In conversation with Paul Runnals
Crowd safety lessons from the FIFA Fan Festival
At every major event, there’s a brief stillness before the gates open—the calm before tens of thousands of fans arrive full of energy and expectations. That quiet moment is the product of months of preparation, layered contingency plans, and a deep understanding of how crowds move and behave. As high-capacity events grow more ambitious and complex, crowd management has become a critical safety discipline.
Paul Runnals, partner and Senior VP; Talent & Production
As BrandLIVE prepares for the FIFA Fan Festival, their approach offers a clear look at what it takes to keep large public gatherings safe, smooth, and enjoyable. Paul Runnals, Partner and Senior VP; Talent & Production, brings hard-earned insight into the strategies and lessons that shape effective crowd management today. He has more than 30 years of experience producing some of the province’s biggest events— from the Honda Celebration of Light to the Squamish Valley Music Festival.
“Our team has worked on a diverse portfolio of festivals and large public gatherings, but regardless of the project, a lot of the logistics, operations, and best practices— especially regarding public safety and crowd management—are quite similar,” he says.
Planning: the foundation of safe crowd management
Effective crowd management starts long before the first fan arrives. Large-scale events—especially those with the energy and unpredictability of soccer crowds—require early, detailed planning and risk assessments that carry as much weight as programming or production. This means identifying hazards, such as heat exhaustion or high-density pinch points, and ensuring preventive measures meet legal requirements for protecting workers and the public. Strong planning brings every part of the event together: technical teams, security, front-of-house staff, merchandise, site operations, and— critically—external partners such as local authorities, police, fire, and emergency services. This collaborative approach ensures a shared understanding of crowd dynamics, site layout, and the responsibilities each group holds in keeping people safe.
There’s a lot of effort and a lot of time that go into security planning and the response abilities we need if behaviours start to go outside the lines. Our job is to intercept issues early so they don’t escalate—and that only works when planning starts well before the gates open.
Understanding who is coming is also key. BrandLIVE analyzes:
- Age and demographics
- Fan culture and past behaviour patterns
- Artist or team-specific tendencies
- Substance-related considerations, including liquor and cannabis use
Planning also means studying how people move through the site and looking at:
- Ingress and egress routes
- Pedestrian pathways
- Transit and parking patterns
- Programming schedules that trigger mass movement
Every transition—whether a stage shuts down or a match ends—can trigger sudden surges. By modelling scenarios with police and emergency services, teams can adjust layouts, staffing, and timing to prevent bottlenecks and panic. When planning is thorough and grounded in real-world behaviour, even tens of thousands of fans can move as one without the experience ever feeling chaotic.
Keeping information flowing
Clear, timely communication is essential to keeping crowds moving safely. When people don’t know where to go—or when information comes too late—they slow down, stop, or change direction abruptly, creating congestion and frustration. Effective communication prevents this by providing real-time updates about routes, closures, wait times, and programming changes, while also encouraging the use of alternate entrances or underused pathways.
When communication is clear, coordinated, and continuously monitored, it means we can spot issues early and respond before they escalate. Communication is one of the most important tools for preventing small issues from becoming major incidents.
Behind the scenes, coordination is just as critical. A central control point—whether a small office or a fully staffed command centre—ensures that every team involved in crowd management shares the same realtime picture of what’s happening on the ground. This control point allows staff to:
- Monitor crowd density, queues, and emerging issues
- Coordinate responses across security, operations, and guest services
- Communicate instantly with emergency services and external partners
Lessons learned shaping tomorrow’s events
After years of producing highcapacity events, Runnals and his team have learned that strong relationships and shared understanding are just as important as physical infrastructure. Crowd management works best when everyone—security, emergency services, operations, and municipal partners—has been part of the planning process from the start. Tabletop exercises, prevention briefings, and collaborative plan building ensure teams know how to communicate and make decisions together when issues arise. Technology is also reshaping what’s possible. The FIFA Fan Festival is introducing AI-powered smart portals that speed up security screening while providing live counts of people entering and exiting the site. CCTV systems now offer visibility not just at the gates but across approach routes, transit points, and parking areas—giving organizers the ability to anticipate surges before they reach the venue. “The new technology gives us real-time visibility we’ve never had before—from accurate crowd counts and faster screening to spotting surges before they hit the gates and shifting resources on the fly based on live data,” says Runnals. As events grow larger and more complex, the combination of experience, collaboration, and realtime technology is becoming the new standard for safe crowd management. By continuing to learn, adapt, and innovate, organizers can create environments where massive gatherings feel not just exciting—but reliably safe for everyone who walks through the gates.
