Safety
Event Risk Assessment
A document the crew actually uses
Most event risk assessments are written to satisfy someone — a venue, an insurer, a client — and never reopened. The difference between paperwork and a working document is small: every risk has a named owner and a written trigger for action. Without those two columns, nothing happens on the day.
The short answer
An event risk assessment identifies what could go wrong, how likely and how serious it would be, what you will do to reduce it, who owns it, and what observable condition triggers a decision. Requirements vary by country, venue and event type, so confirm what is formally required for your event with the venue and the relevant authority.
Finding the hazards
Work through the event rather than brainstorming. Hazards cluster in predictable places.
| Area | Look at |
|---|---|
| Build and strike | Where most injuries occur. Working at height, heavy items, vehicles, time pressure |
| Structures | Staging, rigging, temporary structures, wind loading, anchoring |
| Power | Cable routes, trip hazards, loading, water nearby, generators |
| Crowd | Entry and exit flow, pinch points, capacity, queues, simultaneous movement at breaks and close |
| Fire | Exits and their width, kept clear, extinguishers, pyrotechnics, cooking |
| Food | Allergens, temperature control, water, handwashing |
| Medical | First aid provision, access for an ambulance, a route out |
| Weather | Wind, rain, heat, cold, lightning — for outdoor elements |
| People | Lone working, long shifts, alcohol, conflict, lost children |
| Accessibility | Evacuation for people who cannot use stairs |
| Transport | Vehicle movements near pedestrians, deliveries during open hours |
Point
Build and strike deserve the most attention. They involve heavy items, vehicles, height and time pressure, with fewer people watching than during the event itself. A risk assessment that covers only show hours misses the riskiest hours.
Note
Walk the site with the people who will do the work. The crew and the venue team see hazards you will not, because they have seen them before in that building.
Rating and controlling
- Likelihood × impact is enough; elaborate scoring adds no accuracy
- Rate after controls as well as before — that is what tells you whether the control is enough
- Prefer removing the hazard to managing it. Moving the cable route beats taping it
- Name a control that someone can actually perform — "be careful" is not a control
- Record who checks that the control is in place, and when
- Accept some risk explicitly, and record who accepted it
Point
A control nobody is named for does not exist. The column that makes a risk assessment work is the owner's name — a person, not a company or a department.
Note
Eliminate before you mitigate. The strongest control is not doing the risky thing: rerouting the cable, moving the vehicle movement outside open hours, lowering the structure.
Triggers and thresholds
This is the part most assessments omit, and the part that matters on the day.
| Risk | Write down in advance |
|---|---|
| Wind | What measurement, at what reading, means stop — and who measures |
| Crowd density | What the observable sign is, and what action follows |
| Heat | When extra water and shade are deployed |
| Lightning | The rule for suspending outdoor activity |
| Overrunning | What gets cut, decided beforehand |
| Medical incident | Who is called, who meets the ambulance, who holds the crowd |
| Evacuation | Who decides, who announces, the words they use |
Point
Write the threshold as something observable, and name who decides. "If it gets too windy" is not a threshold. The specific value belongs to your event, your structures and your supplier's limits — but it must be a number or a published warning, agreed before the day.
Note
Ask your structure supplier for their limits in writing and build your threshold below theirs. Then you are not making a structural judgement on site in bad weather (see the related guidance on temporary structures).
Keeping it live on the day
- Briefed, not just distributed — the crew should hear the top risks aloud
- One page of the critical items, carried on site
- Emergency contacts on that page, with the venue's own numbers
- Who holds the decision for stopping, and their deputy
- A radio or phone channel that reaches that person
- A check at the end of build, signed off before doors
- A way to add a hazard found on site
- An incident log, with time, location, people, action
- Post-event review, including near misses
Point
Log near misses, not only incidents. The near miss is the free warning. A barrier that was knocked but held, a cable that was tripped over but caused no injury — those are the items to fix before next time.
Note
Sign off after build and before doors open. A walk-through against the critical page, by one named person, catches the gap between what was planned and what was actually built.
Key takeaways
- Owners and triggers are what separate a working document from paperwork.
- Build and strike are the riskiest hours. An assessment covering only show hours misses them.
- Rate after controls as well as before, to see whether the control is actually enough.
- "Be careful" is not a control, and a control with no named owner does not exist.
- Write thresholds as something observable, agreed before the day, with a named decider.
- Log near misses. They are the free warning you get before the incident.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What could go wrong, how likely and how serious it would be, the controls that reduce it, the residual rating after controls, a named owner for each risk, and an observable trigger for action. The owner and trigger columns are what turn the document from paperwork into something the crew uses. Requirements vary by country, venue and event type, so confirm what is formally required with the venue and the relevant authority.
Work through the event rather than brainstorming. Hazards cluster in build and strike, structures, power and cabling, crowd flow, fire and exits, food, medical provision, weather for outdoor elements, people issues such as lone working and long shifts, accessibility including evacuation for people who cannot use stairs, and vehicle movements. Walk the site with the crew and the venue team, who will see hazards you do not.
They involve heavy items, vehicles, working at height and time pressure, with fewer people watching than during the event itself. A risk assessment that covers only show hours misses the hours in which most injuries occur.
Write it as something observable and name who decides. "If it gets too windy" is not a threshold; a specific measurement or a published warning is. The value itself depends on your structures and your supplier's stated limits, so ask the supplier for their limits in writing and set your threshold below theirs. Agree it before the day, so nobody is making a structural judgement on site in bad weather.
Brief it aloud rather than only distributing it, carry a one-page version of the critical items with emergency contacts, name who holds the stop decision and their deputy, sign off after build and before doors, and keep an incident log. Record near misses as well as incidents — a barrier that was knocked but held is a free warning you can act on before next time.