The Event Safety Podcast

What does it actually take to stop a show? Danielle is joined by Steve Allen, Mark Hamilton, and Bryan Huneycutt to talk about Showstop® Procedure, the accredited course developed with the Pink Bows Foundation after the devastating Astroworld tragedy.

The conversation traces the development of the show stops from the 1990s to today and explains how a show stop is an emergency intervention which protects life safety when properly trained, prepared show stop managers react efficiently to situations which develop during an event. These subject matter experts were able to share insights as to risk assessments, triggers, and decision making in high profile, high stress scenarios.   

Show Notes:

Guests:

Steve Allen FdA MIFireE FIIRSM RSP | LinkedIn

Mark Hamilton FdA MA (Dist.) HonD Univ | LinkedIn

Bryan Huneycutt | LinkedIn

Showstop® Procedure Courses | https://www.showstopprocedure.com/showstop-courses/
Pink Bows Foundation | https://pinkbowsfoundation.org

https://pinkbowsfoundation.org/advisory-board/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duty_of_care

https://www.fbi.gov/history/cases-and-criminals/boston-marathon-bombing

https://www.gkstill.com/

Contact Danielle | [email protected]

Heat continues to be a major life safety concern at events, and we wanted to take the opportunity to advocate and educate about the risks, mitigations and culture change needed to preserve both the activity as well as the health of all participants.  Danielle welcomes back Dr. Kevin Kloesel, joined by fellow meteorologist Spencer Adkins, both of whom, among other projects, forecast heat safety for Drum Corps International. 

Early-season collegiate and high school football games in the Southeast have already sent hundreds of fans, band members, and staff to first aid for heat, and the tragic death of a college marching band student, in which heat appears to have played a role, has made the risk even more important to highlight. 

Wet bulb globe temperature, not heat index, is the metric that correlates with heat illness, and there are specific thresholds are for modifying or stopping activity. From TV-driven midday kickoffs, artificial turf, tailgating, medications, body mass, and acclimatization, many things affect our susceptibility to heat illness. Mitigations can include shade and hydration as well as low-cost cooling like ice tubs, tarp "tacos," and kiddie pools that should start before paramedics arrive. Culture change such as DCI's move to later start times, which grew out of an ESA severe weather workshop, shows what planning ahead looks like and where there are opportunities for increased heat safety.

Show Notes:

https://www.uiltexas.org/health/info/heat-stress-and-athletic-participation

https://www.weather.gov/safety/heat-illness 

Zelus WBGT | https://zelusports.com/
Korey Stringer Institute | https://ksi.uconn.edu/
Contact Danielle | [email protected]

Guests:

Spencer Adkins | LinkedIn Television Meteorologist, West Virginia; Weather Forecaster, Drum Corps International and Bands of America

Kevin Kloesel | LinkedIn  Event Safety Meteorologist, Baylor University; Chief Science Officer, Zelus WBGT

Hosts:
Danielle Hernandez (host)
 

Danielle invites UK crowd safety specialists Eric Stuart and Miriam Stone to discuss the role of steward in the field of crowd management and trace the lines between volunteers, stewards, and licensed security.

Eric lays out a five-tier crowd-management hierarchy -- volunteers, stewards, security, police, military -- with stewards sitting just above volunteers: paid, unlicensed, responsible for wayfinding and soft enforcement. Miriam adds that in the UK anything above steward requires a license and training. The conversation also covers volunteer management, noting that fans of the event rarely no-show while general volunteers need clear expectations and something meaningful in return for their time. The group debates whether stewards should face the crowd outright or monitor at a 45-degree angle, and argues for briefing them to spot behavioral outliers -- heat illness, crowd distress, demographic mismatches. 

Guests:

Miriam Stone | Operations Consultant, Arena and Venue Industry

Miriam Stone | LinkedIn

Eric Stuart | Owner and Director, Gentian Events

Eric Stuart QPM | LinkedIn

Hosts: Danielle Hernandez

Tami Richter, ESA's current president, moderates the second commemorative webinar panel, titled "Looking Forward: Education, Collaboration, and the Future of Safer Events." After a moment of silence honoring those lost in 2011, the discussion turns to several active ESA initiatives.

Guests:

Tami Richter, John Badcock, Jessie Sullivan, Bryan Huneycutt, Doug Bruce, Danielle Hernandez

Show Notes:

Event Safety Alliance | https://www.eventsafetyalliance.org

USITT | https://www.usitt.org

To mark the 15th anniversary of the Indiana State Fair stage collapse that killed seven people and injured 58 others, Danielle shares Part One of an ESA presentation commemorating the event, and how it inspired us to change to safety at live events, work that continues to this day.

The panel, led by ESA founder and immediate past president Jim Digby, traces ESA's founding: the conference calls that grew from a handful of concerned industry professionals to dozens, the Event Safety Guide, and an early meeting with Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels that persuaded state officials to let the industry self-regulate. Topics also cover the 13 ANSI standards now available free through ESTA's Technical Standards Program, the insurance sector's role in rewriting weather cancellation policies to address wind and lightning rather than rain accumulation, and evidence of safety culture taking hold on show sites worldwide. 

Guests:

Jim Digby, Don Cooper, Scott Carroll, Sue McGuirl, Jacob Worek

Show Notes:

Event Safety Alliance

ESTA Technical Standards Program

Danielle reconvenes the 2nd annual current events roundtable, joined by event safety friends, Jacob Worek, John Badcock, and Doug Bruce to review the incidents, trends, and conversations that shaped the first half of 2026 for live events.

