Last Updated: Friday, January 08, 2010 Part 2: Roskilde Festival Organizers: We Are “Responsible” For The Deaths Of Nine Concertgoers—But Not To “Blame” Updated: Monday, August 29, 2005 No way to treat a crowd: A portion of the actual Roskilde Festival 2000 crowd chaos that took nine lives. Photo: Unidentified festivalgoer c 2000 Crowd Management Strategies argued effectively in the Danish media that the 2000 Roskilde Festival organizers and Pearl Jam were both to blame for the preventable crowd crush tragedy. Crowd Management Strategies estimated that it took at least 45 minutes for crowd chaos at the festival’s Orange stage to develop enough force before disaster struck. Crowd Management Strategies arguments—based on facts and professional insights—prevented Roskilde Festival organizers from misleading the Danish public about the country’s worst rock and roll tragedy. As a result, the Danish Ministry of Culture invited Crowd Management Strategies’ Paul Wertheimer to Copenhagen to discuss the incident and recommend safety measures to prevent future incidents. In 2001, Crowd Management Strategies presented the Roskilde Festival organizers with a Crowdsafe® Award for the extensive event safety improvements the organizers made. Since then, the new leadership appears to have wavered in its safety pledge to the Danish people and festivalgoers. In 2004, three women were raped at the festival and one person died. In June, an investigative story by journalist Niels C. Svanborg from the Danish newspaper B.T. found that the festival’s risk assessment plan had not been official approved by the Roskilde police until a week before the festival was to get underway. A written risk assessment plan is the foundation of an effective event crowd management. The B.T. series has attracted the attention of Danish political and government leaders. This is the second part in the two-part series. [ home ][ crowdcafe ][ new ][ crowdshop ][ contact ] Crowd Management Strategies © 1997 - 2006. All rights reserved. Crowdsafe is a registered trademark of Crowd Management Strategies © 2006.