Health and safety is crucial when it comes to live performances, because there are always so many people involved there and even more people there in the audience. So to put on a live gig needs a lot of preparation and well thought of details.
Some of the main hazards at live performances include:
Trip Hazards – Wire management is a serious thing when it comes to stages, smaller stages are the worst. Little wiggle room, barely any space for equipment and very close to the edge of the stage. At these types of venues, the stage needs to be set up for both practically and also for the best sound experience too. Wires need to be secured so they don’t get in the way of the performers and keep the stage safe. Microphone cables need to flow down the mic stand in a way that they’re secured but also easy to move if a singer wants to move around. Effects pedals need to be out of the walking field but also in a place that they are accessible, the jack lead that connects them from the pedals to the amp needs to be in a wire organiser or taped down with tape that is easy to see even when the stage lights aren’t on. I personally use white duck tape or hazard tape when I’m taping cables down.
Malfunctions of equipment – Equipment breaking or malfunctioning happens soo much more often than you could ever imagine, like even a few days ago before one of our gigs, our lead guitarists amp and guitar both broke simultaneously out of nowhere and we had only a few hours to fix them before the gig and we still needed to travel to the venue, end of the day we came prepared for anything and we managed to get them sorted and played the gig with no other hardware issues. Lights also manage to, very rarely, break free from our control sometimes, this could consist of a glitch in the lighting system that makes it uncontrollable and starts strobing or it could even have bracket malfunctions, where then disconnect to the pieces holding them up and they skydive onto performers or their gear. The system usually gets updated pretty often, and tends to not crash.