How Should Summerfest Control Spillover Crowds?

Despite the overheated rhetoric of certain of JSonline commenters, there's no real threat of hood violence at rap shows at Summerfest, but there is a much more pressing danger: crowd crushes. The combination of good weather and good bookings can make for some frightening bottlenecks, and last night's Wiz Khalifa show was apparently one of festival's most intensely crowded. Journal Sentinel writer Piet Levy describes the scene:

Clusters of sweaty people were smashed on top of each other, body against body, at times unable to move even when they pushed. This wasn't just in front of the stage, but all the way back by the concession stands and around the periphery.

Consequently there were a few tense stare-downs, some threats and a cluster of guys who climbed atop the tour-shirt tent to see the show.

Shepherd Express writer Thomas Michalski was more blunt, calling the crowding dangerous:

Thankfully, the handful of fights that broke out fizzled quickly, but if, God forbid, there was more serious violence or some kind of structural collapse, the panic would have been catastrophic. I'm unaware of the Big Gig's protocol when it comes to these kinds of crowds, but when the only visible authority is a pimply-faced teen in a blue polo, your confidence in the promoters more or less evaporates.

So what went wrong? It seems bad planning was partially at fault. Some of last night's congestion could have been avoided if the big-draw Khalifa had played Summerfest's main side stage, the Miller Lite Oasis, instead of the tighter Harley-Davidson Roadhouse. (I can't testify to the draw of Paul Rodgers, the 61-year-old former Bad Company singer who headlined the Miller Lite Oasis last night, but I'm guessing it wasn't nearly as large as Khalifa's). But booking big shows at the Miller Lite Oasis isn't a magic fix either, as anybody who attended Friday night's pushy Girl Talk show at that stage can attest.

In his review, Michalski calls on Summerfest to review its crowd-control policy, and I'd be interested do know what exactly that policy is for side stages that are so clearly overcapacity—is there a point where people could ever be turned away from a stage, or is it left entirely to crowds to police themselves? I'm mostly impressed by how responsibly Summerfest patrons handle themselves, and how diligently security extinguishes potential problems, but on busy nights, the festival does begin to feel like a powder keg.

I'm interested in what readers think. What crowd control measures, if any, would you like to see implemented at Summerfest? Are these spillover crowds a real danger, or are they just the small cost of having big acts play the festival?