How to Handle Gatecrashers: After Jay-Z, Experts Talk Training, Prevention & FOMO’s Possible Role
Following the July 12 incident that saw hundreds of people rush the gates at the rapper's Yankee Stadium show, security professionals discuss best practices.
Black News 
Jay-Z didn’t take the stage until 12:18 a.m. ET on Sunday (July 12) at Yankee Stadium — more than four hours after the show was scheduled to start. The delay came after hundreds of people without tickets pushed past security in order to enter the stadium, leading to an hours-long shutdown that left many ticketholders standing outside — and forcing the venue, along with Jay-Z and his team, to determine how best to manage the situation. In the wake of the incident, Billboard spoke to several event safety experts about whether the response to the Yankee Stadium situation was typical, how venues can best prepare for these kinds of security breaches and how FOMO could play a role in these incidents happening in the first place.
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According to Steven A. Adelman, director of event safety, international festivals and events association and co-founder of the Event Safety Alliance, after fans storm the gates of a venue and successfully make it past security, it’s possible for security personnel to utilize CCTV footage to determine who, exactly, the bad actors are and track them down inside. However, he points out it’s not always worth the effort to do so, as resources can often be limited — particularly in an incident involving hundreds of people, as was the case at Yankee Stadium. In those situations, he suggests, a better focus would be to ensure no further security breaches take place.
“We’ve seen scenarios like this before,” Adelman says, citing the Copa América soccer tournament at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami in 2024, which caused the match to start 90 minutes after its scheduled time. “The response was pretty similar to what they did at Yankee Stadium, which is [security personnel] inside the stadium gates rushed to resecure that entrance, and they shut the gates. Everyone who was outside got stuck outside, and the people who were already inside got to stay inside. That’s pretty much the option.”
Leading up to a large-scale event, a risk assessment between the venue, promoter, artist team and local public safety officials is a key to preparing for such an eventuality, says Taylor Collins, a litigation attorney at McCarter and English who specializes in sports and entertainment-related matters, including facility use and event operations.
“That planning should translate into a coordinated security plan that includes clear communication with fans, visible signage, crowd management measures, trained supervisors at key entry points and real-time monitoring leading up to and during the event,” Collins says.
Badcock notes that proper planning is the only true way to prevent a gate-crashing scenario. Securing each entry area ahead of time and being aware that fans may choose to rush past the guards is essential, he says. According to experts, the most important thing to do once a security breach has taken place is to contact local authorities. John Badcock, a member of the Event Safety Alliance board, emphasizes that, no matter the size of the event, providing local police and fire departments with a heads-up that a show is taking place can help them prepare to respond should an emergency scenario occur.
Properly training venue staff is also a crucial component of such a plan. “A key element is staff training to ensure they know what they’re looking for at gates and having entry points adequately resourced, having staff know what tickets look like and, if they’re finding they’re getting overwhelmed at a gate, is there an effective communication structure where they can report and request additional assistance,” Badcock says.
Despite making these types of preparations, Adelman notes it can still be difficult to prevent gatecrashers, especially if they begin by gathering in a public area such as a street in front of a venue, where they’re legally allowed to be.
“Once these people are gathered on private property, there’s something [venues and those running a show] can do, because [gatecrashers] don’t have a right to be [there],” he says, adding that law enforcement typically steps in at this point, as they — not security staff — have the proper training to ensure a peaceful exit. “If they gather on private property, then ticketless fans can be [escorted] off the property by law enforcement. Private security wouldn’t do that — that’s a police function.”
Though gatecrashing occasionally makes headlines — including at Electric Zoo in 2023 and Astroworld in 2021 — Adelman notes that it’s not a particularly common occurrence. But common or not, why do such incidents happen in the first place? According to Badcock, the phenomenon can partly be attributed to a social media ecosystem that enhances the phenomenon known as FOMO (fear of missing out).
“Even if social media didn’t create any concept for gatecrashing events,” he says, “it’s a catalyst for making it seem more achievable for people.”
