Hogmanay and a Crush...

If you ever get the chance, you should go to Scotland to celebrate the New Year.?My experience for Hogmanay was in the beautiful city of Edinburgh.?It’s like Harry Potter come to life.?Hogmanay is the Scottish word for the last day of the old year, so they celebrate the New Year.?It was magic, the first night walking around Edinburgh, the cool mist, sadly there was no rain no matter where I went.?There were bands all over the city.?You could push the door in on any part of any building and there behind the door were people from all over?the place waiting to say a hello, offer a beverage.?There were fireworks each hour, at one point, I stopped a pair of police officers to let them know the castle was on fire.?They stated I must be seeing things, the castle doesn’t catch of fire, it’s probably a BBQ.?Then as they were just finishing telling me how silly I was, fire trucks came racing around the corner of the castle….which was in fact on fire.?The officers just faded away after that no doubt on their way to see the next band. Later in the night, the bands were all kicking up, so people started gathering to watch them, milling about in the streets.?

People were laughing, drinking, and starting to raise their voices to the music.?Then, slowly, you could fill the shift.?I have an aversion to large bodies of groups; the claustrophobia takes over almost each time. ?I was having fun, in a new city, a new country but I felt it.?The shift.?There were thousands and thousands of people, mingling together on the narrow streets.?I can’t say what caused the shift to become a surge, but you could feel it coming like a voluminous ocean wave towards you.?There is something that happens, perhaps the elevated voices all at once, or a nervous or panicked energy, or that sixth sense we have all have.?The specific location we were standing was on a narrow street, old, slippery, wet from the cool mists.?There were barricades placed 2-deep about 4 feet high in order to protect the fun merry goers during the festivities.?Barricading so traffic doesn’t plow through streets filled with people??Perhaps.?This night, as the shift and movement of people starting surging towards us, I knew we had to move.?And move fast.?The bodies all started pressing, pushing, moving in one direction.?Towards us.?You could hear the panic in voices, feel the fear, almost taste the energy as it rocked up.?The pressure was increasing.?One of the people in our party did not have arms, my fear was instant, how would this person stay on their feet.?We must move, quickly, get out of this tidal wave surge of people or it may end badly.?So, I recruited.?Instantly.

I reached behind me to two tall and stout men, grabbing their jackets and pulling them to me so they could hear.?I said, we must leave, I need you to form a barrier with those to your right and to your left, a crush is happening.?We have to move, now.?They started linking arms and moving us away from the crush of humanity that was descending upon us.?I then grabbed our friend’s jacket who has no arms and linked arms with the group telling them to lead us towards the lowest part of the barricades.?I told our friend, don’t lose your footing, we can’t go down.?If we could get there, we can help each other out.?You could hear the voices starting to scream around us, taste the fear in the air.?I saw police officers climbing up the barricades to see what was happening.?The way the barricades had been set up; we were funneling now quickly into a small, narrow area that would then open up again on the other side but would crush us against a wall if we didn’t hit the narrow opening.?

By now, the movement from those behind us was growing rapidly into a steam roller of humanity that wasn’t going to be able to stop, the momentum was too great, it was creating force towards us.?With our banded group who at this point were steadily moving towards the barriers, planting their feet solid so as to not lose their footing, we steadily made our way towards the barricades just as the police who had grown in numbers by this point, were able to start releasing the stakes and wiring that were holding the barricades together, yes, these barricades were meant to last throughout the holiday I suppose.?We popped out the other side of the barricade like we were traveling through a relief valve.?The force from behind us great, it propelled us out and we almost lost our footing.?Thankfully, our new friends, did I mention they were huge in proportions??They kept us all steady and pulled us to the right as soon as we blasted out past the barricades.?Talk about instant relief.?And joy, followed by the adrenaline rush of fear of what could have happened.?Thankfully, in Scotland, bars are bountiful.?So, our group of survivors opened the closest door and proceeded in to have a celebratory drink.?

So, to recap, many things can start a crush.?There is something about a large group of people mashing together, it sets up a chain reaction which can become catastrophic, this large body of people end up helpless to move in any other direction than what the crush moves them.?We were lucky, in that we were towards the middle of the large body of people, and you could feel it happening which gave us time to react and move out of the mainstream of the crush.?It pays to stay alert.?

We banded together to form an arrow formation to move through the crowd towards the outer wall where there were less people at the time we started our movement.?We kept our arms together and moved as a team protecting our friend who could not protect himself at this point.?Don’t forget, we recruited people immediately.?During part of this movement, it was scary as we experienced a full-on crush of bodies pushing towards us nonstop.?And we lucked out in that the barricades started to be moved, if not we would have been in trouble as you can be crushed against barricades or walls if they are tool tall to scale or climb.?We were in a no-win situation, barricades or narrowed portion which did end up having issues with people losing their footing.?Going to the ground is the ultimate way to have devastating results in a crush.?

While pushing through, we did not have to worry about losing our ability to breathe as we reacted quickly to what was going on around us.?But for those who were caught up in the full-on crush, it must have been terrifying to not be able to stop your momentum but also not to be able to breathe.?The recommendation in this situation is to save your breathe, literally.?And then work to make a space around your rib cage with your arms out in front so you, building a cage to allow for you being able to maintain the ability to breathe.

The other thing we did well as a team, once we recognized we were going to be in trouble, we moved.?With the crowd but angling towards the outer area.?We used a formation to protect our friend and somehow it worked.?We didn’t fight with the crush of people descending on us, we went with the flow but added angling to it to exit.?Luckily, we were at the beginning point of the wave.?But, if you find yourself within the crush, protect your air, keep your footing, and move with the crowd.?And, if possible, avoid any walls or solid objects like trees as these would aid in you being crushed.

So, if you love to go to events, keep in mind to remain alert.?Keep yourself from losing site that energy and excitement can lead up to a crush of people happening around you.?Also remember, take care of your friends, and those around you if possible.?And, if you end up at Hogmanay in Scotland enjoy the amazing experience but stay away from densely crowded areas you can’t easily leave if needed.??