Managing a Near-Stampede at Vaayu Fest
Stabilized a crowd emergency at a 20,000-person music festival by rapidly reallocating a sixty-person team under live pressure
Swagnik Paul
Investment Banking at JM Financial Ltd
From their time as
Head of Security
Vaayu Fest • 2024 - 2025
Overview
Swagnik led the security and operations department at Vaayu Fest 2025, a three-day music festival held at JVPT Grounds near Juhu, Mumbai, with more than twenty thousand attendees. He managed a team of sixty first-year students, having spent eight to ten months preparing them for live event conditions.
The Story
Swagnik led the security and operations department at Vaayu Fest 2025, a three-day music festival held at JVPT Grounds near Juhu, Mumbai, with more than twenty thousand attendees. He managed a team of sixty first-year students, having spent eight to ten months preparing them for live event conditions.
On one of the event days, a dangerous crowd surge developed at one of the two entry gates. The queue had collapsed into an uncontrolled press, with attendees climbing over each other in a way that risked escalating into a stampede. The situation required an immediate response.
Swagnik moved to the gate himself. He pulled five to ten of his pre-designated response members and deployed them in two directions: some were sent to the back of the crowd to create space near the gate by pushing the crowd outward, while others were positioned to prevent additional people from joining the queue and compressing the situation further. He coordinated the reallocation in real time, directing each group to a specific task while managing the crowd directly.
The situation stabilized without injury. Entry resumed smoothly, and the rest of the event proceeded without further incident.