The crowd goes wild: How Covid-19 has changed our behaviour at events

Friday, 3 December 2021

Covid-19 has changed crowd behaviour, international experts say. How are New Zealand experts keeping people safe at large events? VICKI ANDERSON reports.

In a crowd, are you excitable or argumentative and pogoing like a pinball? If the thought of a large crowd in a Covid-19 world fills you with dread, you’re not alone.

An internationally acclaimed expert in crowd science and safety, Professor Keith Still from the University of Suffolk in Britain, said crowd behaviour has “fundamentally changed” because of Covid-19 and the subsequent restrictions to limit its spread.

“We are seeing three distinct crowd types now,” said Still, who has advised on high profile events from events held at Buckingham Palace to the Olympic Games for over four decades.

“They are the Covid cautious - people who are just avoiding places and events entirely. The second type is the celebratory - the exhuberant 'yay, restrictions are lifted, let's have the mother of all parties’ type. Finally, we have the contentious crowds - 'you're not going to take my temperature, I'm not going to wear a goddamn mask and you're not going to vaccinate me'.”

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Still said large-scale events will now tend to attract the “celebratory and contentious types” and event organisers should adapt their event management plans accordingly.

“Organisers should be aware that these are the types coming out and you need to deal with the contentious crowd in a different way. There are legitimate concerns and fears. You need to consider that the exuberant, celebratory crowd might be more enthusiastic than normal. It’s a question of being aware of it and adapting to the different styles.”

Anyone staging events needs to be aware that the behaviour of their audience has fundamentally changed, said Still. “Without that, when the environment changes out of your experience, you can get caught in some of the issues that could result in injury.

“There is more to crowd control than just putting some barriers up. It requires a lot of careful consideration - matching the performer to the venue, matching the containment area to the crowd.”

On November 5, 10 people including a young child were killed and hundreds injured in the chaos and crowd-crush at Astroworld music festival headlined by Travis Scott at NRG Park in Houston, Texas.

One of nearly 50,000 festival attendees, Seanna Faith McCarty, 22, described the harrowing experience of being caught in the crowd in a detailed account on Instagram which has since been viewed more than one million times.

It is published in part by Stuff with McCarty's permission:

“You were at the mercy of the wave,” she wrote of her experience. “Within the first 30 seconds of the first song, people began to drown - in other people. There were so many people… The rush of people became tighter and tighter. Breathing became something only a few were capable of. The rest were crushed or unable to breathe in the thick, hot air.”

When she and her friend tried to get out, they could not and became separated.

“There was nowhere to go. The shoving got harder and harder. If someone's arms had been up, it was no longer a possibility to put it down… It became more and more violent. More people began to scream for help, some began to collapse,” she wrote.

“Once one fell, a hole opened in the ground. Person after person were sucked down. You were at the mercy of the wave.”

McCarty was praised for her subsequent actions of climbing a tower to alert authorities and medics to the dire situation, with her efforts having been captured on video.

In the wake of the tragedy, Public Enemy's Chuck D released an open letter defending Scott and accusing promoter Live Nation of shirking “their most crucial responsibilty”.

“Travis Scott is a performer, not a concert promoter. He doesn’t build stages or co-ordinate logistics, he’s not an expert in crowd control or security or emergency medical services. But he does trust Live Nation and all the other concert promoters who are supposed to do all of this,” said Chuck D in a statement.

“This negligence can’t continue. Folks want answers. I’m not buying the Young Black Man did it. He’s being blamed for a crime while the old white men running the corps… stay quiet in the shadows, counting their money and watching their stock prices go up and up.”

On Thursday, Live Nation announced the postponement of its premier New Zealand festival Rhythm and Vines, citing the Government’s Covid-19 protection framework settings being at red for the Gisborne region.

A petition launched by concerned local iwi collected several thousand signatures calling for the festival to be cancelled over Covid-19 concerns.

Rhythm and Vines Easter has been rescheduled to be held over four nights in April 2022.

Still said he didn't yet have any specifics of the Astroworld disaster, but it appeared it may have been a “mismatch between the crowd and what was required for crowd safety”.

“Something was fundamentally wrong with the system and I'm sure the inquiry will get to the bottom of it; hopefully the industry will take notice and take these things into account,” he said.

