BERLIN — Crowds of people streaming into a techno music festival surged through an already jammed entry tunnel on Saturday, setting off a panic that killed 19 people and injured 342 at an event meant to celebrate love and peace.

SBS World News Australia claims the reason behind the Love Parade disaster is police closing the parade grounds due to overcrowding, and instructing punters in the tunnel to turn around.

Authorities also suggested that some of the people killed or injured might have attempted to flee the crowd by jumping over a barrier and falling several metres. Witnesses described a desperate scene, as people piled up on each other or scrambled over others who had fallen in the crush.

So why? How could this happen? That tunnel was the sole entrance to the grounds. The Love Parade is one that hosts 1.4 million people and the venue could only hold 500,000. There’s yer problem!

This was my first thought. If an event is a repeat or regular one, you would believe adequate health and safety measures and procedures to be in place. With 1.4 million people reportedly through the gates and a claim of being the largest techno music festival in the world, the Love Parade should have had access points to the grounds to reflect this.

My second thought went to overcrowding (hence police refusing entry to over 300 people in the tunnel) and control of this. Why didn’t they have this covered? An eye-witness account reports (translated by Google from German to English):

Although many security controls were in place that would monitor compliance with the “Love Rules”, but the way to the controls was extremely narrow, began pushing the first and it lasted for only a few metres close to 90 minutes.

On the right side even more dramatic scenes. There was a small emergency stairs, each of which could escape from one person upwards. Here, too, now appeared more and more police officers… In those seeking help were people who had already lost consciousness. It was a bad experience of having to watch the rescue operation with, for now all we feared that we might be the next crushed.

Next to me I suddenly saw a policeman with a young man forced his way to the stairs. “Can’t you go or should I pay them?” Actually, the man gave me an even better shape right impression, then I saw his hand he held up convulsively. I had not looked closely, but his fingertips were covered with blood. Maybe he was overthrown in the crowd and accidentally had a lot of shoes shredded his hand.

They also mention that last year’s Love Parade closed due to overcrowding. Why, then, hasn’t something been done about it? If it is known that the venue is maxed out at 500,000, why are 1.4 million people permitted to attend, even when they expected 800,000?

The founder of the Love Parade, Matthias Roeingh, known as Dr. Motte, blasted the planning for the event, saying “one single entrance through a tunnel lends itself to disaster. I am very sad.”

Me too, Dr. Motte. And it sounds like current management isn’t too keen to run again after this catastrophe.

(Sources: msnbc.com, SBS World News Australia, @BreakingNews, images here on Flickr,  BBC News)

The following is a Facebook note from May 21st, in its entirety, written by an industry contact of mine, Brisbane Sounds director, Blair Hughes. He has given me explicit permission to reblog this.

I’m still new to the music industry, but I have done a lot of things; from conferences in the UK and USA, to seeing gigs in over 25 countries around the world. I have worked in music venues in Brisbane and London, however I know it’s important to never stop learning and seeking out advice from my peers. You can’t improve your skills base if you don’t take risks and ask for help from time to time. I applaud all of the people who have helped me along the way and you can find all their names in the booklets to Brisbane Sounds 2008-2010.

I did that today and had quite a surprising conversation, but here is a bit of a back story.

I have seen Black Rebel Motercycle Club (BRMC) 10 times since 2002. I have been to their gigs in London (3), Glasgow (2), Brisbane (2), LA (1), Birmingham, UK (1), Sydney (1) and I will also be seeing them in Sydney in August as a sideshow to Splendour in the Grass 2010. I did not want to go to Splendour in the Grass this year because I have a gig which I’m promoting at The Zoo on July 30. You can see that I’m both a fan of their music, but I’m different to most fans in the sense that I’m also a promoter. I might not be a Gudinski or a Chugg or an AJ Maddah for that matter (I know I’m certainly not like him!), but I attempted politely to get a discussion going about the possibility of a BRMC sideshow for Brisbane.

I did want to see whether BRMC could play in Brisbane on July 30 (I specifically booked this date for this reason) and while I was completely aware of the contractual obligations regarding Splendour (as there are no Splendour sideshows in Brisbane), I thought I may as well take a punt and try my luck. I have met the band’s manager and the band, and they know who I am and what I’m about so I’m in a better position than most to at least see what the chances were like. I also closely watched as Splendour in the Grass and the Melbourne and Sydney BRMC sideshows sold out, which I thought might make the chances of a Brisbane sideshow more possible.

