2009 WL 3647129 (2nd Dept.2009), the plaintiff was struck in the face by an unidentified individual while attending a rock concert. Suitable action ought to have been taken to control moshing where observed.Supervisory stewards ought to have been monitoring the crowd for prohibited behaviour (including moshing) and reporting their observations to Central Control Room.The Promoter ought to have had somewhere in the region of 350 stewards on duty (1 per 100 in a crowd estimated at 35,000).
#Mosh pit injuries code#
The Promoter prohibited moshing and reserved the right to remove patrons who breached that prohibition.īased on the Code of Practice, we can safely say that:.The Promoter could foresee that moshing might take place at the event.
Such stewards should be in contact with Central Control Room so as to report their observations, where appropriate, thus enabling suitable action to be taken."īased on the promoter's Public Information Leaflet, the following is established:. " 13.2 The Promoter has the responsibility to maintain good order at the venue and for appointing a staff of competent stewards for this purpose….ġ3.13 A likely requirement … will be one steward for 100 persons in open areas.ġ4.15 Supervisory Stewards with binoculars should be positioned as observers to monitor crowd behaviour particularly at the barriers or in areas of high crowd density. The ' Code of Practice for Safety at Outdoor Events' was published 20 years ago by the Department of Education but appears to be still operable ( see this page). The promoter reserves the right to refuse admission to, or remove from, the venue anyone taking part in these activities, without a refund." "Any form of antisocial behaviour, crowd surfing, moshing and public urination will not be tolerated. MCD, the concert promoter, published a ' Public Information Notice' in which it states:. I don't know if those 5 ended up injuring anybody, and I hope they didn't, but it left me wondering…Īfter the gig, I did a little bit of digging.
It also crossed my mind to try to give this group a little more space, but (a) this is quite difficult to do in a crowd of 35,000, and (b) their enthusiasm, like a gaseous substance, would expand to fill the available space (and probably render them more likely to increase their aerobic output and their risk of accidentally striking someone).Īfter about 30 minutes we left our position (uninjured) to get a beer. It did cross my mind to move, but that would only have exposed someone else to the same risk. If I had ended up with a broken jaw or a broken nose, would I only have myself to blame? Should I have removed myself from the vicinity? Should the organisers have been monitoring the crowd for activity of this nature? Their enthusiasm was infectious but somewhat tempered by the knowledge that an accidentally misplaced elbow might break my jaw, or an enthusiastic wolf-howl might involve breaking my nose with a reverse headbutt. Flailing arms, moshing, pogoing, stumbling, and so on. At a recent open-air gig in Malahide Castle, a small group of 5 people just in front of me were in high-spirits and clearly enjoying themselves a great deal.