With coronavirus delivering a huge blow to the music industry, times are tough. With limits on crowd numbers and most live events for 2020 cancelled or rescheduled, recent news doesn’t offer any silver linings – health officials warn that moshing and crowdsurfing may be a thing of the past.
With plans for concerts and live events across the world to resume next year, bigger and better, an organisation called Event Safety Alliance has been formed to ensure the health and safety of patrons.
Will live music ever be the same after the pandemic? Health experts are putting a halt to moshing and crowdsurfing for the time being.
The Event Safety Alliance have come out with a thorough 29-page document detailing the ways in which live venues and events will need to operate in order to comply with health and safety regulations. In collaboration with over “400 promoters, caterers, Ticketmaster employees,” the document means that we will see the introduction of some new regulations that will become part of the live experience, at least for the time being. Moshing and crowdsurfing are the first to go, in a temporary ban that has no defined end date.
As well as the more obvious regulations – such as hand sanitising stations and responding to the ill health of any patrons – the document will also see concert-goers adhere to staggered entry times and compulsory contactless merchandise purchases. The document guide opens with a clear statement enforcing social distancing measures:
“A few obvious changes will be necessary whenever GA events do reopen,” it reads. “Patrons cannot all stand at the front of the stage like they are accustomed; moshing and crowdsurfing are violations of social distancing per se and must be absolutely prohibited during this pandemic.”
Whether or not these regulations will be legally enforced next year we are yet to find out. If you’d like to get in some reading time whilst in isolation, you can catch the full document guide here.
