The Art of Mass Gatherings is an experiential learning event that uses festivals as classrooms to activate an arts-focused approach to community resilience and emergency preparedness. It invites artists, event producers, and emergency professionals to come together to share knowledge and practices for enhancing the safety, accessibility, and sustainability of large gatherings. By bringing together a variety of professionals involved in producing mass gatherings, event producers and emergency responders alike will become more fluent in each other’s craft. The idea is that arts and events workers can be some of a community's most powerful first responders in times of disaster or emergency when suitably prepared, in ways that strengthen both their individual economic/professional resilience (enabling skill transfer and pivots across sectors during times of emergency) and the bottom-up resilience of the community itself to confront crisis.

In our experience, there are four key elements that, when integrated, lead to successful mass gatherings and expert event preparedness. These comprise the core framework of the Art of Mass Gatherings, and they are: Safety, Sustainability, Community Engagement, and Accessibility.