By R.V. Baugus and Office of the Governor
IAVM Director of Safety & Security Mark Herrera served on Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Task Force on Concert Safety that was formed last November 10 in response to the tragedy at Astroworld Festival in Houston that killed 10 concertgoers and injured more than 300. On April 19, Gov. Abbott announced that the task force released their final report which includes recommendations and strategies to ensure the safety of concertgoers in the Lone Star State. (To see the final report, click here.
“Collectively, we all worked to provide resources and information that would guide our venue executives
and others to provide safe and secure events,” Herrera said. “It was truly a pleasure being a part of this task force and happy to have contributed.”
The task force was led by Texas Music Office Director Brendon Anthony and consists of safety experts, law enforcement, fire fighters, state agencies, music industry leaders, and others. The task force held several meetings and one-on-one discussions to analyze concert safety and develop ways to enhance security at live music events in Texas.
Among recommendations and findings, the Texas Music Office announced the creation of an online Event Production Guide that can be easily promoted and accessed through the Texas Music Office website. This centralized resource will outline and encourage best-practice recommendations and serve as a one-stop shop for promoters to access existing legal requirements.
“I thank the Texas Task Force on Concert Safety for their commitment to safety and security for all concertgoers and for their collaboration with stakeholders on this critical report,” said Governor Abbott. “The recommendations, findings, and solutions detailed in this report will help the State of Texas prevent another tragedy like that at Astroworld Festival from happening again.”
Herrera called the experience to represent IAVM and the public assembly venue industry positive in “pushing the legislation for action,” which was accomplished through the final report.
“That (legislation) would have an effect on the operations and revenue potentially with some of our facilities,” Herrera said. He added that he sat on the task force in a non-partisan political role and that one of his points of emphasis throughout was to vet with venue managers to review any final draft.
“Here is what we don’t need. We don’t need regulations,” Herrera said. “I said we need resources and funding. So, I talked a lot about what we’re (IAVM) doing with the crowd management training and how we’re training teams. It went well. When the governor’s final report came out, nothing in it was regulatory.”
“They appreciated IAVM helping from a revenue concern or on the operations side. I told the governor’s office I also appreciated them listening to me through all this, aggregating all these resources and information for our industry. The final draft is great.”
In addition to the responsibility to sit on the task force, Herrera also presented at Globe Life Field — home to MLB Texas Rangers — about how the public assembly venue industry is managing the crowds in today’s environment.
“I developed a team of venue executives and said, listen, the one thing I want to do is bring in Brendon and we want to talk with the venue executives about our progress and how we’re trying to aggregate resources and the importance of permitting and the importance of unified command structures,” Herrera said. “What we’re doing as a task force will positively affect the entire industry as they’re managing these situations and these crowds to prevent a catastrophic event like in Houston.”
Unified On-Site Command and Control (UCC): The task force strongly supports a requirement that event promoters determine which EMS, fire, and police agencies would respond to a 911 call on the site of their event and that those agencies be employed as UCC members.
Permitting: The task force strongly recommends that mass gathering events permitted by municipalities should follow permit guidelines and best practices for unincorporated areas that are outlined in state statute. The task force also recommends that local authorities stop the show when it is determined that an event has been organized without a permit or has breached the bounds of the issued permit. Additionally, the task force recommends implementation of a universal permitting template and that any template include a standardized checklist for County Judges responsible for issuing permits.
Training: The Event Production Guide will include a list of robust training resources for promoters, staff, and first responders for site walkthrough drills, security briefings, communication trees, show-stop triggers and responses, and more.
Planning with Risk Assessment: The task force recommends a Concert Attendee Code of Conduct which should be part of the ticketing process and make clear what behaviors will lead to ejection. The task force also recommends that venues communicate with other venue representatives that have hosted the artist before. Event promoters should partner with artists to encourage safety, since messaging from the artist can be uniquely persuasive for fans. In addition, the Event Production Guide will include best practices for event design and crowd control.
Centralized Resources: The Event Production Guide will host the large collection of resource documents that information many of the task force’s recommendations.
