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

By Olivia Glass. Last updated 15th April 2021. Welcome to our concert accident claims guide.

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.

concert accident claims

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.

Select a Section

• A guide to concert or music venue accident claims
• Causes and types of concert injury claims
• Who is responsible for injuries at a music venue?
• Slips, trips and falls concert injury claims
• Concert crush injury claims
• Concert injury claims due to overcrowding
• Food poisoning at a concert
• Other accidents in a public place
• Music festivals compensation claims
• How much compensation can I claim for a concert or music venue accident?
• No Win No Fee concert or music venue accident claims
• Why choose legal expert for your personal injury claim?
• Contact us today

A guide to concert or music venue accident claims

Welcome to our concert accident claims guide.

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.

Causes and types of concert injury claims

Here are some common types of incidents that could lead to concert accident claims.

There are many different possible causes and types of injuries resulting in concert or music venue accident claims where compensation is being demanded.

Injuries at a concert or music venue might include:

• Fractured or broken bones.
• Bruising, cuts and grazes.
• Concussion.
• Food poisoning  sickness, diarrhoea, stomach cramps, temperature and general
• weakness.Hearing problems.
• Crushing injuries.
• Electrocution.
• Injuries associated with being assaulted.

Main causes of injuries can be:

• Slip, trip or fall accidents – There are many reasons as to why someone may slip, trip or fall over. If food or drink has been spilt and not cleared, this will result in a slip hazard. Walkways need to be kept clear of any obstruction to prevent people tripping and falling over. Any uneven floor surfaces should be signposted with warnings of a trip hazard if they cannot actually be fixed. Staff need to ensure that any electrical wires and any equipment is out of the way, again, to reduce the chances of them tripping someone over. Slip, trip and fall accidents can result in many possible injuries, from minor bruising to fractured or broken bones, or even concussion if a fall results in a head injury.
• Food poisoning could be due from a number of things, Under-cooked food is the most common cause of food poisoning, but it could also be caused by incorrectly stored food, food that is out of date still being used, unhygienic cooking areas and practices, and poor personal hygiene of the cook, for example, not hand washing sufficiently etc. Food that has been stored incorrectly can become bad or contaminated by raw foods such as meat. Having unclean preparation and cooking areas can also cause germs and bacteria to grow and contaminate foods to be consumed. If there is poor personal hygiene such as not hand washing, this will also cause germs and bacteria to contaminate the food being prepared. Food poisoning can range from being fairly mild to extremely severe.
• When attending a concert, it is fairly common for someone’s hearing to be temporarily affected due to the loudness of the music. However, for staff or security staff who are attending all the time, their hearing could be affected more long term if they do not take any precautions. If they are posted in a position where the music is particularly loud such as near the speakers, they should be supplied with some equipment such as ear plugs to safeguard their hearing. Continual exposure to loud noises like music, can cause permanent damage to a person’s hearing.
• Crowd management is extremely important when large crowds are anticipated such as at a concert or music venue to prevent serious and even life threatening injuries occurring due to people being crushed. This should be discussed and course of action decided when the event is being planned. The HSE has crowd management legislation and guidelines in place as health and safety is paramount. Contingency plans must be put in place for any emergencies that could occur to reduce the likelihood of a panic which could lead to many people being overrun and crushed by the crowd.
• Equipment and temporary structures if not constructed properly and securely could result in a person or person’s being severely injured if something was to collapse or fall on them. Injuries could include bruising, broken or fractured bones, head injuries, and even death.
• Electrical equipment must be regularly PAT tested before being used. Installation of the electrical equipment needs to be done properly and securely. Equipment that is never checked for damage and tested regularly, or that is incorrectly installed, could cause someone to get accidentally electrocuted which may result in death.
• When in any crowded place, particularly if alcohol is readily available, there is unfortunately a risk of people becoming aggressive and causing an injury through assault. At places where crowds are expected such as planned events like music concerts, security staff should be present to be able to intervene if required. Security checks should also occur as attendees arrive to ensure no weapons such as knives are brought into the venue.

