Return of the Music Festival Mosh Pit in 2021.

Surely one of the attractions of attending any music festival is the experience of the mosh pit. That small area in front of the stage for hard core event goers keen to dance and party hard all day and all night. With proposed restrictions likely as festivals return in 2021 what does the future hold for the music festival mosh pit?

Although traditionally the mosh pit was that small area in front of each stage in recent times it can almost extend back through the whole audience. Moshing was born out of the hard-core heavy metal music scene some time ago, sometimes referred to as slamming or slam dancing, essentially hard and fast pushing and shoving in time to upbeat music. It can depend on the nature of the act and genre or music whether a mosh pit develops in front of stages but for many event goers a mosh pit is part of the attraction of attending a music festival. Event goers do it for a variety of reasons but generally it's for camaraderie and a sense of whole in the audience leading to an overall feeling of wellbeing, although injuries are not uncommon.

With the emergence of hard core EDM festivals the mosh pit has developed away from slam dancing to more up-tempo dance moves, so irrespective of the genre a mosh pits of sorts still exist and are unlikely to disappear any time soon.

With festival organisers under pressure to introduce more restrictions at events in 2021 to prevent the spread of coronavirus infections will elements of social distancing put an end to the mosh pit as we know it? Despite possible measures to prevent audience interaction and contact it is unlikely to be that effective, just add in some alcohol and combine it with an up-tempo act and event goers will soon forget about social distancing. Even if festival organisers employ an army of volunteer stewards for crowd control it is unlikely to stop several thousand hard core fans from doing what they want. Several small music events that took place in the UK in the last few months with strict social distancing measures failed to control the audience as the amount of alcohol consumption increased into the night. It is highly likely that despite well intentioned measures by festival organisers for events scheduled for 2021 that close audience contact will happen. Organisers should make contingency plans for such occurrences with the knowledge that the return of the festival mosh pit in 2021 is invitable.

Using an events software management platform like FestivalPro music festival organisers get all the functionality they need to manage their event planning needs. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The FestivalPro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features for managing all elements related to restrictions in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Users get the ability to create and store documents related to social distancing and other related health and safety procedures. The volunteer shift module allows for the creation and management of staff for crowd control and restriction implementation.  

Photo by Sebastian Ervi from Pexels

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