SHOWSTOP PROCEDURE
“ EVERYONE DESERVES TO COME HOME AT THE END OF THE NIGHT AFTER A CONCERT OR FESTIVAL.”
of responsibility and create global standards for stopping shows safely.”
By mid-May, more than 150 senior figures from across the events industry had taken part in the course, and that number is growing steadily. Allen says the course has seen significant demand, with the Dublin edition selling out in six hours. New course locations are regularly being added to the schedule.
Hamilton says,“ What ' s really important is that all the attendees, so far, are in senior leadership positions in the industry and have all got extensive experience of running major events. What that demonstrates is that we ' re getting industry leaders paving the way with the Showstop Procedure training. That ' s important as the course rolls out across the industry to a much broader range of people, not just security and crowd safety related personnel but also those in production roles such as the stage manager, production manager and event manager.
“ The Showstop Procedure is a key emergency management tool which the entire event management team should understand in order to implement it swiftly and decisively, and understand how that impacts all the decision making architecture during an emergency.”
Key aspects of the one-day course include the importance of having competent individuals in critical roles, the need for robust event-specific procedures, the legal, and moral responsibilities of event organisers, and the standardisation of emergency management practices to ensure better preparedness and risk mitigation.
Says Allen,“ We bring the benefit of academic knowledge underpinned by extensive global practical experience, which includes having first-hand experience of implementing multiple showstops worldwide for a wide range of issues from crowd related incidents through to weather. This course provides participants with a robust framework from which they can critique and update existing showstop procedures across all the fundamentals of planning, roles and responsibilities, utilisation of competent staff, decision making and implementation.”
Mark Hamilton, Steve Allen
Future plans of the Pink Bows Foundation include extending the course’ s reach to other locations across the US, Europe, Middle East and the UK. Discussions are also ongoing for Pink Bows Foundation to run the Showstop Procedure course ahead of both the Event Safety Alliance and Event Safety Alliance Canada conferences in 2025.
Other organisations to support the course include the Global Crowd Management Alliance and the United Kingdom Crowd Management Association, with the latter looking to include it in the organisation’ s 2026 annual conference.
Allen says it has not been hard to convince people to adopt the procedure:“ As soon as you start explaining why it is needed, it’ s a lightbulb moment, they get it instantly.
Morally, no one wants anyone to get hurt; legally there are obligations within the likes of the Health & Safety at Work Act, Licencing Act, Fire Safety Order, Duty of Care and the incoming Martin ' s Law in the UK, and the third key consideration is the financial ramifications if something goes wrong.
Damage to brand reputation, additional costs for PR for crisis management and expert witnesses, legal fees, insurance premiums going up, loss of revenue, the venue being shut down, public perception … the list is endless.”
ROSKILDE FESTIVAL HOSTS TWO COURSES
48 accessaa. co. uk