An appeal to the Event Industry: Human Lives before Money, Success and even Repute

by  Karishma Hundalani Industry Watch | October 15, 2015 | Feature

Skrillex Event Safety

For those who don't know the background: A young girl (age 23 years) Aanchal Arora from Delhi lost her life due to suffocation (and subsequent heart failure) at the recently concluded Skrillex concert at the HUDA Grounds in Gurgaon. 

If reports are accurate, the reason Aanchal suffocated to death was because of the over-crowding at the venue to the extent of more than double its capacity. According to media reports, permissions were granted for a capacity of 6000 people and an actual attendance of 15000 is estimated.

If that's the number of passes that sold for the concert, it showcases nothing but greed and irresponsibility on the part of the organisers. And if 'free passes' are the cause of this accident, then lack of foresight and pure stupidity are to be blamed.

It's also believed that organisers shifted the concert to a smaller venue in the last minute, to be able to save costs!

As details of this incident and others (there were some technical mishaps as well that questioned the safety standards of the event) at the Delhi concert unveiled this week, we've only received appeals of clearing individuals and companies of the responsibility of the incident /s. Or requests to not report the matter at all!

While it's not right that Scoop Brand Holdings got wrongly dragged into this in media reports, when they in fact we're not associated with the event at all. Who is the quoted 'organisers' of the event? Who takes responsibility?

Accidents happen many a time, and unforeseen circumstances cannot be avoided. But I'm sure as an industry we would all sleep better knowing we did whatever it took to avoid such situations, even at the expense of making a loss or losing face with our sponsors and clients.

Human Lives First... Please!
 

*No official statements have been made by Viacom18 (the organisers of the Skrillex tour) or Clockwork Events (the reported event managers for the Delhi-leg of the concert). Details of the incident are still speculative and have to be confirmed by authorities.