Behind the Scenes of Crowds at Large-Scale Events: A South African Perspective

Recent incidents in South Africa have demonstrated that large gatherings can escalate rapidly into critical safety emergencies. Effective crowd management seeks to mitigate such risks through comprehensive planning, risk assessment and the implementation of structured control measures. This study aims to describe best practices for crowd management at large-scale events from a South African perspective. It also aims to support event safety practitioners by enhancing safety processes, improving problem-solving and providing guidance on crowd management practices. A qualitative approach using purposive sampling was employed. This consisted of seven online semi-structured interviews with event safety practitioners, which focused on how crowd behaviour affects crowd control and management practices. Three themes were identified: crowd management and crowd control, crowd behaviour and profiling, and compliance. From these results, the study concludes that event organising, implementing and monitoring are multifaceted and sophisticated, and that those managing crowds should be aware of the diversity and complexity of spectators and attendees in a crowd.