Overcrowding at MK during fireworks

[walt2187]

Hi Everyone,
After watching the news today in regard to the incident at a concert in Houston, I think back to my experience approx. a month ago when my wife and I stayed at MK to watch the closing fireworks. People were taking a position I would say maybe 1 1/2 hr. prior to the beginning of the show. We arrived maybe 45 minutes prior to the start and the cast members were very good at keeping the designated walkways open. As it got closer to the beginning of the show, many more people started to look for a place to stand. I would say that within 15 minutes of the start, it became very crowded and in fact cast members were asking people to move forward and in fact we’re filling the designated walkways with people. We became very uncomfortable with their decision, especially with there being no way to easily leave the area voluntarily or during an emergency. After seeing what just happened in Houston, hopefully Disney management and their safety officers look at their procedures.

 

[Disney.Dreamin.Dee]

Rather different environments to compare IMHO.

 

[FCDub]

I agree the circumstances are quite different – Travis Scott's crowd is far more high-energy than your average Disney park-goers, and he has a long history of stirring them up and encouraging reckless behavior – but overcrowding is still overcrowding.

 

[Future_WorldPhonencian]

Disney is very, very good at crowd control. I can't imagine something like that would happen in disney parks. Those taped lines, staff with the light-up batons, along with the crowd control and security people working behind the scenes. Apparently the artist associated with that event is infamous for encouraging folks to "act rowdy" think moshpits, and generally more aggressive behavior. To each their own, but I have seen Disney's paramedics in action during a fireworks crowd injury at the MK. They also have multiple emergency "blow off" exits to get people out of the MK on heavy crowd nights. That and the utilidoors and very comprehensive and permanent surveillance mean that they can react very quickly if there was the threat of a crushing incident.

 

[Disney.Dreamin.Dee]

I agree the circumstances are quite different – Travis Scott's crowd is far more high-energy than your average Disney park-goers, and he has a long history of stirring them up and encouraging reckless behavior.

Not to mention that the event had a poor safety/evacuation plan with inadequate exits.
I'm sure that WDW in its 50 years has well established plans for dispersing of crowds as can be seen most during New Years when MK is at capacity.

 

[SteveMouse]

Disney has well-developed plans for managing crowds.

If necessary, there are a couple of ways Disney could increase exit points rapidly. They can open a passage from Tomorrowland to the exits in a matter of seconds. They can also channel people, if needed, through some backstage paths between Main Street and Frontierland.

 

[Sjm9911]

The saftey messures are pre planned and allready built in. Thats why there are gates, walls, seperating areas and areas that dont hold people. Its designed to hold large croweds safely. To break up a large group, to many small manageable groups.

 

[gharter]

The saftey messures are pre planned and allready built in. Thats why there are gates, walls, seperating areas and areas that dont hold people. Its designed to hold large croweds safely. To break up a large group, to many small manageable groups.

This.
With all the dessert groups, they break it up even more.
The hub is designed to break up the crowd.
Even when they had a castle show for evening shows, the hub still limited the crowd in that area.