Exploring an outdoor concert venue with friends amongst an energetic crowd of concertgoers, should be a good time right? Attending a music festival should be one of the most fun experiences of your life.
What Is Duty Of Care At A Music Festival?
As a festival attendee, you expect there to be a certain level of precaution to keep you and the rest of the concertgoers safe. The festival organizers’ job is to keep safety measures in place and sufficient security staff to respond to emergencies. This is where duty of care comes into play; it is a legal duty for promoters and organizers to ensure the safety of their patrons.
For festival organizers to avoid premises liability they must assess risks, inform emergency services, address legal and management issues as well as meet all legal obligations before hosting any type of event.
Music festivals are all fun and games until someone suffers a serious injury. These laws are put into place to help promoters maintain ‘duty of care’ while minimizing any potential risk associated with their music festival.
Common Injuries At A Music Festival
Rowdy crowds, small spaces, and mosh pits are a recipe for disaster. Between dodging fellow music fans and battling sunburn, the last thing anyone wants is to suffer from broken bones or any other type of serious injury.
There is nothing worse than getting stuck in the middle of a mosh pit with no exit in sight. Crowd surfing sounds like fun until no one catches you and suddenly you’re getting trampled under a number of people. One minute you’re having the time of your life, and in a blink of an eye, you suffered a serious injury to your back, neck and head.
Here are some other personal injuries that can occur at music festivals:
- Falling of equipment on people that’s not properly placed/secured.
- Back, head or neck injuries caused by moshing or crowd surfing
- Being hit by glass bottles thrown by others
- Trips/falls that occur on walkways that haven’t been properly secured
- Deafness or other hearing problems
If you have suffered a personal injury at a musical festival, turn to the personal injury lawyers at the Florin|Roebig law firm for legal advice today!
Is The Concert Venue Liable?
A festival organizer’s premises of liability is solely centered around the individual circumstances of a person’s injury. With tens of thousands of music fans joining together in crowded environments and abusing alcohol, adrenaline tends to heighten, and unfortunately, concert venues sometimes tend to favor unsavory accidents.
If serious injuries were obtained by a third party, the festival organizers could still be liable for your injuries. Before making a personal injury claim, take a look take a look at how a festival organizer could be liable:
- Festival employees over-serve customers
- Lack of proper security/understaffed
- Insufficient barricades or blockages that cause the flow of people to stampede
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Steps To Prove Your Case Against A Festival Organizer
In order to prove your case for recovery against the accused festival organizers has merit, four things must be justified: duty, breach, causation, and damage.
Duty
The music festival organizers have a legally bound duty to keep all their patrons safe. There are proper rules and regulations put into place to prevent festival attendees from obtaining broken bones or other serious injuries.
Breach
To make a personal injury claim, you must prove a breach of duty that occurred at the time of injury. For instance, if the organizers failed to hire an appropriate amount of people, this could prove there was a breach in duty of having an inadequate amount of people monitoring the premises.
Causation
Just because negligence occurred, doesn’t necessarily mean you have a claim. You must illustrate the actions of negligence from the organization’s actions that preceded your injury. Such acts would include whether the organization could have foreseen the accident that caused the injury to festival goers.
Damages
The damages are the results proceeding the injuries obtained through the organizer’s negligence in your case. You will need to justify these damages in the form of medical bills, lost wages, or workers compensation. Even pain and suffering and emotional distress can classify as damages as long as there is written evidence provided from a mental health professional to support your case.
What To Do If You Have Suffered A Festival Injury
- Immediately jot down detailed notes of the incident: what happened, where did it take place, and who was involved.
- Find out who owns the festival and/or concert venue.
- Gather your evidence – This could be photos of the venue or any hazards nearby.
- Keep your ticket to the festival as well as any medical receipts or documentation: emergency room visits, ambulance services, x-rays, rehab, lab tests, etc…
Contact the experienced team of personal injury attorneys at Florin|Roebig about a free consultation today!
Settlements: Concertgoer Received $2M for Injuries
In 2017, what appeared like a harmless act of stage diving caused a 46-year-old man a life-sustaining injury. NBC reported on September 25, 2020, that Jason Kooken from Exter, NH was awarded a $2 million settlement against Asbury Audio.
The case? In April of 2017, Kooken suffered a severe spinal injury after a fellow concertgoer climbed up on stage and “corkscrewed” his body into the crowd, ultimately landing on the 46-year-old.
His lawsuit claimed the security working the stage knew the stage diving was happening and had made no attempts to stop it from happening. Undergoing spinal surgery at a New Jersey hospital, Kooken has since recovered from his injuries.
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Contact Florin|Roebig If You’ve Been Injured At A Music Festival
From Tampa, Florida, to Las Vegas, Nevada, or wherever you go see musicians perform, personal injury claims don’t have to be difficult. Give the professionals at the law firm of Florin|Roebig a call today for a free consultation.