I’m a music promoter, but I’m also a school teacher with Education Queensland and I have been taught by my parents and always teach my students every day that respect and a smile will get you anywhere in the world. You need to be passionate, enthusiastic and take risks once in a while in order to live a rich life. If there was one thing I learnt at SXSW in Texas back in March it was by Derek Sivers who said “patience is persistence”. What he was alluding to was that our parents and teachers bring us up to not hassle people, yet its the ones that actually persist politely and take a chance that do get results.

I had originally said to Soundwave Touring (the business doing the BRMC sideshows) that if they cover the cost of the flights between Brisbane and Melbourne (which they would have already booked because that’s where they were flying to next), then they can take 50% of the net profits for effectively doing nothing. That means I would have looked after transport from Woodford to Brisbane, sound engineering for the gig, press, ticketing, venue hire. Effectively all of the things that I have previously done and had partly organised for the gig that I was having for The Zoo on July 30 anyway so I thought it was a pretty sweet deal and it means that Brisbane fans of the band would get to see them in a venue just like the rest of the country.

This is really not sour grapes at Splendour because the band would be good anywhere, but there is room for a Brisbane sideshow seeing as all of the dates have now sold out. Why does Brisbane have to miss out? Perhaps future Splendour contracts should have an extra part that stipulates that in the event of a sold-out Splendour then sideshows for Brisbane will be considered. The people that run Splendour are great people and I can imagine they are flat out enough, but if Brisbane is seen to be a leading music city, then these bands should be playing as much as they can and not just in venues around the country except Brisbane. Heck, this is something that Splendour/Secret Sounds, Soundwave Touring and Brisbane Sounds could have all worked on for the BENEFIT of BRISBANE music fans!

So today at 12.55pm I finally decided that with no response to my emails from Soundwave Touring I was going to be a bit more proactive and see if I could track down a number on the net for Soundwave Touring (as there is no office number on the site) or AJ Maddah, the director of Soundwave Touring. I searched for (I won’t put it here because that would be unprofessional) and there and then, about the eighth search result down, was his home number, mobile number and postal address.

The phone call started off well. I introduced myself: “Hi, is this AJ from Soundwave Touring? My name is Blair Hughes. I’m a music promoter in Brisbane. I run Brisbane Sounds and have sent you a few emails regarding BRMC in Brisbane and an idea that I have. Have you had a chance to have a look at them?”

His response: “Wait, who the fuck are you you piece of shit? Do I know you? Who do you promote? Do you promote million-dollar bands?? Do you know who I am? Listen, shut the fuck up and listen to me you fucking retard: I speak not you, you c…, stop interjecting…” And he went on and on like that for about five minutes.

I was told that I was nothing (compared to him) and quite frankly, he came across as very rude, egotistical and overly explosive. I have never met him before and definitely did not think I was going to be treated like that.

My interjections were softly-spoken, polite responses for him to stop calling me silly names and to chat professionally.

Hmmmm. I was a bit bemused by that response. Point taken if I had been rude or aggressive and had not properly introduced myself. I mean: if he did not want to talk he could have just hung up. I was not going to call him back as I got the impression that he was obviously not keen to talk. I also understand that he may not want me calling him and would rather his number be kept private. In which case I will duly send him the link to the site which I found it on so he can have his number removed.

I was trying to explain again who I was and my idea, but was met with a barrage of abuse from being called a “fuckin’ kid retard” (what’s the grammar like on that one?) to a fucking dip-shit (haven’t heard that in a while). It was really the most bizarre conversation I have had in a long time. I was incredibly polite throughout the phone call and as the abusive language and threats kept getting more aggressive I just kept killing him with kindness and tried to be the most loveable person you could ever talk to. He told me: “I’m gonna make everyone know not to work with you cause you’re a c…, you fucking loser dip-shit”, which is great because I’m sure that not that many people know about what I do just yet in Sydney/Melbourne – so any press I can get from him will be brilliant!

I said that I was going to leave the conversation because all he had to tell me was a simple ‘no,’ but he couldn’t do that and had to keep rambling on and being abusive. I said I was going because he was not listening to me and could not stop swearing, to just talk politely and then goodbye, but he hung up first.

