Crowd Control and Liability: High-Attendance Events and Insurance Needs

Large-scale events like festivals, conferences, and sports games have immense liability risk. Poor safety measures and crowd management can cause injuries and even death. Some incidents can’t be prevented even with the most meticulous plans. Event liability insurance is critical for events with higher attendance numbers.

In this guide, we will go over the risks of high-attendance events, benefits of event insurance, and how to protect your events from incidents.

The Importance of Crowd Control in Event Safety

Crowd control involves maintaining safety and order for large crowds. The goal is to prevent crowd crushes, riots, fights, and other risks. Having good crowd control is essential for attendee and performer safety, visitor experience, risk mitigation, and regulation compliance.

Here are the main components of crowd control for events.

Security staffing

Event organizers need to ask the question of how many guards are needed for their event. The answer depends on many factors, such as how many guests will attend and how large the venue is. Typically, one security guard is necessary for every 25 to 50 guests. If your event is likely to have hustlers, fights, celebrity fans, sports, or other security risks, it is a good idea to have more security guards. You need to assess the risk profile of attendees and the dangerous of your event type.

Venue layout

The venue type and scope can change what safety measures you need. Your staff members and security guards need to be properly spread out across the venue. The layout directly shapes the flow of the crowd.

If there are more entrances and exits, it reduces crowd pressure and can prevent surges and crushes. Wider exits are also important for safer emergency evacuations because they allow for more orderly and faster crowd movement.

Unobstructed venue paths are another factor of crowd control safety. Event hosts need to ensure that no walkways are blocked. A blocked hallway can cause great confusion during emergencies.

Emergency exits

Event venues should have various emergency exits that comply with safety requirements. Legal emergency exit requirements include having fire exits with fire-resistant materials, visible EXIT signs, and clear, unobstructed paths.

Communication systems

Security and staff should be able to communicate as needed. If there is a fire or other incident, you need to be able to project announcements. Good communication systems include:

• Functional speaker systems and public address (PA)
• Good audio coverage for all sections of crowd
• Clear and audible announcements

Examples of past crowd-related incidents and lessons learned

We recommend looking at well-known incidents that have occurred at events similar to yours. This can give you a better idea of what risks to prepare for.

There have been emergencies at crowded events where people end up moving away from the emergency exits because they could not clearly tell where the exits were and only followed the crowd flow, resulting in mass casualties.

There have been tragic crowd crushes where attendees go to small venues to celebrate and end up unable to move because of a lack of proper crowd control measures.

Liability Risks in High-Attendance Events

Bodily injury

Slips and falls are one of the most common bodily injury lawsuits in general. A single bodily injury lawsuit could set you back millions of dollars. High-attendance events are also susceptible to trampling and crowd crushes, especially if you have a small venue. A major liability risk of any crowded event is the possibility of widespread, serious injuries.

Property damage

When hosting an in-person event, it’s easy to accidentally break venue facilities or third-party equipment. This can be worse at high-attendance events because large crowds make it easier for property to be overlooked and stepped on.

Security incidents

Events can be dangerous because of fights, theft, or vandalism. Some incidents, like riots and fights, can spread like wildfire as people become more hostile to each other.

If you serve alcohol, it can increase the likelihood of a fight, accident, or other safety risk at your event. Liquor liability is a special type of liability. Depending on your event type and location, you (the host) may be automatically liable for bodily injuries and property damage if a liquor-related incident takes place during your event.

Reputational harm

An event’s poor crowd control can lead to lawsuits and negative publicity. The worse the reputation of your event, the easier it can be for plaintiffs to group together and come after you.

Insurance Coverage for Large-Scale Events

General liability insurance

General liability coverage offers protection against third party injury and property claims. It is the standard event insurance for most events. If you’re organizing an event with crowds, it is crucial to carry enough general liability insurance to protect your bottom line.

Event cancellation insurance

Event cancellation insurance provides financial compensation for unforeseen event shutdowns. Events can get cancelled for a myriad of reasons, such as:

• Key performer illness
• Poor weather
• Flight delays and cancellations

Liquor liability insurance

If alcohol is served at your event, whether for a price or for free, the host needs to carry liquor liability insurance. Failing to comply with liquor laws can be extremely costly.

In states that have dram shop laws, if your event has an alcohol-related incident, the event host is automatically liable for damages.

Terrorism and active shooter coverage

Unfortunately, terrorism coverage has become increasingly relevant for major events. Any high-attendance event could become the target of a terrorist attack, especially events like political rallies. Big crowds can be more vulnerable to shootings. It may be helpful for peace of mind to purchase terrorism coverage for your event.

Workers’ compensation

Any event organizer with staff, workers, and volunteers needs to carry workers’ compensation insurance. Workers’ comp provides benefits and protection to employees who get injured or ill on the job.

