety of an event or function, tight lines of communication amongst all parties involved, coordinator and attendants alike, will determine if an event is successful or not. 
To drive this point home, let us examine an instance in which communication faltered, and mayhem ensued. December 31st 2014, Shanghai – Thousands of people attend the annual riverfront promenade, eager to catch a glimpse of the infamous light show on New Year’s Eve. As Midnight approaches, crowds of people begin to rush down the promenade and up a staircase toward the riverfront. Suddenly, thousands of other attendees begin to rush AWAY from the riverfront, and down that same staircase. The outcome is what is known today as the Shanghai Stampede. Unbeknownst to half the attendees, and due to horrible communication from security, the light show was actually cancelled without an official announcement. No lines of public-facing communication were established, which saw a half and half split of attendees running toward and away from the riverfront, into a head-on stampede, killing 36 people, and injured some 47 others.[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-30646918].

You see, not only is it important to have open lines of communication internally, but it is just as important, if not more important, to have open lines of communication to the public in case of any updates or scheduling changes that inevitably occur. Internally, you must make sure everyone is on the same page. As noted in the event safety blog on Social Tables: “Your staff needs to stay in constant communication. Be sure each staff member has a walkie-talkie.” https://www.socialtables.com/blog/event-planning/event-security-101/.
With consistent, open lines of communication, any hint of issues or danger can be effectively communicated throughout the internal team, and in many cases, requires updates or scheduling changes that must be clearly conveyed to the public. BrooklynVegan, a prominent music blog, noted the importance of communication during an emergency schedule change of a political speaking event at NYU: “Mayor Bill de Blasio today requested that NYU postpone and reschedule the classroom appearance by Milo Yiannopoulos for public safety reasons in light of the nearby Halloween parades and NYPD assessments of risk. Given the importance of close coordination between NYU’s Public Safety personnel and the NYPD to ensuring safety, the University agreed to the postponement.” http://www.brooklynvegan.com/milo-yiannopoulos-nyu-appearance-cancelled-over-safety-concerns/

 A prime example of effective communication, safety concerns were noted by NYU Security, effectively communicated to the NYPD, in which this coloborative effort led to the decision to postpone, and eventually cancel this event. 
Another example of incredibly diligent security measures occurred just this Summer, during a scheduled rap concert hosting the infamous Cardi B. Just thirty minutes before the scheduled start time of the concert in Indianapolis, attendees were notified that, “due to security threats”, the concert would be postponed and moved to a later date. [https://www.complex.com/music/2019/07/cardi-b-indianapolis-show-postponed-over-security-threat]. Though surly a bummer for fans excited to see their favorite stripper-turned-rapper, guaranteed safety for all parties involved is of foremost importance. Below you can see the incredible communication put on display by this obviously veteran concert staff and security teams. 

    Agreed upon by any publication outlining how to run a tight-ship at an event, communication is key to ensuring the safety of all parties involved. Be diligent internally to make sure everyone is on the same page, and be gracious to your attendees by letting them know what is happening – fast. Not only will your event run without a hitch, but your customers will leave happy, informed, and eager to come back next time.

To help add to the experience of this site, I have added a couple links to relevant blogs that talk about events, venues or other relevant topics.

• BrooklynVegan

A blog all about music that covers a ton of live events, especially ones in NYC

• Complex

Huge media blog covers everything from sports to music. Any catastrophic event that occurs at a concert or a sporting event will be covered on here. Some good bloggers to follow on Complex include Jose Martinez and Shawn Setaro.

• Concert Crap

Blog that covers all sorts of recent concerts. They review the shows and what went wrong at them.

• Concerts Reddit

Although not exactly a blog, this is the Reddit forum where users talk all about concerts and where you can find information about any mishappening at a concert.

• Consequence of Sound

Another blog all about music and live events.

• Fans Against Violence

An organization that hopes to improve the safety of game day experiences at professional events. They also run a blog along with their site.

• Live Music Blog

A blog that strictly covers the live music scene.

• Social Tables

A service that helps provide safety at of guests and staff at venues.

• The Venue Report

A blog that covers all sorts of different venues around the world for events like weddings and such.

A Mississippi venue is under a lot of scrutiny after cancelling plans for a wedding, once realizing the couple getting married was interracial.

