Red Alert: Crowd Cushion Introduces New Features, Continues To Combine Safety And Tech At Festivals, Venues

Planning ahead and mitigating risk is paramount in planning concerts and live events of all kinds, and cutting corners can mean added headache, financial risk, physical injury or worse.

“Over 32% of the 67 shows we did this summer or last summer generated an alert,” says Catherine Curtin, event and venue liaison for Crowd Cushion, a crowd crush early warning system that allows event organizers to see where fans may be in danger near barriers at live events.

“When an alert is happening, that means that someone’s facing an uncomfortable amount of pressure that could possibly be injurious. And of that 32%, 43% of those generated alerts lasting over 20 seconds.”

Now in its fourth year of operation led by a daughter/father duo, Crowd Cushion continues to spread the message of the need for better crowd safety monitoring at live events, particularly festivals.

Crowd Cushion recently was deployed at the Sandstorm festival in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a massive event headlined by Eminem, Muse, Tyler, The Creator in December.

“We did 100 cushions there and only covered the most high-pressure areas. We got some definite alerts, but the crowd management there was amazing,” adds Curtin, who says the long trip to the Middle East gave her new appreciation for the relative ease of flying across the United States in comparison.

Along with lights on the cushion alerting staff of a potentially dangerous situation, Crowd Cushion offers a digital command center where crowd managers can monitor activity remotely.

“We actually added two new modes of communication,” Curtin says, those being pagers akin to Apple watches as well as text messages for security. “The idea is for roaming security and management. Crowd managers can check their phones and look at the command center, but the pagers vibrate when an alert happens and they have to be acknowledged, for it to stop vibrating.”

The other new wrinkle is an artist light that allows performers to be aware of any potential situation and potentially help manage it.

“If that light goes on, they can quickly see, and I see them do it at the Stone Pony all the time,” Curtin says. “They finish the song and then they’re like,’ Hey guys, love you so much. You know, can we all just take a few steps back?’ That’s obviously the most effective way, because that’s what people are listening to, right?‘“

That’s another example of Crowd Cushion aiding security and crowd control staff rather than replacing it, potentially leading to fewer staff needed and less training thanks to the tech.

“It just makes it a lot easier,” Curtin says. “And it’s not that I think there should be less security guards it’s just something that makes it a little bit easier.”

With Crowd Cushion permanently installed in two venues, Alerus Center in North Dakota and The Stone Pony in the company’s native New Jersey, Curtin is hoping to continue to make inroads at major music festivals, and get in front of the conversations when tours are being planned.

“I have very high hopes that by next year we will be in a few festivals. quite a few more and major ones that we have not done yet,” she says. “The industry is very hyper-focused on crowd crush management, but the main issue we have is everything’s expensive, the economy’s not great, and people are basically trying to save money wherever they can. A lot of people say, ‘We love this, we just can’t have it right now.’”

However, improved safety and better tech never go out of style, and Curtin remains committed to the cause as an avid festival-goer and music fan herself.

“This last year we’ve gotten a lot more traction,” she says, noting the barriers to entry as a new player in the industry, although encouraged by a lot of supportive and helpful people along the way. “I think brand recognition-wise, people have started to understand that we’re not going anywhere. Going into this fourth year, people have seen us quite a few times now. I’m determined. I’m going to keep showing up. Eventually, it pays off. “