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A Guide to Concert or Music Venue Accident Claims – How Much Compensation Can I Claim?

By Olivia Glass. Last updated 22nd October 2024. Welcome to our guide about concert or music venue accident claims.

Concert and music venues can be extremely busy places and can range in size quite dramatically from small venues such as a small bar or hall, to large venues such as arenas, stadiums or even fields for hosting open air concerts. There are many areas within a venue regardless of size, such as the stage, backstage area, preparatory areas, food and drink area, viewing area, toilets and other general public areas. Staff should be present in all areas to ensure things run smoothly and as expected and so that any hazards that become apparent can be dealt with swiftly.

The people who attend concerts can vary in age from the young, to the more mature aged audience. Music lovers will be excited at going to a concert and will be expecting to have a fantastic time. However, they should be aware that, although rare, there are always potential accidents that can occur and attendees should be mindful of this.

Unfortunately, with the sheer amount of people and excitable atmosphere, some accidents and injuries can occur whilst at a concert and if you have been injured or taken ill whilst attending a concert, you may be eligible to make a concert or music venue accidents claim. Legal Expert is a team of highly experienced personal injury claim solicitors and will be able to help you to determine your eligibility and proceed with making your concert injury claim on your behalf to get you the best possible concert injury compensation award.

Discuss your personal injury claim today with one of our advisors:

A crowd of people at a live concert

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A Guide To Concert Or Music Venue Accident Claims

Due to the large volume of people attending concerts, usually in crowded conditions, there needs to be extreme care taken when planning and preparing for such events. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has legislation in place for all the different areas to consider when organising a concert or musical event from crowd managing, temporary construction guidelines, electrical safety, fire safety and many more. There are so many areas of potential risk for concerts and music venues that careful and meticulous planning and preparation ahead of the event taking place needs to be considered with great importance and care. Inadequate planning could result in putting hundreds or thousands of lives at risk as problems that may occur could escalate quickly within such a busy, crowded environment.

It is also essential that adequate security and contingency plans are in place for any possible emergency scenarios to ensure the attendees and staff can be evacuated rapidly but calmly should the need arise.

Appropriate numbers of staff need to be present to help things run smoothly and as expected. All staff should have received adequate and relevant training so that they understand and know of the venue’s health and safety policies and procedures to ensure that they are followed at all times to protect themselves, and the concert goers, from any potential risks of harm.

Failure to follow the health and safety legislation and guidelines could result in someone, staff or attendee, in becoming injured or ill. If you have become ill or suffered an accident whilst working at or attending a concert of music venue due to someone else’s negligence, then you may be eligible to make an accidents at a concert or music venue claim.

Who Is Responsible For Injuries At A Music Venue?

Every concert accident claims case is different but in most circumstances, the music venue itself will be found to be liable for an accident that occurs on its premises. Any places that are used for public entertainment, will need to be granted a license by their local authority. The authority’s officers will make inspections on a regular basis to ensure that any safety precautions are in place and any potential dangers dealt with or removed. If the officer’s find that the venue is in breach of their health and safety regulations, then the venue will be held liable for any injury that may have occurred on the premises.

An employer at a music event venue has to ensure that sufficient welfare facilities are provided for their staff such as toilets, changing and rest rooms and a clean place to eat and drink when on their break. The employer is also expected to have health and safety policies in place to ensure the staff have a safe working environment. It is their duty of care to provide adequate training in these policies and procedures for their staff, so that they can be strictly followed. If a member of staff suffers an injury whilst at work and the employer is found to be in breach of their duty of care, they will be found liable and can be sued for compensation.

There are occasions when it isn’t quite as clear cut as to who takes the blame when an accident occurs at a concert or music venue, but experienced personal injury claims specialists such as those at Legal Expert will be able to help establish who is ultimately liable.

Slips, Trips And Falls Concert Injury Claims

Slip, trip and fall injuries are probably the most common cause of injury in a public place including those related to a concert accident claims . Injuries sustained from these types of accidents can range from fairly minor to very severe and in extreme, rare circumstances, even death.

Usually, these accidents occur where the floor surface is wet and slippery such as eating areas where food or drink may have been spilt, or in the restroom/toilet area. Staff should be sufficiently trained in the health and safety policies and procedures at the venue and ensure that any spills or leaks should be immediately cleaned up. If the floor is wet from cleaning, safety signs should be placed by the slippery hazard to warn people to take extra care as the floor is slippery. Slip, trip and fall accident can happen anywhere in the venue though if simple safety procedures are not adhered to.

Accidents that have occurred due to a person tripping and then falling over can, in most circumstances, be avoided if safety procedures are followed properly. Walkways should be kept clear and any wires for equipment should be placed well out of the way to prevent someone from tripping on them.

