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According to Rigas mezi (Riga Forests) board member Edgars Vaikulis, experts had found that there could be a maximum of 6,000 persons on Mezaparks Stage at one time, but the organizers of the festival put twice as many children on the stage.

Inga Vasiljeva, public relations officer for the Song and Dance Festival, said that the organizers of the festival, for several festivals already, put 12,500 children on the stage, taking into consideration that a child's average weight is almost twice lower than the weight of an adult.

Although no accidents occurred at the Youth Song and Dance Festivals in the past, it is hard to draw a line beyond which a disaster will be inevitable, writes "Ir". "Construction engineers always leave a safety margin. "If we violate safety recommendations by 5 percent, nothing bad will happen most probably. But if we violate the recommendations by 50 percent, I would not vouch that everything is going to be all right," said Riga Technical University lecturer Aigars Udris, one of the persons who issued the recommendations.

Weight is not the only criterion, said Udris. There are other important aspects, too, including "how much space one person needs to have."

According to the general practice, a room of fifty centimeters is designated for one person. Taking into account that it was children on the stage, some five centimeters could have been deducted. But the organizers ended up with even less room – 35 centimeters, which is just a little more than an A4 page.

This entails several risks, noted Udris. If every person has a room of fifty centimeters, he or she can leave the place swiftly in the case of an emergency. Each centimeter that is deducted makes the situation exponentially more dangerous. It will be much harder for medics or police to get to a person if need be.

The packed stage also means another major safety violation – the choir singers were standing in aisles, which can be seen in all videos and photographs from the event.

"What if a participant had a firecracker in his pocket, what kind of a reaction would he cause?" Udris said. "If there are emergency exits, this can be absorbed as people have room to move. But if there is a large crowd, people cannot go anywhere, and panic begins."

The evaluation of the safety of Mezaparks Stage was done about a month before the festival by the association of Latvian construction engineers "LBS-Konsultants" for the owner of Mezaparks Stage, Rigas mezi.

As reported, the organizers of the 11th Youth Song and Dance Festival believe that they have done everything for the festival to be safe.

As reported, taking into account that multiple children experienced fainting spells during the Gala concert rehearsal, and 17 children were hospitalized, the Youth Song and Dance Festival procession on Sunday was cancelled, but eventually, an estimated 98 percent of festival participants turned out to march through downtown Riga.