What once began as a harmonious celebration of the joining of two individuals, quickly became a viral story of deep-seeded racism and hate that we see far too often in this day and age. Boone’s Camp Event Hall, a venue which is located at 101 E Church Street in Booneville, Mississippi, was getting geared up to host a wedding ceremony in the coming months. As a hot venue in deep Mississippi, weddings are all too common for Boone’s Camp as they march into cooler, Fall weather. The bride and groom, only months away from their “I Do’s” and neck deep in planning, suddenly received a call out of the blue from a Boone’s employee, delivering the heart-breaking message that they unfortunately cannot move forward with this wedding, due to their ‘christian race’, (or was it christian beliefs?) – seemingly, it’s the all one and the same to Boone’s Camp, who probably also believes that Andrew Johnson is president and Jim Crowe laws apply in their “Christian State”. Here is the full quote: “First of all, we don’t do gay weddings or mixed race, because of our Christian race — I mean, our Christian belief..” 

(https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mississippi-venue-dont-do-gay-weddings-mixed-race-owner-says-in-viral-video-boone-camp-hall-sister-booneville-couple/)

When the groom’s sister found about this, she drove down to the venue herself to confront the owner, and recorded the entire interaction on camera and posted it on social media, hoping to get a rise out of the community.

(https://heavy.com/news/2019/09/boones-camp-event-hall/)

The backlash for Boone’s Camp Event Hall has been rampant, as the company’s Facebook page, Yelp page, and other online sites have been shutdown, most likely due to the number of users joining in to bash the venue and its owners for what most believe is a disgusting decision. Not only is the community unhappy with the decision, they also found that is unlawful. Mississippi state laws did pass a “religious freedom law” that allowed businesses to refuse LGBT weddings, but no such law exists for interracial weddings, therefore causing the owners’ actions to be illegal. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-miscegenation_laws_in_the_United_States) Since, Boone’s Camp has issued an empty apology, stating: “To all of those offended, hurt or felt condemn by my statement I truly apologize to you for my ignorance in not knowing the truth about this,” the now-deleted apology read. “My intent was never of racism, but to stand firm on what I ‘assumed’ was right concerning marriage.”[https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/09/03/mississippi-wedding-venue-rejects-interracial-couple-christian-belief-apologized/]. What’s to come for Boone’s Camp is yet to be seen, but if one things is for certain – Boone’s Camp will not be on my list of wedding venue considerations in this lifetime. 

A fatal security misstep can not only spell disaster for an event, but may, in the worst possible scenarios, lead to mass fatalities. 

It’s early Spring, 1989, a relatively cool time in the metropolitan hub of Sheffield, England. Along with Spring comes rainy season, and more importantly, the end of the football year. 

April 15th: Two juggernauts of football face off in an electric FA Cup Semi-Final match. Will the Liverpool Reds stay true, and hold the top the premier league table, or will Nottingham Forest bring the pressure, and get a chance to snatch the crown for themselves? This is the only question on the minds of the more than 50,000 people gathered at Hillsborough Stadium. (https://www.cnn.com/2016/04/25/world/hillsborough-disaster-fast-facts/index.html)

With such a popular match held at Hillsborough – which rarely sees more than a gathering of die-hard fans – space outside of the stadium is limited. Fans wearing the classic Liverpool red and Nottingham white pour into the stadium, desperate to get to their seats (which rarely feel the kiss of buttox-cheeks), for fear of missing a second of this epic showdown. 

In order to relieve a pileup of Liverpool fans rushing into the stadium, event security opens up an exit gate to usher the crowd inside. More than 3,000 fans were funneled into a standing-room-only area with a safe capacity of just 1,600. This is the misstep that led to the deaths of 95 fans, with another 162 hospitalized.

Due to poor communication and sloppy coordination by the event security, officials at first believed the commotion going on to be no more than a clashing of fans and your average tomfoolery, so “police never fully activated the major incident procedure”. Fans strong enough to push through, clamored onto the field in a desperate attempt to get to safety. The Taylor Interm Report describes the scene as: “…truly gruesome. The victims were blue, cyanotic, incontinent; their mouths open, vomiting; their eyes staring. A pile of dead bodies lay and grew outside gate 3. Extending further and further on to the pitch, the injured were laid down and attempts made to revive them.” (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Hillsborough_Stadium_Disaster_Interim_Report/Part_1)

The Hillsborough Disaster has managed to carry on to this day, where just this March, David Duckenfield declared he will not testify in his trial for the gross negligence manslaughter of 95 football fans. (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-47555666) 

As one of the worst tragedies to ever happen due to gross security negligence, football matches have since learned from their predecessors actions, and have taken it upon themselves to make sure this never happens again. New open-seating models have been created to remove the possibility of bottlenecks, and 3rd party ticket selling became regulated, along with numerous other changes in an effort to prevent fan hooliganism. The Hillsborough Disaster was just that, a disaster, and to this day, resides in the back of every public safety director’s mind.