As the Festival season gets underway warnings are being issued to festival-goers about the hazard of crowd surfing.

Crowd surfing, for those not conversant with what goes on at music festivals and concerts, is the time honoured tradition of passing a person over the heads of others. There are risks involved however, not just in participating in the act of crowd surfing but also in simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time as an innocent bystander.

Surfers are at risk from injuries such as bruises and sprains and can even suffer whiplash type injuries if they are unfortunate enough to get dropped while “surfing” while the crowd risk injury from being kicked, dropped on or cut by sharp articles of clothing or jewellery.

Few studies have been made into accidents at festivals however a student recently carried out an informal survey of randomly selected festival goers and asked them if they had been injured while at an event. Of the 40 people questioned 30 said that they had been hurt during a concert and many of them said that it was as a result of crowd surfing.

In 2000 the Airedale NHS Trust reported that at a three-day music festival held in August of that year there were, out of an attendance of 60,000 people a day, there were 43 minor crowd surfing injuries.

Those people who get carried away by the urge to hurl themselves on top of the crowd should try to minimise the risk of injury to themselves and other people while they do so.

Tips for safe crowd surfing:-

* Wear suitable clothing with no sharp edges such as buckles, zips or studs.
* Wear soft shoes
* Remove pierced earings or chains which may get snagged on things.
* If you feel that you are falling try to relax as you are less likely to injure yourself.