Both staff and visitors to the venue are at risk of having a slip, trip or fall accident if health and safety procedures are not put in place or followed correctly. The venue needs to ensure that its’ staff are adequately trained in these procedures.

If you have been injured whilst working at or visiting a concert, call us at Legal Expert for free advice on how to make concert or music venue slip, trips and falls claims.

Concert Crush Injury Claims

If the body becomes caught or trapped underneath or between something, the body can often end up with extensive damage that may not be visible but can occur inside the body to bones, muscles and internal organs depending on the force of the body when being crushed. Occasionally, if the part of the body is crushed with great force, the body part can be so damaged that amputation may be necessary such as a limb, or if the internal organs have been severely crushed, death may occur. This could give rise to making concert accident claims.

Concert staging equipment such as overhead lights and cameras, and temporary demount-able structures, need to be checked thoroughly to make sure that they are secured correctly, to avoid collapsing or falling and crushing people below.

Another possible cause of crush injuries is crowds. Although crowds are part of life and inevitable at a concert or music venue, and usually not dangerous, if they are not correctly controlled, crowds can be deadly. A crowd crush can cause a suffocating pressure to the people being crushed and if they fall, they could also be crushed beneath the feet of the crowd.

Crowds at concerts are often full of people pushing forwards to get a better view of the performers on stage and so often appropriate barriers may be used, strategically placed to keep the crowd from pushing forward too much at once, squashing those in front.

Emergency and public exits should be staffed to ensure a calm and safe exit when the concert ends. Also, if an emergency was to occur during the concert and the crowd panicked and people start to rush to try to escape, there would be a huge risk of many people becoming victims of crowd crush injuries. By staffing emergency exits and having emergency contingency plans in place, this risk could be greatly reduced.

The HSE has health and safety regulations that should be followed when planning an event where large crowds will be gathered to lessen the risk of crush injuries occurring.

If you have suffered a crush injury whilst at work at a venue or whilst visiting a concert venue due to the negligence of someone else, then you may be entitled to claim for your gig injury.

Concert Or Music Venue Accident Claims Due To Overcrowding

One reason for concert accident claims is overcrowding leading to injury. As mentioned earlier, crowding can potentially be dangerous if not kept under control.

A tragic example of how disastrous failure to control crowds can be is the Hillsborough disaster of 1989. Following a pre-match build-up of football fans outside the Hillsborough stadium, police match commander David Duckenfield ordered exit gate C to be opened in attempts to dispurse the area. However, this led to a concentrated influx inside one of the stadium’s pens, leading to the death of 96 fans and a further 766 injuries.

Concerts and music venues will have a maximum capacity number for the number of people within the venue, including staff, for safety purposes. To prevent overcrowding, this number must not be ignored and the venue must have a procedure in place to keep count of the number of people entering the venue. The HSE regulations on crowd management should be considered when the venue is planning an event such as a concert.

The most deadly injury that can be caused by overcrowding and if the crowd is not under control is suffocation due to people literally being squashed, and so unable to breathe. Fortunately, this is rare thanks to the HSE regulations and guidelines being followed. Other injuries can also be caused by overcrowding such as bruising, and severe panic and anxiety attacks.

If the venue does not put special measures in place to prevent overcrowding, it will be found to be in breach of its duty of care to staff and visitors and would be found liable for any injuries sustained.

Food Poisoning At A Concert

Food poisoning at a concert can occur due to a variety of reasons, the main one being that the food has been undercooked. Undercooked meat can be full of bacteria that can result in the consumer becoming very ill, sometimes requiring hospital treatment. Other causes of food poisoning can include:

  • Incorrect storage of food – Food that should be kept refrigerated will go off quickly if it is left at room temperature. Uncooked meat should be stored at the bottom of a fridge to avoid any juices dripping onto cooked food, known as cross-contamination.
  • Cross-contamination – Utensils used for uncooked food should be separate from those used to prepare cooked food, again to avoid cross-contamination.
  • Unclean preparation and cooking areas – If not regularly washed down and kept clean, these areas can be a breeding ground for harmful bacteria.
  • Poor personal hygiene standards – If the people preparing and cooking the food do not ensure they clean their hands properly after visiting the toilet for example, then they will be transferring bacteria from their hands onto people’s food.

Food poisoning can cause stomach cramps, sickness and diarrhoea, dizziness, weakness, tiredness, high temperature and chills. Some types of food poisoning can be very serious and require hospital treatment, but in most cases, symptoms will go within 1-2 weeks.

