Is it "just a NZ thing" that crowds will just all mosh-up in the area nearest the entrance they enter from, causing a massive "standing-room-only" tightly crowded mess in one area of the venue that snarls up entering traffic (causing queues + delays), while the far side ends up being relatively open or even conspicuously *deserted*?
This post looks into two such cases - the one that inspired this post, and another instance from a few years ago that I saw myself...
Example 1 - Social Media Commentary on Ed Sheeran's Recent Auckland Concerts
This afternoon, I came across some images of Ed Sheeran's concerts up in Auckland these past few days, where the crowd on the standing-room-only space in front of the stage are all clustered / tightly packed into half the area, while the other side looks completely empty (i.e. the white grass-protection sheet is visible), making the venue look like the undersold tickets to the event.
Comments attached those posts noted that the entrances were on the left side of the image, whereas the other entrances were harder to get to, so people were "lazy" and just stayed on one side...
Is this a NZ thing?
Example 2 - Van Gogh Alive in Chch (2021)
I noticed a similar problem when we went to the "Van Gogh Live" thing when it came here in 2021 (?): *EVERYONE* was tightly packed in the "initial chamber" you see when you get inside (after a LONG queue outside, as no-one can get in due to yep... the crowd in chamber 1).
This was space standing room only. Meanwhile, there was ample space in the 2-3 chambers next door (which didn't were not hard-segregated either!), with seating still available there AND with only single-rows-deep people standing around scattered in small clumps in various places.
It seems however that most people only really "discovered" the full scope of the space when leaving after that slot's "run" completed! 🙄
So in effect:
* Lots of people paid to effectively subject themselves to being packed like sardines into a 20-deep mosh-pit of standing-room-only small chamber, to watch an hour (?) long Motion-Graphics Motion-ated "Movie" of Van Gogh's greatest hits set to Erik Satie + motivational quotes / etc.
* The advertising however would make it look like more like an art gallery, where you'd stand and watch one thing in one place, then wander to the next location and watch what happened there instead. Or at least that's what I presume what most people had assumed...
* Meanwhile, it seems the organiser's "real" intention was: "Walk around in dark airy spaces while being surrounded + soaked in this atmosphere of a 'novel' presentation of this great artist's great art, free from traditional constraints of viewing art as fixed static pieces at a particular point in space"...
What could have been done better / different?
Looking back, IMO they really, could've fixed this (and made the whole affair not only more enjoyable for attendees, but also for achieving their lofty ambitions) by either having ushers to move people around within that first bottleneck area initially, OR just offering an "audience tips" screen at the start of the video loop telling folks to move around!
Indeed, it's really only after you break free from that: "moving pictures dictate that I stay in one spot watching them from start to finish", that you do start to realise how this thing was actually meant to be experienced differently!
Broader Lessons
I have a feeling that there may be some broader lessons here. I'm not quite ready to speculate on what these might be just yet. (I may come back to revise this later if do think of something!)
BUT, for the NZ events industry, I think the implications are much clearer:
* 1) Be aware that crowds here tend to have these tendencies
* 2) Be proactive, and have overall event management monitor these things + take actions about it by going beyond just using this to tell the gate staff to let more people in or not, but instead:
* 3) Train your floor staff to help get the floor moving a bit more OR better yet, as part of the pre-show, may be to include some kind of live display of the event area, showing folks where there is actually currently lots more free space available, empowering folks to make their own decisions about whether they want to relocate to another area to give themselves a better experience.
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