The simulation of crowds at very large events

In this article, we show tow examples for the application of pedestrian flow simulation and analysis: the World Youth Day 2005 in Cologne and the egress (non-emergency) from a football stadium. Various circumstances are specific for religious events. The persons might perform rituals and therefore the pat-terns of movement or gathering are governed by rules that go beyond simple necessity or comfort. Furthermore, the persons are usually very much attracted by the (idealistic) aim of their pilgrimage. The final service at the World Youth Day 2005 in Cologne, celebrated by the Pope, was the major event dur-ing the WYD. The paper is divided into thre parts: The first section is con-cerned with the World Youth Day and the second with the egress from a foot-ball stadium. The final section summarizes the results, provides recommenda-tions and concludes with the most important implications for the field of crowd dynamics simulation.