Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
The most common problems in music festivals can largely be broken into two categories: risks to the individual and risks on a grand scale. It is the responsibility of event managers to consider how to best keep everyone safe and maintain proper organization. Risks to the individual are often things like substance use and abuse, harm reduction, and sexual assault or harassment. Meanwhile, broad risks tend to be issues of evacuation and emergency management, crowd safety, stampedes, and casualties or violence. It is crucial to reflect on prior common safety and security issues when setting out to produce a large music festival and factor them into all organization and design conversations in order to hopefully avoid repeating past mistakes and damages.
This research aims to analyze four music festivals from the 1960s to today that have become known for poor safety and management practices. These festivals are Altamont Speedway, Woodstock 99, TomorrowWorld, and Astroworld. The goal is to apply a critical lens to these events and utilize documentary films and video footage, archive articles, police files, and scholarly findings to determine what went wrong and allow staff teams to extrapolate from these conclusions informing future event management practices.
Recommended Citation
Morriss, Jennifer, "From Altamont to Astroworld: An Analysis of Management Issues in Large Scale Music Festivals" (2025). Honors College Theses. 409.
https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/honorscollege_theses/409
E-Sign Agreement
1
Included in
Cultural History Commons, Leadership Commons, Music Business Commons, Other Music Commons, Visual Studies Commons