Most outdoor events are not covered by Martyn’s Law. That sentence surprises people, and it is worth saying plainly before anyone spends a budget on the wrong thing.
The test is the perimeter, not the crowd size
A qualifying event needs people to be checked on entry — by ticket, invitation, membership or payment — at a site with “a well-defined and secure perimeter” (para. 5.22). Crowd size only matters once that condition is met, and then the threshold is 800 or more, including staff (para. 5.17–5.18).
So a free city-centre festival with open access is outside the Act, however many people turn up. Open streets and pavements are not in scope (para. 5.41).
Mixed events are assessed part by part
The guidance names carnivals specifically (para. 5.40). A ticketed arena inside an otherwise open event can qualify while the surrounding streets do not. If your event has both, you assess both.
This matters more than it sounds. It means the answer for a single event can be “yes here, no there” — and that your procedures need to be clear about which part of your site they cover.
Being outside the Act is not the same as having nothing to prepare for
Here is the honest position. If your event is out of scope, nothing in the Act obliges you to do anything. But the questions the Act asks are good questions regardless of who is asking them:
- If you had to move people quickly, would your message actually reach them — everywhere on site, including the far corner of the campsite?
- Do you have prepared wording for the situations you can foresee, or would someone be writing it under pressure?
- Can you communicate without setting off an evacuation you did not intend?
Those three points come straight from para. 7.49 of the guidance. They are also simply the difference between an event that copes and one that does not.
What licensing authorities ask is a separate matter
Local authorities, safety advisory groups and insurers set their own expectations, and those do not stop at the boundary of the Act. Being out of scope does not mean being unasked. Being able to show a prepared, workable communication plan tends to shorten those conversations rather than lengthen them.
Where the difficulty actually sits at an outdoor event
Sound carries badly across an open site and competes with a stage. Push notifications reach only the people who installed the app, and mobile networks are least reliable exactly when a crowd is densest. That is not a scope question — it is a physics and infrastructure question, and it applies whether or not the Act does.
Our technology — for which a European patent application is pending — drives video and audio independently over its own broadcast signal, with no reliance on mobile networks, public IP networks or cabling.
Frequently asked questions
Our festival is fenced and ticketed, with 3,000 visitors. Are we in scope?
On those facts it looks like a qualifying event: entry check, defined and secure perimeter, over 800 including staff. The assessment is yours to make and record.
We run a free event with wristbands at a fenced site. Does that count?
Payment is not the test; the entry check at a defined and secure perimeter is (para. 5.22). A wristband check at a fenced site can qualify.
Our event is out of scope. Should we do nothing?
Nothing is required of you under the Act. Whether you prepare anyway is a judgement about your event, your site and your audience — not a legal one.
Does a campsite count as part of the event?
It depends on whether it sits inside the same defined and secure perimeter and behind the same entry check. Assess it as part of the site, not separately from it.
Where responsibility sits
Legal responsibility rests with the responsible person and cannot be handed over: the responsible person cannot delegate their legal responsibility to a contracted service provider, although they may delegate tasks (para. 6.1). CrowdCows supports that work and does not take it over. Nothing we supply is required, approved or endorsed by the Home Office, the SIA or NaCTSO.
All paragraph references are to the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 statutory guidance (Home Office, published 15 April 2026, updated 18 May 2026).
Related: does the Act apply to your premises or event? · which scenarios should you have prepared for?
