Martyn's Law for Music Venues: What You Need to Do
TL;DR
Music venues with 200 to 799 people (audience, crew, bar staff, door supervisors) need procedures for evacuation, invacuation, lockdown, and communication. Above 800 you’re into enhanced tier instead. The biggest challenge? Talking to a crowd when the music’s at 100dB. For most venues, step one is cutting the sound and using the PA. For venues without one, agreed visual signals and staff with torches are the fallback. Below: a worked example for a 500-capacity standing venue.
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If your music venue regularly holds between 200 and 799 people (audience, performers, crew, bar staff, and door supervisors combined), it falls under the standard tier of Martyn’s Law. Above 800 you’re into enhanced tier instead, which carries a heavier set of duties beyond the scope of this guide. Standard tier needs public protection procedures for evacuation, invacuation, lockdown, and communication.
Music venues face challenges that other premises don’t. Loud music, dark lighting, dense crowds, and the energy of a live event all make communication harder and crowd movement less predictable. Many venues at this scale have some advantages too: if you use SIA door supervisors, they’re already trained in crowd management, and if you have a sound engineer at every show, they can cut the music and switch the PA to announce mode in seconds. The harder cases are smaller venues where the duty manager and bar team have to do everything manually.
Does Martyn's Law Apply to Music Venues?
Music Venues fall under Entertainment and leisure (Schedule 1, paragraph 3) of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025. If your music venue regularly has between 200 and 799 people present at the same time, it qualifies as a standard tier premises. At 800 or more, you're into enhanced tier instead, which carries a heavier set of duties.
Standard tier means two duties: notify the SIA that you are a qualifying premises, and put public protection procedures in place covering evacuation, invacuation, lockdown, and communication.
No physical alterations. No equipment to buy. No consultants to hire.
How to Work Out Your Music venue Capacity
Capacity varies depending on the event format. A standing gig, a seated concert, and a club night may each have different maximum numbers. The threshold is based on the greatest number of people reasonably expected at any one time, across all your regular event types.
Count everyone: audience, performers, crew, sound and lighting engineers, bar staff, security, box office, cleaners. If you have a green room or backstage area, include people there too.
If your venue switches between standing (500 capacity) and seated (300 capacity) layouts, use the higher figure. You don’t need separate procedures for each layout, but your procedures should work for both.
Not sure where you fall? Use our free capacity calculator to work it out.
Key Challenges for Music Venues
Every music venue is different, but these are the issues that come up most often:
Communication in loud environments
This is the single biggest challenge for music venues. Verbal instructions are useless during a live set. Your communication plan needs to start with cutting the sound and bringing up whatever lighting you have. If you have a PA system, switching it to announce mode is your primary tool for talking to the audience. If you don’t, staff with torches, high-vis tabards, and agreed hand signals are your fallback. Either way, plan for both.
Crowd density near the stage
Audiences pack tightly near the stage, especially at standing events. In an evacuation, the instinct to move towards exits at the rear can create dangerous crushes. Staff need to manage flow and may need to open stage-side or lateral exits that audiences wouldn’t normally use.
Dark environments and disorientation
Performance lighting means the house is dark. If the power goes out during an incident, it’s pitch black. Emergency lighting covers exit routes, but staff with torches are essential for guiding people through unfamiliar backstage or side corridors. Walk the routes in the dark during a rehearsal.
Equipment blocking exits
Flight cases, speaker stacks, merchandise stands, and staging equipment can partially block corridors and exits during load-in. Establish a rule: exit routes must be clear before doors open. Sound check is the time to verify this, not after the audience arrives.
Varying events and capacities
A small midweek acoustic night and a sold-out Saturday headline show need different levels of staffing and crowd management. Your procedures should scale to the event. The core actions stay the same, but the number of staff assigned to each role may change.