He called back a few minutes later and continued to get aggressive and threatened me with more insults. I just found it hard to believe that someone would be so “up in my grill” that has not met me before. It was the craziest conversation ever!

Overall AJ, there is a lesson in this for you:

“I’m definitely not at the level that you are at; however, I have young kids calling me daily who want to get into the music industry or who are promoters themselves. I always have the time for them even though I’m busy. Hell mate, everyone is busy, and getting angry and calling people names is childish when there are more important things going on in the world, such as getting Ellen to the Gold Coast!

“I know you’re important and you sure as hell know that as well; however, improve your attitude to others especially when they are being friendly and professional. I understand your position and “NO” was all you had to say. I was willing to work with you and bring an idea to the table that could have benefited both of us. I may not be your competition right now, but I will be one day.

“Thanks, and have a lovely day.”

Oh, and the band I have been writing about, BRMC can be found here at their MySpace. You’ll dig them!

“They’re killing us, Bruce, they’re killing us”

I came across a detailed article by Brisbane -based journalist Derek Barry outlining the disaster that cost the lives of nearly one hundred Liverpool Football Club fans twenty years ago from today. Not only being an event manager, but a second generation Liverpool FC fan myself, I couldn’t help but be drawn into the description of that afternoon game at Hillsborough, England. From a more shallow point of view also I find myself analysing the steps game organisers could have taken to avoid such a terrible consequence.

Wikipedia explains that the Hillsborough Disaster was a deadly human crush that occurred on 15 April 1989, at Hillsborough, a football stadium home to Sheffield Wednesday in Sheffield, England, resulting in the deaths of 96 people (all fans of Liverpool FC). It remains the deadliest stadium-related disaster in British history and one of the worst in international football.

Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar recounted his account of the tragedy:

“I said to the policewoman – I thought it was a policeman – ‘Get the effing gate open. Can’t you see that they need it’? And there were screams coming at the time. I kicked the ball upfield, and I went back and said, ‘Get the f***ing gate open’. I turned back and the ball went out of play on the left, and that’s when I shouted to the referee. The policeman came on to the field, and the game stopped.” 

The venue was not suitable for such a rush of attendees arriving in such a short amount of time. The allocation of tickets nor physical space at the venue were not in proportion to the expected demographics of Liverpool fans vs Nottingham Forest’s. Organisers knew from the previous year that Liverpool fans would try to swap areas from the tiny spaces they had been allocated, but refused to resolve the issue claiming it would confuse the crowd. Even the technology which allowed organisers to calculate when the venue had reached capacity was flawed as it did not calculate for particular areas in the venue, merely overall.

Barry argues that “the one key change that did lead to confusion” was that the Cheif Superintendant was newly promoted weeks prior to the event and had not managed such a game on the grounds for ten years. Requests for the game to be delayed were repeatedly ignored, whether to misunderstanding of the situation’s severity or the choice of superiors. At one point, dog handlers were called instead of ambulances because police thought a pitch invasion was occuring, rather than the surging forward of the crushed masses.

Although the game was stopped after six minutes, doctors and nurses were not on the scene until half an hour afterwards. Even then, there were only six stretchers available for the entire relief effort.

I am glad, however that not such a terrible day has happened in UK football since, as ramifications were put in place immediately by the English government. Barry explains the consequences of the day well:

The Hillsborough disaster would ultimately revolutionise the game in England. Barely two days later, the Thatcher government set up an inquiry under Lord Justice Taylor with a remit to “”to inquire into the events at [Hillsborough] and to make recommendations about the needs of crowd control and safety at sports events”. Taylor heard evidence from families of the bereaved, supporters, the football association, Sheffield council, Sheffield Wednesday staff and their insurers, police, fire and ambulance authorities, and a consultant engineer. After 31 days, the Taylor Report recommended all top division stadiums in England and Scotland phase out their perimeter fencing and concrete terraces, and become all-seater. By the 1996 European Championships in England, the game and its grounds had changed utterly. 96 people had paid the ultimate price to make the game safer for all of Britain’s millions of football fans. Their sacrifice, while preventable, was not in vain.

Woolly Days: The Hillsborough Disaster: “They’re killing us, Bruce, they’re killing us”.