Summer Field / 4 credits
Festival Systems and Crowd Dynamics
A field course on the operational and behavioral systems that hold a multi-day festival together. Students study site design, crowd flow, harm reduction, and the rituals that make a crowd cohere.
Syllabus
- Site planning — stages, sightlines, and circulation
- Crowd flow modeling and bottleneck analysis
- Sound system design across open and tented stages
- Hydration, heat, and harm-reduction protocols
- Ritual moments — sunrise sets, shared cues, drops
- Field report and design proposal for a model event
Assessment
25% field journal, 25% crowd-flow study, 20% seminar leadership, 30% final design proposal.