Worked Example: Music venue Procedures
A 500-capacity standing music venue with a main room, bar area, green room, backstage corridor, and street-level entrance. 20 staff on a typical show night.
| Procedure | Implementation |
|---|---|
| Capacity | 520 (500 audience + 20 staff) |
| Evacuation | Main entrance to street; stage-left fire exit to side alley; rear fire exit from backstage to car park; bar area fire exit to courtyard. Door supervisors positioned at each exit to direct flow. Sound engineer cuts music and brings up house lights immediately. Stage manager directs performers and crew to backstage exit. |
| Invacuation | Main room away from entrance (if threat is outside). Green room and backstage corridor (interior, no external windows, solid fire doors). Bar area only if away from front windows. Door supervisors bring queue inside and secure entrance. |
| Lockdown | Main entrance roller shutter (door supervisor); stage-left fire exit bar (stage manager); rear fire exit secured from inside; bar fire exit locked (bar manager); green room exterior door bolted. House lights off, stage lights off. |
| Communication | Sound engineer cuts music and switches PA to announce mode. This is the primary alert for the audience. Door supervisors use radio earpieces. Staff use torches and high-vis tabards to be visible in the dark. Duty manager calls 999. Performers briefed by stage manager. |
| Training | All staff briefed at start of each show: exits, positions, communication protocol. Door supervisors already SIA-licensed with CT awareness. New bar and box office staff get a 10-minute induction walkthrough. Printed procedures in green room and behind bar. Tabletop exercise once a year with full crew. |
This is one example. Your procedures should reflect your specific building, layout, and circumstances. Read our full guide to public protection procedures for a detailed breakdown of what to include.
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Take the free 60-second readiness checkStaff Training for Music Venues
If you use SIA door supervisors, they’re your front line. They’re trained in conflict management and used to controlling crowds. Make sure they know your specific venue layout and procedures, not just general security principles. If you don’t use door supervisors, the duty manager and bar team are your front line instead, and they need to know all four procedures cold.
If you have a sound or lighting engineer at every show, they control the PA and house lights. Their first action in any security incident is to cut the performance and give you a way to talk to the audience. Brief them before every show. If shows are run from the bar or by the band themselves, the duty manager needs to know how to cut the sound and bring lights up directly.
Casual and freelance crew are common in music venues. If you use different sound engineers, stage managers, or bar staff for different shows, you need a standard briefing that covers the basics in a few minutes. A one-page laminated card at each position works well.
The free ACT Awareness e-learning (45 minutes) is a good baseline for anyone who wants to go further. It covers recognising threats, suspicious items, and what to do during an attack.
Quick Checklist
- Work out your maximum capacity (audience + staff + performers + crew at peak)
- Map all exit routes, including stage doors, loading bays, and backstage areas
- List every entry point and how each locks: front entrance, stage door, loading bay, fire exits
- Agree the PA override protocol: sound engineer cuts music first, then PA announcements
- Set up staff communication separate from the PA (radios or earpieces)
- Plan how you’d stop a show mid-performance (house lights up, staff with torches)
- Brief all staff before each show, including freelance crew, and keep laminated cards at each position
- Plan for directional evacuation (guiding people away from the threat, not just to the nearest exit)
Getting Started
Compliance is not complicated. Here is what to do:
- Work out your capacity (try our free calculator). Under 200? You are not in scope.
- Write procedures for evacuation, invacuation, lockdown, and communication tailored to your music venue.
- Make sure your staff and volunteers know the procedures. Brief them, put up posters, hand out one-page summaries.
- Keep records of what you have done and who has been briefed.
- Review at least once a year.
You can do this yourself, or use Standard Tier to document your procedures in 10 minutes, set up a training portal your staff and volunteers can access on their phones whenever it suits them, and keep a digital audit trail without chasing signatures or filing paperwork.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does Martyn’s Law apply to my music venue right now?
Our capacity changes between standing and seated events. Which number counts?
Do we need to search bags or install metal detectors?
How do we communicate with the audience when the music is at 100dB?
We use freelance crew who change every show. How do we train them?
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Standard Tier (2026). Martyn's Law for Music Venues: What You Need to Do. Available at: https://www.standardtier.co.uk/guide/martyns-law-for-music-venues
Last reviewed: 19 March 2026. Based on the Act, the Home Office statutory guidance published on 15 April 2026, and the Home Office factsheets. Requirements may be refined as the SIA finalises its guidance.
This guide is general information about the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, not legal advice. Duties under the Act rest on the responsible person for each venue and cannot be transferred. If you're unsure how a specific requirement applies to your premises, take advice from a solicitor or qualified security adviser before acting on anything you read here.
Standard Tier is an independent platform and is not affiliated with the UK Home Office, the SIA, or any government body.