A bunch of people were injured and some died at a concert this past weekend when the crowd of 50,000 (reportedly) surged forward and people were crushed.
I heard a crowd control expert discuss this on the news. He said that people will point the finger at the crowd saying things like: the crowd caused it because they selfishly wanted to get closer to the stage or they wanted to “cheat” the system and get into the VIP section for free. He said that it has nothing to do with the crowd, it had to do with poor crowd control and planning. He explained that concerts with stadium seating – which is basically standing room only – you have to carefully plan the inflow and outflow of people. You must plan for an an adequate number of accessible exits. You have to staff up to accommodate surges. He said when people are crushed to death at events like this, it is always due to a failure of crowd control and can be anticipated and thus prevented.
He sounded like he knew what he was talking about. He ran a crowd control business for over 25 years, so I suspect he does.
My method for dealing avoiding the madness of crowds is much simpler – I don’t go to crowded places.
My first experience with crowds was Christmas shopping in downtown Pittsburgh when I was 8 years old. My sister and I took the bus downtown to shop at Hornes, Gimbels, and Kaufmann’s. The streets were so packed with shoppers and workers that cars could barely get through. People bumped into you everywhere. In the department stores, you could barely squeeze past the perfume counter beauties spraying women, the old babushkas ladies picking through the closeout table, the suits buying jewelry and watches and the housewives pushing carts full of stuff for their families.
It was the most people I’d ever been around in one place. It was kind of neat, but kind of overwhelming too. Even the bus ride home was standing room only with people pushing and shoving and jostling for an hour on an overcrowded hot bus.
Another standout memory was at the end of the year in middle school. I rode the “black” bus from the ghetto where I lived to Greenway Middle School in the lily white suburbs. I was one of 3 white kids who lived in the ghetto, but nobody ever messed with me (I was the invisible man). On the bus, there was a palpable tension in the air. I didn’t know what was up but I had a bad feeling. Someone must have told me on the bus that there was going to be a big black vs. white brawl that day.
I remember getting off the bus at the bottom of the giant hill and seeing kids pour off of my bus and be joined by a bunch of older black kids from the high school down the street. They raced up the hill with boards and bats to confront the white kids at the top of the hill.
Some of these kids racing up were my friends. We rode the bus together. We roller skated at the community center. We played curb ball. Some even defended me from bullies. Seeing them race up the hill like crazed combatants was frightening. I never saw what actually happened, because I went straight into school and minded my own business. Like I said, I was the invisible man.
Five years later I went downtown to Point State Park to watch the 4th of July Fireworks. It was so crowded that people were packed in shoulder to shoulder for miles. It was raining (of course) and some people had umbrellas up. You couldn’t see the fireworks through the mist, the smoke and the umbrellas. You couldn’t leave due to the density of the crowd. There were drunk people everywhere. My friend and I went to meet girls and fortunately for us we did meet some. We got out of their and had a fun night drinking and fooling around at their home back in the suburbs.
My last big crowd memory was New Year’s Eve when I was 20, once again in downtown Pittsburgh. It was so packed that it took us over an hour to drive into a parking garage. Then we roamed the street with thousands (tens of thousands?) of other people in frigid cold temperatures looking for something to do.
We tried to sneak into parties at the local hotels, but having no invitations and being broke, we were unsuccessful. We had hoped to “pick up some chicks” but had no success.
Eventually, after hours of bumping into people that seemed to be having a lot more fun than I ever had on New Year’s Eve, midnight struck and we felt like we could leave. We pushed though the crowds back to the parking garage where it took another 90 minutes to get out.
I don’t remember the exact details, but I’d guess we headed out to the suburbs and ended up hanging out at the all night Eat ‘N’Park and having way more fun there at a table with 4 friends.
Once I was an adult, I stopped going to crowded places mostly because they’d make me feel like , “I gotta get out of here and get some air.”
I did go to some great concerts with my wife – Dave Matthews, Melissa Etheridge, Spin Doctors, Steve Miler and others. These were crowded, but never overwhelming.
And when unavoidable, I’d reluctantly accompany her to the mall for Christmas shopping where I’d try to find a hidden corner I could tuck myself into while she shopped merrily for hours.
I also was in crowds working for Corporate America when I had to attend big conferences. Here they would jam auditoriums with seats bolted together and rows jammed up against each other like were were flying Spirit Airlines. The bathrooms would be overwhelmed during breaks to the point where trash was all over the floor, privacy was nonexistent, and I suspect some people pissed in the sinks. Lunch was a madhouse as were any sessions were the keynote speakers were famous. Most jam packed were the evening entertainment events which were basically free boozathons for a bunch of tech salespeople and geeky fat men being served by hot models hired for the event. I would make sure I showed my face at all required (and recommended) events and then skipped out as soon as I could.
I don’t like how crowds smell. I don’t like being physically compressed by a crush of people next to me. I don’t like not having fresh air. I don’t like having to push or swim my way through crowds of people.
So I don’t go to crowded places.
When I hear about mass shootings or crowd surges or mob behavior, I often think it will never affect me because I’d never go there in the first place.
And although that’s not entirely true – after all I have been impacted by some of the pandemic related lockdown, protest, riot issues – it’s true for most of my life.
I do appreciate the surge of energy from crowds.
At concerts and ball games when everyone is up on their feet and cheering, I can feel the energy.
Dancing at nightclubs was always more fun when it was crowded than when it was empty.
There’s a palpably energy and lift I remember when I ran a 10K with 10,000 other people.
On the rare occasions when I find myself in crowds place today – from a plane to a theater to a traffic jam – I look for exists and escape routes. And as soon as possible, I use them.