Hazards and control measures
Crowd safety and control measures at build and breakdown
Crowd safety for event organisers and contractors: crushing, surges and blocked exits, and the overlap of crews, vehicles and the public at build and breakdown. Who gets hurt, and the crowd control measures HSE expects, from safe capacity and stewarding to clear emergency routes.
What does crowd safety mean for event organisers and contractors?
Crowd safety means managing how people arrive, enter, move around, leave and disperse so that nobody is crushed, trampled, struck by a vehicle or trapped without a way out. HSE says the build up, load-in, breakdown and load-out need safety management just as much as the show itself, because that is likely to be when the highest risk work is done. The main crowd control measures are a safe capacity, a site plan that keeps the public away from the work and the vehicles, stewards and barriers at the gates, and emergency routes that are agreed and kept clear.
Last updated . Facts checked by the SiteSurvey team on 24 October 2026 against HSE: Assess crowd safety risks and identify hazards, HSE: Put crowd controls in place, HSE: Managing an event and Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, section 3.
What counts as a crowd hazard
HSE groups crowd hazards in two. Some come from the crowd itself: surging and swaying that crushes people against each other and against fixed structures, people falling and being trampled, and people climbing onto equipment and structures or throwing things. Others come from the site and the activity: pedestrians and moving vehicles sharing the same space, a temporary structure collapsing, badly lit routes, poor ground, too few entrances and exits, stalls that block the flow, and layouts that make people cross each other's path.
Organisers and their contractors meet these hazards at festivals, concerts, sports events, markets and street events. HSE says the same crowd management principles apply even when an event is free or on urban streets and open spaces. Event build and breakdown hazards sit on top of them: the riggers, staging crews, power and AV contractors, trucks and telehandlers are working while the public is nearby, and often in a space that is still a shopping street or a park.
Who is harmed, and how
During the show it is the audience, and the people most at risk are those pressed against barriers and fixed structures when the crowd surges or sways. HSE asks organisers to think in particular about young people and people with disabilities or learning difficulties. It also describes behaviour that catches planners out: people parking where they block emergency access, waiting for friends at entrances and exits, suddenly changing direction, gathering in areas they should not be in, and climbing scaffolding for a better view.
Build and breakdown change who is exposed. HSE notes there are fewer people on site than during the public period, but this is likely to be when the highest risk work is carried out. Shoppers, children and late leavers walk into a work area that is only partly fenced, under loads or behind a reversing truck. The worked example on this page is a stage build in a town square, where the public is outside the fence the whole time.
What the law expects
Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires every employer to conduct its undertaking so that people who are not its employees, including the public, are not exposed to risks to their health or safety, so far as is reasonably practicable. HSE expects a risk assessment that starts with whether the crowd can be managed safely at the chosen venue, and the venue's safe capacity, broken into zones outdoors. Then the hierarchy: eliminate the overlap by building and breaking down when the public is not there. Separate what is left with fencing, gates and timed, marshalled vehicle moves. Before letting anyone in, make sure all exits are unlocked, routes are clear and the emergency arrangements are in place, and manage the flow with queuing systems, signs, barriers and stewards. Queues must not block emergency access routes, and security searches must not create overcrowding.
Temporary stages and roofs bring their own risks, covered on temporary structure hazards. In SiteSurvey, the RAMS template records the crowd controls for each hazard, with briefing signatures for the crew, and the Suggested controls list follows the same order.
Suggested controls
Crowds at build and breakdown: control measures, most effective first
These are the 5 controls the SiteSurvey RAMS and risk assessment forms offer for this hazard as a tick list, grouped by their level in the hierarchy of controls. They are a starting point from HSE guidance, not an assessment of your job: tick what applies and say how it works on your site. If only personal protective equipment is ticked, the form says so. How suggested controls work and the hierarchy of controls explained.
Take the hazard away altogether, usually by doing the job a different way or from a different place.
- Build and breakdown done before doors open and after the venue is clear
Keep people away from the hazard with a physical measure: a guardrail, a barrier, extraction, isolation.
- Site separated from the public with fencing and stewards
Change the way the work is done: a permit, a check, training, supervision, timing.
- Access to the work area controlled and logged
- Vehicle movements marshalled and timed away from the public
- Emergency routes agreed with the venue and kept clear
Offered to: Events, exhibitions and staging.
Try it
Build the controls for crowds at build and breakdown
Tick the controls you would put in place, see which levels of the hierarchy they reach, and score the risk before and after. Or fill in the example from a completed RAMS to see how one crew did it.
