I took my grandaughter to a Disney Play a few years ago. The crowd was orderly but shoulder to shoulder. I felt we were in danger though. Just one spark and.
About the only time I find myself in crowds is in public transit settings. I ride the NYC subways to/from work everyday, and commute to Pennsylvania by train every weekend. If trains are backed up or delayed, you find yourself on a platform or in a large station waiting area with a packed crowd. And all it would take is one spark, as you said.
A few months after 9/11, I found myself trying to get on a train at Penn Station/NYC when due to some scheduling snafu another train was unloading on the other side of the same platform, and due to some oversight, all the escalators were running down — there are also a few staircases, but it’s really tight even with one train unloading, no train loading and the escalators running 1/2 up and 1/2 down. Usually they’re pretty efficient about platform scheduling and setting the esecalators to run the correct way for the platform-use-of-the-moment, but this situation was a real mess. I decided it was worth risking missing my train to go back upstairs and notify the police/soldiers at the main security desk that this was a disaster waiting to happen. As I put it to the officer I reported it to, all it would take is one person to yell “Mom!” and one other person to be sure s/he heard “Bomb!” We’re talking over a thousand people crammed on a platform, with very few routes to get upstairs and out, and in a panic people WOULD try to run up the nearest stair or escalator, even if it was an escalator running down and already packed with people facing downward. I’m happy to say that my report was taken seriously and the officer immediately picked up the phone to notify station personnel.
We’re always safest when we’re alert to danger, and I’m afraid these special retail events draw crowds of people who are almost exclusively focused on getting that must-have electronic gadget for a super-low price.