The Intersection of Insurance and Crowd Management

Insurers’ expectations

Before issuing coverage, event insurance companies do expect the event host to put in place reasonable safety measures. Crowd management should be a part of an event organizer’s plan.

How inadequate crowd control can void or limit coverage

If the insurance company assesses your crowd control plan and finds it lacking, they may refuse to cover you fully. You may receive partial coverage or be denied. The insurance company may void your coverage if:

• You don’t follow the insurer’s approved safety plan or conditions
• You don’t have documented procedures to prove compliance
• You allow overcrowding to happen, exceeding safe capacity limits
• You ignore venue safety requirements

Risk assessments as part of insurance underwriting

Event insurance companies typically count crowd risks as part of their insurance underwriting. They will review your event’s crowd-related factors when devising your policy, such as:

• Expected attendance
• Event type
• Venue layout
• Security
• Alcohol
• Expected weather

Based on their data and findings, you may receive different insurance premiums, add-ons, and coverage limits. Event insurance companies may even require you to implement additional safety measures before covering your event.

Proactive safety measures

There are many cases where proactive safety measures were able to reduce liability and claims. For example, an electrical fire at your event can go very differently if your staff members are trained to know the exit plan, or if they aren’t.

Practical Strategies for Event Organizers

Conduct thorough risk assessments based on expected attendance

Expected attendance is a range you should calculate based on previous events of the same type, time, and size. Knowing the expected crowd numbers will help you better manage the crowds.

Hire trained security and medical staff

Security guards, physicians, and other trained staff members can greatly reduce the chances of an incident at your event. Guards commonly serve as a deterrent since troublemakers who see the event as protected may be less likely to assault others.

Use technology

Surveillance, ticket scanning, and real-time crowd monitoring can help you spot risks and manage them before they worsen.

Draft clear evacuation and emergency plans

Every event should have an evacuation plan. There should be emergency plans for natural disasters, shootings, crowd surges, and other potential crises. Staff members should know what to do in case of an emergency and be able to answer questions like where are the first aid kits? Where are the fire exits?

Document safety measures to support insurance claims

Event organizers shouldn’t only verbally decide on safety measures. It is best practice to have records of how your event is dealing with safety risks and hazards.

If an incident happens, it should be possible to trace your safety measures and provide proof that your event fulfilled reasonable safety obligations. This can support your liability claims.

Legal and Regulatory Considerations

Event organizers need to ensure they’re meeting the local and national safety regulations for large gatherings. You may need municipal permits to hold special events.

Liability waivers may be helpful for reducing the event organizer’s liability risks. If you require your vendors and performers to carry their own event insurance, it can also spread out the risks and provide more financial protection for everyone.

Future Outlook

Evolving crowd control technologies

AI has entered a lot of different industries, including crowd control. Essentially, smart tech allows for better monitoring, predictions, and responses to risks. Real-time risk management advances can help prevent crowd surges, bottlenecks, and abnormalities. However, these AI-integrated innovations still have a way to go before every event begins using them as standard security. High tech event risk management options include:

AI-powered video analytics: Helps authorities monitor patterns in crowds to avoid crowds and violence in a timely manner.

Drones: Drones equipped with cameras can provide aerial views of your event. This is great for high-attendance events where crowd surges, unauthorized entries, and other problems need to be quickly dealt with. Even a slight congestion can snowball into a crowd emergency.

Smart wristbands: Smart watches and bands can analyze information and alert event security of risks in real-time.

Insurance industry adapting policies for events

There are large-scale events, and then there are huge events with people as far as the eye can see. Insurance companies have been forced to recalibrate and adapt to new risks as crowds grow in size, mega sized events becoming more commonplace. To adapt, insurance companies are looking towards options including:

• Specialized policies with higher limits and dedicated teams
• Usage-based insurance premiums
• Underwriting and risk assessments focusing on crowd management plans and real-time monitoring
• Contingency planning and crisis response

Balancing transparency for public trust

A paradoxical issue about safety is that you need to implement it at events. Yet if you tell the public about the details, it can devastate your safety measures. High-attendance events often have specialized security teams, guards, and even armed snipers to help avert horrible crises. Emergency protocols need to be well planned and taught to event teams. Exits need to be clear and easily found. The public should feel safe when they attend your event.

Conclusion

High-attendance events amplify both excitement and risks. Joy spreads easily, but so does distress. Imagine a small corporate event at work. If someone suddenly screams, it’s easy to identify the potential problem and react to it more calmly. In a crowd, if a scream erupts, it can cause crowd crushes and safety risks regardless of the danger.

The right crowd control plan and event insurance policy weave together to form maximized protection for you and your attendees. Check out the best event insurance companies to cover your high-attendance event today.