Opinion ID: 795700
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Mass Gathering Law

Text: 6 The 1969 Woodstock Music Festival is probably the best known and most romanticized music festival in American history. Conditions on the ground, however, were less than romantic. The show had been planned for a maximum of 50,000 attendees, but around 500,000 concert goers showed up, most crashing the gates. The highways leading to the concert were jammed with traffic for miles and people abandoned their cars and walked to the concert area. The weekend was rainy, and basic facilities and services, such as first-aid, toilets, and food and potable water, were overcrowded and over-taxed. Two people died — one from a drug overdose, the other run over by a tractor — though two births reportedly occurred. See generally N.Y. Bill Jacket, 1970 A.B. 5925-B Ch. 889; MSN Encarta, http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761588927/Woodstock_Festival.html (last viewed August 16, 2006). 7 About one year after Woodstock, and in direct reaction to the conditions above mentioned, the State of New York adopted the Mass Gathering Law. Intended as a consumer protection law, it was designed to protect young people who go to festivals from irresponsible entrepreneurs who do not provide adequate public health and safety conditions. As is relevant to the instant appeal, New York's Mass Gathering Law provides: 8 The sanitary code may ... require that application be made for a permit to... hold or promote by advertising or otherwise a mass gathering which is likely to attract five thousand people or more and continue for twenty-four hours or more and authorize appropriate officers or agencies to issue such a permit when the applicant is in compliance with the established regulations and when it appears that ... such gathering [can be] held without hazard to health and safety; establish regulations with respect to such gatherings to provide for: the furnishing of adequate undertakings to secure full compliance with the sanitary code and other applicable law, adequate and satisfactory water supply and sewerage facilities, adequate drainage, adequate toilet and lavatory facilities, adequate refuse storage and disposal facilities, adequate sleeping areas and facilities, wholesome food and sanitary food service, adequate medical facilities, insect and noxious weed control, adequate fire protection, and such other matters as may be appropriate for security of life or health. In his review of applications for permits for the holding or promoting of such a gathering the permit-issuing official may require such plans, specifications and reports as he shall deem necessary for a proper review, and in his review of such applications, as well as in carrying out his other duties and functions in connection with such a gathering, the permit-issuing official may request and shall receive from all public officers, departments and agencies of the state and its political subdivisions such cooperation and assistance as may be necessary and proper[.] 9 N.Y. PUBLIC HEALTH LAW § 225(5)(o). 10 In order to implement the Mass Gathering Law, Title 10, part 7, subpart 7.1 of the New York Sanitary Code provides certain specific regulations governing the issuance of Mass Gathering Permits. Section 7-1.40 provides: 11 (a) No person shall hold or promote, by advertising or otherwise, a mass gathering unless a permit has been issued for the gathering by the permit-issuing official. 12 (b) Application for a permit to promote or hold a mass gathering shall be made to the permit-issuing official, on a form and in a manner prescribed by the State Commissioner of Health, by the person who will promote or hold the mass gathering. Application for a permit to promote or hold a mass gathering shall be made at least 15 days before the first day of advertising and at least 45 days before the first day of the gathering. Water and sewage facilities shall be constructed and operational not later than 48 hours before the first day of the mass gathering. The application shall be accompanied by such plans, reports and specifications as the permit-issuing official shall deem necessary. The plans, reports and specifications shall provide for adequate and satisfactory water supply and sewerage facilities, adequate drainage, adequate toilet and lavatory facilities, adequate refuse storage and disposal facilities, adequate sleeping areas and facilities, wholesome food and sanitary food service, adequate medical facilities, insect and noxious weed control, adequate fire protection, and such other matters as may be appropriate for security of life or health. 13 . . . 14 (d) A permit may be revoked by the permit-issuing official or the State Commissioner of Health if he finds that the mass gathering for which the permit was issued is maintained, operated or occupied in violation of law, this Chapter, or the sanitary code of the health district in which the mass gathering is located. A permit may be revoked upon request of the permittee or upon abandonment of operation. 15 N.Y. Comp. R. & Regs. tit. 10, § 7-1.40. 16 The Sanitary Code also provides that all mass gathering permit applications include an engineering report containing, inter alia, 17 detailed plans for transportation arrangements from noncontiguous parking facilities to the site to fully serve all reasonably anticipated requirements at a rate of no less than 20,000 persons per hour; including a statement from the county sheriff, State police, New York State Department of Transportation or other law enforcement agency certifying that the traffic control plan is satisfactory[.] 18 Id. § 7-1.41(d)(2).