Regardless of whether you are a member of staff working at the venue, or someone coming to see the concert, if you are injured due to someone else’s negligence, then you will be able to make concert accident claims.

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 injury 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.

Other accidents in a public place

Other places that hold public entertainment events such as outdoor festivals still have an obligation to have measures in place to prevent harm coming to any staff or visitors. If they fail to do so, they could be held liable for concert accident claims.

The organisers of the event are the most likely to be found liable if an accident causing injury occurs. Whether an event is indoors or outdoors, health and safety policies and procedures need to be in place that are relevant to the type of venue and event, as well as risk assessments being carried out where necessary to help prevent an accident occurring.

Music festivals compensation claims

As already mentioned, anywhere that a public event is being held, needs to be properly organised with health and safety policies and procedures in place relevant to the type of venue and event. Risk assessments may need to be carried out to determine any possible problems and dealt with to provide a safe environment. If this is neglected, those responsible for doing so could be held liable for concert accident claims.

Outdoor music festivals are often a much larger venue than one that is indoors and so overcrowding can become an even bigger problem as it is more difficult to control numbers of people. The event organisers have a duty of care to make sure their staff and visitors are in a safe environment and so should make sure that stewards and security staff are plentiful and spaced throughout the crowd to keep matters under control.

Alcohol consumption may also be higher in outdoor festivals as visitors may bring their own drinks which in itself can pose extra risks in large crowds due to a possible increase in aggressive behaviour and fights breaking out.

How much compensation can I claim for a concert or music venue accident?

This question is difficult to answer in relation to concert accident claims. Due to there being so many possible accidents that could occur at concerts and other music venues, the differences in severity, and so many other variables, it would be impossible to answer this question accurately. However, what we can do at this stage is list a few of the different types of injuries that may be sustained at a concert or music venue, and their average compensation payout amounts.

Updated April 2021.

This is just a guideline to show what you could possibly be awarded for a particular injury, but of course, the final amount you would be awarded if successful, would depend on your own individual circumstances.

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.

Why choose legal expert for your personal injury claim?

The team at Legal Expert are a friendly, professional and very experienced team that have specialised in the concert accident claims industry for many years.

They work tirelessly to make sure that they get the best possible outcome for their clients. They have a great track record of making successful claims, and more often than not, gaining the maximum payout amount available.

They are a very approachable team that will always answer any questions the client may have about their case, and they keep their client’s informed every step of the way so that their clients can relax in the knowledge that something is being done to get them the compensation award they deserve.

Legal Expert work quickly and efficiently to get the best result they can as soon as possible for their client. They realise that the sooner the case is won and closed, the sooner their client can recover from their injury and finally move forward with their life.

Concert Accident Claims FAQs

How long can I make a claim after an accident?

3 year time-limits apply to personal injury claims from the accident date or date you realised you suffered as a result.

Can I claim on behalf of someone else?

Yes, this is called acting as a litigation friend. You could claim if a loved one is incapacitated, such as those before their 18th birthday or those lacking the mental capacity to claim.

How much compensation could I get?

It’s impossible to say, as personal injury claims are valued according to each claimant’s suffering. Therefore, valuations are on a case-by-case basis.

How do I prove my suffering?

Typically, you’ll have a medical evaluation with an independent expert. This can assess how the accident has impacted you.

What is a No Win No Fee agreement?

These agreements allow those from any financial background to access legal help to make a claim. This way, claimants don’t have to pay out of pocket. Instead, they’ll pay any success fee once their lawyer wins their case from their payout.

Do I need a lawyer to claim?

No, it’s not a legal requirement but it could help you get the compensation you deserve.

Where can I find a personal injury lawyer?

Look no further than Legal Expert. We have a panel of personal injury lawyers with over 30 years of experience that can start working with you today.

How can I get in touch with the team at Legal Expert?

Please check out our contact options in the next section.

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.

concert accident claims

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.

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 concert accident claims guide.