International Live Music Conference - March 9 to 11, 2001

Crowd safety has never been higher on the ILMC's agenda. From a small breakout group in 1999, the level of interest has grown to overshadow the entire 2001 conference, with a major plenary session devoted to the subject. Led by Star Hire's Roger Barrett and Roberto de Luca from Milano Concerti, the afternoon's guest speakers included Mick Upton, Leif Skov (Roskilde Festival) and Paul Wertheimer from Crowd Management Strategies in the USA.

While the last 10 years have seen 170 deaths directly related to crowds at large-scale events, the total including permanent venues reached more than 350 fatalities in the last year alone. "The industry has a good record for safety," pointed out Roger Barrett, "but I would argue that this is because there are no records."

Citing the recent tragedies in Denmark, Australia and Brazil, the panel examined the current trends in crowd culture and behaviour, focussing on the practices of moshing, crowd surfing and swaying, all of which have been highlighted as representing a danger in a large audience. Mick Upton asserted, however, that as many accidents occur while the audience is entering and leaving a venue, as while a show is under way. At outdoor events, blackouts during set changes can mean a 90-second gap in stewards' ability to deal with a problem three times the length of time that is required to kill someone in a static environment.

While different authorities impose widely differing barrier requirements on promoters, Upton agreed that few regional bodies have the expertise on hand to understand the exact needs of every type of audience. Promoters and production managers were urged to think about whether the local minimum requirements are sufficient for their act, and to act responsibly in creating a safe environment.

As far as crowd behaviour is concerned, Paul Wertheimer singled out Limp Bizkit as an indication that the band's attitude can drastically affect the safety of their audience. The band is currently running an interactive game on its web site encouraging players to beat their way past security and actively hurt other members of the crowd around them.

"Kids get the idea of doing these things from the way they are portrayed on band videos and TV," he said. "It's presented as hip and cool they never get to see the kid who doesn't get up. They know that the bands want to see their music have an effect on the crowd. If you want to allow this, you have to make it safe."

Action on the band's part may fuel a situation, but as Wertheimer pointed out, no one is immune from prosecution should the unthinkable happen. "We have been involved in around 50 litigation cases that have coma about from injuries at festivals," he explained. "Ninety-eight per cent of these were settled in favour of the plaintiff. The promoter, the band, the security company and the venue are all sued in these cases in the USA. Litigation will come your way if you don't do something about it. If you can't do it right, better not do it at all."

STANDARDS
Following the session, it was agreed that a Safety Focus Group should be set up, to work towards pan-European standards and controls on a variety of key issues, including safety lighting for pit crews during blackouts, and the nomination of a single person at each show who would have the authority to stop the performance for safety reasons.

The conference was also the launch pad for the U.K. Crowd Management Association, which aims to raise standards within the industry and promote awareness of crowd safety issues among legislative bodies throughout the country. The training of staff and standardisation of operational standards is one of the group's first tasks, as chairman Mark Grant explained: "Co-ordinating training standards and a pan-industry approach is now more important than ever, and we hope that by coming together as reputable competitors in one association we will create a climate of much greater co-operation for the benefit of our ultimate customers every single person who attends a public show, be it a music, corporate or sports event."

The lead is being taken by the inaugural members of the UKCMA, which represents the major players in crowd management. Founding member companies are:

• A.P. Security Consultants
• Events Management
• Events Security
• Goldrange Group
• Premier Security
• Rock Steady Security
• Show & Event Security
• ShowSec
• Special Events

COSTS
Other sessions during the two-day conference included an examination of touring production costs, led by Brian Croft. Chris Beale, MD of SSE Hire, castigated manufacturers for encouraging end users to specify unnecessary levels of technology on tour riders. "We have to stop people doing things on the basis of some perceived improvement," he argued, "and that control has to come from the people who are purchasing these services."

Dave Crump of Screenco echoed this sentiment. "Supply companies are being pushed down in price by competition, while we are being forced to provide higher and higher levels of technology. Show designers are trying to be imaginative and exciting perhaps to support newer artists who are not musically as good as more experienced acts. Management should take responsibility for scaling down and go back to giving the punter a good performance from the artist."

The continuing evolution of the live event market came under scrutiny in a session chaired by Malcolm McKenzie of EMAP Performance Network. The potential for exporting the successful superclub concept and the escalating costs of big-name DJs were among the points raised; however, one of the most revealing discussions centred around the burgeoning outdoor market.

Panellist James Barton pointed out that the dance music industry has now developed a better model for large-scale outdoor shows, as witnessed at Creamfields and Homelands. It was generally agreed that although the live industry has been slow to recognise the validity of dance events, there is much common ground between the two areas. The panel and audience alike admitted that rock'n'roll festival organisers have a high degree of expertise in the technical and logistical fields, but it was felt that dance promoters were more aware of marketing and audience-related matters.

ILMC Voices Safety and Tour Cost Issues

The 13th International Live Music Conference, held at the Royal Garden Hotel in London on March 9-11th, brought together some 600 delegates to debate the hottest issues facing the live music industry this year.

Crowd safety turned out to be the conference's keynote session, confounding sceptics who professed that the issue would be boring. In the event, the two and a half hour session was packed to capacity and, under the chairmanship of Star Hire's Roger Barrett and his vice-chair, Roberto de Luca of Italian promoters Concerti di Milano, raised ILMC's temperature with a fiery debate that explored the responsibilities of promoters, stage managers, artists and audience members in creating a 'safe show'.

In the wake of the recent tragedies at Roskilde, Australia's 'Big Day Out' event and elsewhere, this session and its issue was sufficiently high profile to gain a BBC Radio 1 Lamacq Live broadcast on March 12. Interest was also heightened by the launch, at ILMC, of the UK Crowd Management Association, the UK's first grouping of crowd management and security companies at the forefront of music and sports events in the UK.

The breakout 'Engine Room' session, chaired by Vari-Lite's Brian Croft, looked into the long-standing accusation by promoters and agents that tour supply companies overcharge artistes to a point where there is no money left in the deal for promoters. Supply companies respond that they are merely fulfilling a specification laid down by the sound engineers, lighting designers, set designers and production managers, all of who are on the payroll of the artiste, not them. They add that fierce competition between supply companies, and an over-supply situation, denies the possibility of any cartels or price rigging.

The conclusions were that the costs of touring might be seen as high - but the panel was hard pushed to put its finger on the exact spot. Perhaps it is only too high in relation to (diminished) overall annual box office revenues.

Fingers were pointed at three possible culprits:

• manufacturers hard-selling to the specifiers
• inexperienced artist managers and/or production managers (but not at the top end of the market);
• over-enthusiastic set designers.

Roger Barrett chaired the 'Safety In Numbers' session, the keynote debate of the weekend. The session was a combination of the Safety Focus Group (SFG) set up by Yourope (the organisation of European festival promoters) in the wake of last year's Roskilde tragedy, and ILMC organisers' desire for Barrett to chair a Safety Focus Group session at this year's conference.

Topics included:

• the need to educate the audience
• the dangers of crowd surfing and side-to-side swaying
• the activities of Limp Bizkit and their audiences
• the need for a single person with authority to stop a show when audience members are in danger
• the need to light up the crowd in front of the stage
• the exit points during stage blackouts
• the merits of different barrier designs

In his summing up, Barrett won a show of hands in support of setting up a new working party - the ILMC Safety Focus Group - to carry on the original SFG's work, with the endorsement of ILMC host Martin Hopewell.

MIKE LETHBY