Such tragedies have occured for decades - from a 1979 concert in Ohio by The Who where 11 people died in the rush for entry, to nearly 100 deaths from asphyxiation at the Hillsborough soccer stadium in Britain in 1989.

‘Crowd quakes’

A phenomenon known as a “crowd quake” occurs spontaneously when human density reaches the critical threshold of six people per square metre. Physical contact at this level of crowding means even the slightest movement can cause a surge of “turbulence” that causes people to fall and creates physical pressure.

After a long time of being isolated because of the pandemic, people are eager for freedom and a return to events – but some say the risks are greater now because of it. In short, we’re all a bit rusty at dealing with large crowds, but we’re also eager to socialise.

It is well documented that people change when they are part of a large crowd. The force of a crowd surge can be great enough to “bend steel”, said Still.

Crowd density is an important factor, but so are crowd surges which can occur because of the weather, a perceived threat or even simply the arrival of a performer on stage.

NZ part of Global Safety Alliance

With little fanfare and after more than a year in the planning, the Global Crowd Management Alliance (GCMA) launched on Wednesday as part of the Event Safety Summit being held in the United States.

A non-profit organisation, the GCMA aims to promote reasonable crowd management and crowd safety practices worldwide, leading to a globally recognised body of knowledge for professional crowd managers.

The initiative, spearheaded by the United Kingdom Crowd Management Association (UKCMA), the United States-based Event Safety Alliance (ESA) and Event Safety Alliance Canada (ESAC), includes board members from Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, and a list of supporters and advocates spanning more than 15 countries on five continents.

The New Zealand founding board representative is Christchurch-based Cary Caldwell who has worked on major events worldwide for a number of years.

In his pre-Covid-19 role as planning manager of the prestigious SxSW festival in Austin, Texas, he regularly liaised with US Homeland Security, FBI, US Secret Service and, “on rare occasions”, the CIA. When Covid-19 saw the cancellation of SxSW, Caldwell returned to Christchurch.

“New Zealand previously had the enviable situation where, because of our country's original border closures, we were in a position to continue to have mass-scale sporting and musical events and tours,” Caldwell said.

Transition to the new traffic light system has meant new procedures and protocols to get events back on track, thus “creating new challenges for ingress, security and crowd-flow management” said Caldwell.

He said having an international team of experts working towards a standardised level of safety protocols “goes a long way to mitigating dangers”.

This view was echoed by GCMA chairman Eric Stuart who also chairs the UK Crowd Management Association.

“Now, as we emerge from the global pandemic that brought the events industry to a standstill, and which has seen a mass exodus of experienced workers, training and education is more important than ever,” Stuart said.

Caldwell, whose extensive international event expertise is being utilised at the Rhythm & Alps festival and multiple Team Events festival events in Christchurch this summer, said crowd science was “very specific but important” knowledge.

“Crowd science… is something that everybody always needs to be aware of. You put any mass crowd together and it only takes one incident to have a ripple effect that can create some horrendous conditions.”

He said if you feel the crowd around you increasing, and you feel uncomfortable, leave while you can and while you still have enough room to move.

How to tell if the crowd is too 'dense’

If you are standing comfortably and no-one is touching you, density will likely be at a safe level of under three people per square metre.

If you find yourself bumping into others without intending to, crowd density is likely at four or five people per metre. This is the perfect time to assess your situation and move to a less congested area.

Worried it’s too crowded? Try to touch your nose. If you can't, there are too many people and it is dangerous.

If it's too late to leave, there are things you can do. Try to remain on your feet. Avoid screaming and control your breathing. Fold your arms in front of you to create space around your lungs. Go with the flow of the crowd, don't resist, and try to keep your balance. Be kind to those around you and try to keep calm.

Still recommends event organisers use crowd spotters who can quickly communicate to stage managers to stop the event if necessary.

Caldwell said he would like to see New Zealand have more of a focus on event entry and exit points, or “ingress and egress” as it's known in the trade.

He suggested festival goers should spend just 30 seconds when they arrive at the event to arrange a place to meet friends if they become separated, to note all the exits at the venue, and to just become aware of their surroundings.

“If you are thinking it is starting to feel a little 'I don't feel right', move away, move towards the back. You're still going to see the show.”

He said it was “commonsense stuff” that people tended to ignore when they were focused on enjoying themselves.

“We want everyone to have a good time. I think we've all earned it.”