The Station talks safety, crowd control at Amyl and The Sniffers gig

The Station venue owner has revealed what it took to control a crowd of punks listening to an interstate band, after reports emerged of women being groped in the crowd at the band’s Brisbane gig.

Amyl and the Sniffers performing at the 2022 ARIA Awards at the Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park. Picture: Jonathan Ng

After shocking reports of several sexual assaults at a Brisbane gig, including women in the crowd being groped and having their clothes stripped from them by men, venue owners on the Sunshine Coast where the same band performed the night before have reported no such issues.

Reports emerged on social media of more than a dozen young women being assaulted, groped and their clothes stripped from them at band Amyl and The Sniffers’ gig.

The band took to social media to berate the alleged acts that occurred at The Tivoli on January 31.

Amyl and The Sniffers performed at The Station on the Sunshine Coast the night before their Brisbane show and Chris Hignett, joint owner of the Birtinya venue with his wife Lauren, said they took special care to prepare.

Owners Chris and Lauren Hignett of The Station.

“As this was the first time Amyl had come here, we made the deliberate choice to reduce capacity to lower than normal just because it was an unknown crowd”, Mr Hignett said.

“Traditionally the band’s audiences are majority female, but being the Sunshine Coast you just don’t know what you’re going to get.

“Generally our audiences are pretty friendly but we always try to play with a bit of caution.”

Mr Hignett was in the audience at several times over the night to have “chats” with punters and said “it’s never perfect, we did eject a few for being dangerous”.

The reduced capacity meant people feeling uncomfortable had the opportunity to move out of an unsafe situation.

Mr Hignett said The Station had a “soft touch” but early intervention policy.

“It’s just about listening to people, paying attention and being there as a safety net, not as a reactionary force,” Mr Hignett said.

The Station Entry.

The Station’s policy is to over-roster security as any time there is a chance of a mosh pit, there is a chance of injury.

Mr Hignett said with camera footage, guards on the barricade, a team roving in the crowd, his personal policy was to over-resource, over-plan and manage crowd control a little bit differently anytime there was a slight concern.

He said he saw a few people get jostled around but the teams acted immediately to talk to those affected.

Mr Hignett, a father himself, said young people should stay in a group, especially if they were under 18 and were going somewhere with a different type of audience than their usual gigs.

“Make yourself known to security and they’ll look after you, tell you where to be and keep an eye out for you,” he said.

He said to avoid being at the front because that was a zone that people were more likely to feel pushed around.

“Even if it’s just people bumping into you, you can’t see everyone’s hands and the risk is a lot higher for inappropriate behaviour,” he said.

Mr Hignett said venue staff could only react to what they saw or were notified of.

He asked punters to give some description of perpetrators of bad behaviour so owners could review CCTV to identify them entering or leaving the venue.