Background
The Cannstatter Wasen is one of the largest and most popular folk festivals in the world and is one of Stuttgart’s greatest attractions. The festival area covers 25 hectares and is located on the banks of the Neckar in Bad Cannstatt, a district of Stuttgart. Founded in 1818 by King Wilhelm I of Württemberg, the annual event attracts around four million locals and tourists from each year from all over the world. The Wasen consists of various entertainment stands as well as numerous local food establishments with culinary delights and various brewery beer tents. This year, the traditional folk festival celebrates its 200th anniversary.
„The simulation has shown us how we can improve the escape routes of the Cannstatter Volksfest. We were able to optimize the planned escape route on the festival grounds both structurally and conceptually.“
Carsten Höfler, Police Headquarters Stuttgart
Goal of the simulation
accu:rate was commissioned by the Stuttgart Police to create an evacuation simulation of the festival.
In order to guarantee the highest level of security, the security and evacuation concept was verified by simulating what-if scenarios.
Scope of consideration
- Examination of the overall evacuation of the area
- Different variants of the festival’s layout, keeping an eye on different numbers of people and various escape routes
Results
The evacuation simulation of the Wasen helped to identify bottlenecks in the layout and evaluated the escape times of various scenarios.
Image sources: "Cannstatter Wasen" by qwesy qwesy. License: CC BY 3.0
"Cannstatter Wasen 2015 - At the Boostermaxxx" by Azchael. Licence: CC BY 2.0