Weather was a major theme, also, the FIFA 2026 World Cup, audience behavior and safety messaging, technology and surveillance at events, nightclub fires and more.   Lots of lessons learned, as well as considerations of pathways forward for these challenges.

Show Notes:

ASTM F38 Drone Shows Committee

Contact Danielle | [email protected]

Guests:

Jacob Worek | SMP

John Badcock | Event Operations & Safety Director, SXSW

Doug Bruce | Creative Safety

Hosts:

Danielle Hernandez (host)

What separates safety training from safety culture? Danielle and co-host Anna Glover sit down with Jen Ruggerio, founder of Rugged Training Group and author of Uncorporate Leadership, to dig into that question.

Safety training without leadership support is box-checking.  The conversation examines common leadership models that do not translate to environments where the stakes are lives rather than quarterly numbers.

This episode builds a case for shared leadership as an alternative to top-down hierarchy, positioning safety accountability as something every crew member holds rather than something that flows from a title. Practical threads include heat illness in new workers, how to speak up when you are day labor, why imposter syndrome is evidence of growth, and how the fresh eyes of a first-week worker are an asset most companies fail to use.

Guests:

Jen Ruggerio | Founder, Rugged Training Group  Jen Ruggerio | LinkedIn

Hosts:

Danielle Hernandez (host)      

Anna Glover (co-host)

Show Notes:

Uncorporate Leadership (Amazon)

Rugged Training Group

Contact Danielle: [email protected]

It is fireworks season! Danielle sits down with Ryan Abel, a fireworks and FX designer and pyrotechnic specialist. This in-depth chat covers pyro from design to operations, including budget, AHJs, permits and safety protocols.

Site selection, weather, and show-stop criteria each get real-world treatment, including stopping a show mid-performance when winds spiked unexpectedly.  The discussion goes into the reputational stakes when incidents go viral, performer and audience clearances in entertainment pyro settings, the role of spotters, and the early-stage challenges of combining drone shows with fireworks.

Guests:

Ryan Abel | Fireworks and FX Designer, Pyrotechnic Specialist

Hosts:

Danielle Hernandez (host)

Show Notes:

NFPA 1123 (outdoor displays) | https://www.nfpa.org

NFPA 1126 (proximate pyrotechnics) | https://www.nfpa.org

Contact Danielle | [email protected]

Pink Bows Foundation grew out of tragedy. After ten people, including Madison Dubiski, lost their lives at Astroworld in 2021, her family channeled an outpouring of community grief into an organization committed to making live events safer for everyone. The foundation's work runs on three pillars: a philanthropy program honoring Madison's commitment to community service, a Showstop procedure course that has trained over 700 event professionals worldwide, and the Safe Space itself.  

Danielle and co-host Tami Richter sit down with Ashleigh LaBure and Kyrah Lowe from Pink Bows to talk about their Safe Space initiative and how it is finding its way to large events across Texas and beyond. The bright pink tent structure has become a recognizable beacon at festivals — a cool-down spot, a safe refuge, a rally point for separated groups, and a welcoming environment for attendees managing anxiety, overstimulation, or heat. 

Events interested in hosting Safe Space can connect through the Pink Bows website.

Guests:

Ashleigh LaBure, Senior VP of Operations Pink Bows Foundation

Kyrah Lowe | Volunteer & Community Outreach Coordinator, Pink Bows Foundation

Show Notes:

Pink Bows Foundation [email protected]

Hosts:

Danielle Hernandez (host) & Tami Richter (co-host)

Danielle Hernandez is joined by guest co-host Fr. David Garretson along with guests Bill Conner and Dan Culhane for an in-depth discussion of the present, past and future of fire safety curtains and their place in both venues and codes.  

For over a century, theaters have been required to provide either a fire curtain, a deluge system, or mechanical exhaust at the proscenium to separate the stage from the auditorium in the event of a fire. The forthcoming International Building Code (2027) will eliminate the longstanding requirement for proscenium opening protection in new theater construction.  Bill Conner, who worked this significant change through both IBC and parallel NFPA language, has found no evidence anywhere, including the UK and Europe, that fire curtains have ever saved a human life. 

Note: This change applies to new construction only. Removing an existing fire curtain from an older theater would require buy-in from the local authority having jurisdiction, the insurer, and the fire marshal. NFPA is moving in the same direction, though without IBC's requirement to separate the stage and auditorium from the rest of the building.

Hosts:

Danielle Hernandez (host)

Fr. David Garretson (guest co-host)

Guests:

Bill Conner, FASTC, ETCP Certified (retired) Rigger - Theatre. Bill, a professional theatre consultant since 1982, provides facility planning and systems design for the performing arts. Among over 150 projects, notable projects include the Alley Theatre, the West Side Showroom, Cincinnati’s SCPA, Edgewood College’s The Stream, Willow Creek Church, Detroit Orchestra Hall, McFarland High School, and the Holden-Brownstone Performing Arts Center. Bill is the ASTC codes officer since 1987 and participates in the development of the national model codes as the senior member of the Assembly Occupancies committee for the NFPA Life Safety Code, serving since 1988, and participant in the ICC Code Development Process for many years. He is a member of the ICC A117.1 and ICC 300 committees. You can reach Bill at 708-983-5792 or [email protected]

Dan Culhane | Co-Chair, Stage Machinery Working Group and Technical Standards Council, ESTA

Show Notes:

ESTA Standards (free downloads)

ANSI E1.22

Deadliest single building or complex fires and explosions in the U.S.

Iroquois Theatre fire

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire

Contact Danielle | [email protected]