Event Signage - A Nice to Have or Safety Critical

Having recently been drafted in to provide on the day support to an experience organiser deliver an event at a new venue. When I arrived onsite and was shown around there were the standard signs, Emergency Exit, Medical etc… but no wayfinding signs.

As the event opened, the crowd built around one stage, the one that they saw first! Were only using the toilets that were visible from where they stood and never migrated away. Onsite there were four stages, all live throughout the event, and the capacity calculations has been completed assuming people were at all four stages.

Whilst the crowd density never got dangerous, it was difficult to move around the central area of the site. With an Event Leadership team meeting called, we discussed our options.

Getting signage suitably sized signage printed and delivered was not a viable option, I suggested using the video wall to provide information to the crowd, the video tech was fab and added a scrolling message to the very top of the video wall, advertising the 3 other stages, which in turn reduced queues for toilets, reduced queues for the bar, and reduced the density of people around the main stage.

Clear Directional signage is a key feature to making sure crowd’s know what is on and where to find it, in doing so it reduces crush risks, improves venue circulation and improves the customer experience.

So the takeaway from this event for the new venue, and experience team is to head back to basics and plan your site signage to enable the crowd to find their way around the event space and keep everyone safe.

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The Independence of the Event Safety Advisor