So, how to prove food poisoning as part of concert accident claims? This can be tricky as symptoms aren’t always immediate and can take up to 24 hours to appear, but usually they will occur 1-2 hours after the affected food has been consumed. The victim of food poisoning should make a note of everything they have eaten over the last 48 hours, they should visit their GP who can send a stool sample away for testing to confirm food poisoning, they should ask if anyone else they may have dined with has felt ill, they should contact the local environmental health department and ask them to do a spot check on the suspected food outlet. Unfortunately, without proof that the source of the food poisoning is definitely from the suspected food outlet, a food poisoning compensation claim is unlikely to be successful. However, a personal injury claims solicitors like Legal Expert would be able to shed more light on this matter.

So how much can you get for food poisoning? This would all depend on the severity of the food poisoning, how it has affected your everyday life and for how long you have suffered symptoms and associated problems. According to an advisory board of judges called the Judicial Studies Board, food poisoning payouts can range anywhere from a few hundred pounds for minor symptoms to, in extremely rare circumstances where quality of life has been affected, up to £30,000.

It can be hard to make food compensation claims that are successful, and so if you have suffered food poisoning at a concert, contact Legal Expert for free help and advice.

How Much Compensation For Concert Or Music Venue Accident Claims?

The compensation that you could receive in concert or music venue accident claims can be made up of two heads of loss. There are general damages and special damages.

General damages compensate for the injuries that were caused. Factors that affect the size of the award include:

  • The type of injury or injuries
  • Injury severity
  • Length of symptoms
  • Pain levels
  • Future prognosis
  • The need for surgery
  • Loss of enjoyment of life (e.g. affected hobbies)

When calculating injury damages in concert accident claims, legal representatives may use a document called the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This contains a list of injuries and the corresponding suggested compensation brackets that could be recovered.

We have included bullet points below with some injuries from the JCG and the suggested compensation brackets. They are just a guideline and the top entry does not come from the JCG.

  • Multiple Significant Injuries plus special damages – Serious multiple injuries with financial losses – Up to £1,000,000+
  • Very Severe Brain Injury – Serious with little meaningful response to the environment – £344,150 to £493,000
  • Moderately Severe Brain Injury – leaving the person very seriously disabled – £267,340 to £344,150
  • Severe Back Injury – involving severe nerve root spinal cord damage – £111,150 to £196,450
  • Moderate Back Injury – possibly including fracture of the lumbar vertebrae – £33,880 to £47,320
  • Severe Leg Injuries that are Very Serious – Serious compound or comminuted fractures – £47,840 to £66,920
  • Severe Leg Injuries that are Moderate– fractures that are complicated or there are multiple of – £33,880 to £47,840
  • Moderate Knee Injury – including dislocation or torn cartilage – £18,110 to £31,960

Special Damages

The second head of loss is special damages. They are not always present in claims but are for the financial losses that the injuries caused. If you have out of pocket expenses or monetary losses, they can be included in your compensation.

Some common special damage items include:

  • Loss of earnings
  • Domestic care and assistance (private or family)
  • Travel costs
  • Medical expenses
  • Private treatments
  • Rehabilitation fees

To find out more about how music venue accident claims are valued, call an advisor today.

No Win No Fee Concert Or Music Venue Accident Claims

The solicitors Legal Expert work with operate on a No Win No Fee basis. What this essentially means is that if we don’t win your concert accident claims for you, you don’t pay us anything. Legal fees are only payable if we win your case for you and they are paid by taking a small percentage of your award amount. We feel that this is the best way to work for our clients as it gives piece of mind that they are not putting their finances at risk in any way or taking a gamble at all.

A ‘pay as you go’ solicitor will want payment regardless of the outcome, and considering some cases often take months, even years sometimes if it is a very complex case to complete, as you can imagine, the legal fees can mount up to a very large sum, and so if the solicitor lost your case, you could find yourself largely out of pocket. With our No Win No Fee policy, there are no financial costs upfront or during the claiming process and so no financial gamble.

Contact Us Today

If you would like us to look at your concert accident claims for you, then just call us for free on 0800 073 8804. Your call will be answered by a member of the Legal Expert team that can offer free advice.

After an initial informal chat, we can offer a free consultation session where we can go through everything with you in more detail. In this session, you can ask as many questions as you need to regarding making your claim and about how the whole claiming process works. We will also use the session to find out more details and facts surrounding your claim so that we can begin working on your case for you if you so wish.

We may also offer you a free local medical too if we feel this could help strengthen your case, but of course, this would be discussed during your consultation.

A solicitor who is an expert in concert or music venue accident claims shows a client something on a tablet.

Useful Links

HSE – Managing crowds

This site is the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) site and it gives advice and guidelines on how to deal with crowds to keep people safe.

HSE – Public events guide

This is the HSE site that gives the health and safety advice and guidelines for managing public events to prevent potential problems and accidents that could occur.

Legal Expert’s guide to No Win No Fee

This is the Legal Experts own guide on how their No Win No Fee policy works.

Thanks for reading our guide about concert or music venue accident claims.