Festival Spotlight

As the summer season of outdoor music festivals gets ready to begin, organizers and their insurance partners must prepare for all risks. One critical safety protocol is adequate security.

While security has always been a hot-button issue in festival risk management it’s become a problem that needs a better solution, according to Mona Grabowski, producer and entertainment practice leader for HUB International.

“The difficulty that we’re facing in the marketplace now is security companies are having a much more difficult time securing liability limits that are considered ‘baseline’ requirements by a lot of the larger festivals and live events,” she said. “What we used to see as a baseline of $5 million to $10 million is almost impossible for a lot of these security companies to even obtain. And if they can get it, can they financially afford it?”

Another safety risk is the well-being of employees as the talent pool for event workers continues to experience strain. The industry is relying more heavily on smaller, less experienced crews, and that can contribute to more workplace injuries and claims activity, Grabowski said. Burnout among event workers has become a meaningful concern, she said, especially given the physically demanding nature of festival production and stage setup work. “Event companies investing in mental health resources and employee well-being are seeing advantages in talent retention and operational stability,” she said.

In general, the live event insurance market has moved to a more stable environment than in recent years, she said. Underwriters are increasingly rewarding insureds that can demonstrate sophisticated safety and operational planning, she said.

“The market has definitely stabilized,” she said. “For well-run accounts with clean loss histories and strong risk management, we’re seeing meaningful rate relief. On the GL, lower risk accounts are seeing between 5% and 15%, but for a lot of the high-capacity venues and CAT-exposed outdoor events, it’s still a hard market,” she said. However, event organizers that treat risk management as “a financial strategy, not a compliance exercise” are winning when it comes to renewals, she said.

“The clients that are winning in renewal right now are the ones who can walk into an underwriting conversation with documentation like weather protocols, crowd management plans, loss trends analysis.” They know their risks, they manage those risks, and they have evidence to support getting better terms, better limits, and better relationships with their insurance carriers, she said.

“In 2024, my message was about getting creative. In 2026, it’s about getting credible. The bar for being a desirable risk has gone up, and the clients that are investing in managing risk are seeing rewards.”