DATE:
October 21, 2025
21
TO:
Board of Supervisors
SUBJECT
Title
IMPROVING SAFETY AND LABOR STANDARDS IN COUNTY PARKS (DISTRICTS: ALL)
Body
OVERVIEW
Every year, entertainment events vendors employ hundreds of stagehands to build and break down stages, rig lighting and amplification systems, and move heavy-duty equipment at large revenue-generating events in County of San Diego (County) parks, work that can turn deadly when safety corners are cut. On October 30, 2024, for example, a stagehand from Texas employed by James Thomas Productions out of Manhattan Beach died during loading at an outdoor music festival in Orlando.i James Thomas Productions had already been fined twice by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for exposing workers to fall hazards and contributing to the death of a rigger in a 35-foot fall before the Super Bowl. In 2019, a rigger from San Diego, Christopher Griffin, fell to his death while setting up for Coachellaii, and a stagehand at the BottleRock music festival in Napa Valley was crushed by a metal beam during tear down in 2016.iii Many serious but non-fatal stagehand injuries from trips, falls, crushing, and electrocution go unreported.
Stagehands take on real risk to make our region's cultural life possible yet too often they work in a system stacked against them. The freelance nature of the industry leaves workers with little power to speak up when safety corners are cut or wages are stolen. Some entertainment events vendors have been accused of falsifying safety certifications, recruiting out-of-state workers for lower pay, and failing to provide basic safety equipment. When workers are forced to choose between their safety and their next paycheck, it's a public safety failure waiting to happen.
Large revenue-generating events in County parks can employ well over 100 stagehands each and generate millions of dollars for the County annually. Event producers are permitted to hold roughly twelve such events-kno...
Click here for full text