Interactive
Try it: crowds at build and breakdown
Works the same way as the RAMS form. Nothing you tick is saved or sent anywhere.
Your controls, by level
- Eliminatenot ticked
- Substituteno control at this level for this hazard
- Engineeringnot ticked
- Adminnot ticked
- PPEno control at this level for this hazard
Nothing ticked yet.
3. Score the risk with these controls
What the law says
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, section 3
- Employers and the self-employed must conduct their work so that people who are not their employees, including the public, are not exposed to risk, so far as is reasonably practicable.
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 3
- A suitable and sufficient risk assessment covering employees and anyone else affected, including the crowd during build, show and breakdown.
- Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015
- Building and taking down temporary structures at an event is construction work: plan it, keep the public out of the site, and coordinate the contractors.
- Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, section 37
- The main duties in Parts 1 and 2 come into force on a day the Secretary of State appoints by regulations; they are not yet in force.
Worked example
Crowds at build and breakdown in a completed RAMS
The hazard entry exactly as it was recorded in one of our completed example RAMS: the controls ticked from the list, how they apply on that job, and the score before and after the further action.
Events, exhibitions and staging
Durham Market Place Christmas lights switch-on: covered stage build
- Hazard
- Crowds at build and breakdown: The Market Place around the fence line, the two gates, and the vehicle route from Saddler Street
- What could happen, and to whom
- Shoppers, market customers and children walking into the work area, under loads or into a reversing truck, and the audience pressing the fence during the show or staying in the square when the breakdown starts. Members of the public and the crew.
- Controls ticked
- Build and breakdown done before doors open and after the venue is clear
- Site separated from the public with fencing and stewards
- Access to the work area controlled and logged
- Vehicle movements marshalled and timed away from the public
- Emergency routes agreed with the venue and kept clear
- How they apply on this job
- The council's contractor puts the heras line up before we arrive, with the stage, generator and truck area inside it and a steward on each gate from 06:00 until the square is handed back. Gates are kept shut, and anyone coming in (artists' crew, the lights contractor, the hire companies) is logged by the gate steward and given a wristband. Vehicles move only before 08:00 on Friday and after the square has cleared on Saturday night, each walked by a banksman. Breakdown does not start until the council's steward supervisor confirms by radio that the square is clear and the audience barrier has been removed. The emergency route to Saddler Street and the 3 m shop-front route are kept clear and agreed with the council's events officer on the Friday walk-round.
- Risk with these controls (likelihood x severity)
- 3 x 4 = 12 (Medium)
- Further action
- Fence line, gates and routes walked with the council's events officer at 06:30 on Friday and again at the final check before doors. Radio channel 3 agreed with the steward supervisor for the clear-square call. Owner: K. Ashworth.
- Residual risk
- 1 x 4 = 4 (Low)
A fictional job, filled in as a worked example. The form and the report are real.
Crowds at build and breakdown: common questions
What are the main crowd control measures?
HSE splits an event into three phases: arrival and entry, circulation on site, and leaving and dispersal. For each, the controls are the site design, information for the public, and crowd management on the day: queuing systems, signs, barriers and stewards. For larger crowds HSE suggests encouraging phased arrivals and departures, for example with entertainment before and after the main event. Before the gates open, every exit should be unlocked and every route clear.
How do you keep the public away from the build and breakdown?
The best control is timing: build before the public arrives and break down after the area is clear. Where that is not possible, fence the work area, keep the gates shut and staffed, log who comes in, and move vehicles only with a banksman and the route held. In the worked example, breakdown does not start until the council's steward supervisor confirms by radio that the square is clear.
Do the crowd safety arrangements have to be written down?
HSE says risk assessment is required by law, but a business with fewer than five employees does not have to write it down. For anything beyond a small event it is worth recording, because several contractors and the venue will all need to work to the same arrangements. Keep it proportionate: HSE says risk assessment is about proportionate controls, not huge amounts of paperwork.
Does Martyn's Law apply to our event yet?
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 has been passed, but its main duties only come into force on a day set by regulations, and they are not yet in force. Until then there is no legal requirement to comply, though organisers of larger events can start planning for it. Your existing health and safety duties to the crowd apply now. Check GOV.UK for the commencement date.
Last updated . See every hazard in the library.
Write the RAMS with these controls already listed.
Pick the hazard, tick its controls, score it and brief the crew, on a phone or laptop. The report goes to the client as one PDF.