Festival Seating

Approved: 1991

Reaffirmed: 1998; 2005; 2012; 2019

WHEREAS, The objects of the New Jersey PTA address the need to secure adequate laws for the care and protection of children and youth; and

WHEREAS, The practice of selling admission tickets to concerts, shows, and performances that allow the ticket holders the privilege to stand in a space, called festival seating, is known to create an unsafe environment for ticket holders who are primarily children and youth; and

WHEREAS, Festival seating forces concert ticket holders to compete for limited, popular viewing locations in front of a concert stage, seriously jeopardizing crowd safety; and

WHEREAS, Festival Seating raises a concern for open grassy areas of seating which have no assigned seats; and therefore be it

RESOLVED, That the New Jersey PTA seek legislative action that will prohibit festival seating at concerts for ticket holders, and be it further

RESOLVED, That New Jersey PTA prepares information on this subject for presentation to members of the State Legislature for the writing of legislation that addresses this concern.

RATIONALE The term “Festival Seating” is misleading. It is a term used when tickets are issued but no seats are assigned. This scenario is an invitation to tragedy. Theaters and concert halls have tried to provide a safe environment at concerts that attract a large number of people by increasing security and having assigned seating or areas. "In almost every concert disaster, standing room festival seating is at least a contribution to the chaos," Wertheimer (head of the Crowd Management Strategies) says. "There are no aisles, no direction and the crowd density is high. A lot of people are all leaving at once, they can't find a way out and there is no one to give direction." This has been most notable witnessed through the Who concert Disaster in 1979 and the Las Vegas Concert Shooting in 2017. Legislation should be passed to alleviate some of these concerns or issues.