On the night of 5th November 2021, ten people lost their lives in a crowd crush at the Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas, USA. For all of us who work in crowd management and event safety, it remains a sobering reminder of everything our profession exists to prevent.

Among those who died that night was Madison Dubiski, aged 23. The next morning, her cousin went to the festival site and tied a large pink bow to the fence, in Madison’s favourite colour. Before long, pink bows were appearing on homes, schools and businesses across Houston, then in cities across the United States and as far afield as the UK.

On 1st May 2022, which would have been Madison’s 24th birthday, her family founded the Pink Bows Foundation in her name. The Foundation now works to make live events safer for everyone, so that no other family has to face the same loss.

As a supporting partner of the Global Crowd Management Alliance, SACIA is proud to stand with the Foundation. Thursday 5th November will be five years since that night. To signify our support, we and other GCMA members around the world, have painted our logo pink for the day. It's only when we work together that we can create a safe event environment for event patrons - in Africa and beyond.