Paris. Manchester. And now, Las Vegas. These cities have all been connected by one catastrophic commonality: mass violence at live music events.

On Oct. 1, a gunman open-fired on the Route 91 Harvest music festival from the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, killing 59 and injuring over 500. It is the deadliest mass shooting in America to date.

According to a study conducted in 2014 by Deborah Azrael and Amy Cohen of the Harvard School of Public Health, a mass shooting – meaning a shooting in a public place that killed more than four people – had occurred every 64 days on average between 2011 and 2014. Azrael and Cohen used data compiled by Mother Jones of every mass shooting in America over the past 30 years to come to the conclusion that the frequency of these tragedies is increasing.

In fact, an update to the Mother Jones data published on Nov. 5 shows that there have been 40 mass shootings in the past five years in contrast to the 18 that occurred between 2006 and 2011.

Mass shootings have not only become a threat at every day destinations such as work, school and church, but also places people go to escape daily life: movie theaters, concerts and music festivals. With what is now the deadliest shooting in America taking place at a festival, the current security policies of all entities that organize live music events have been called into question. This includes collegiate groups that are responsible for bringing such events to campus.

A&O Productions is one of said student groups at Northwestern University, whose annual fall concert, A&O Blowout, took place just 12 days after the Las Vegas shooting.

This year, A&O Blowout partnered with Chicago venue Riviera Theatre instead of its usual on-campus home of Welsh-Ryan Arena. Therefore, security policies were at the discretion of Riviera’s staff, according to Northwestern student and A&O head of production Adam Gross.

Behrad Emami is Riviera’s production manager, meaning that one of his duties is overseeing security at the theater.

The standard security procedures for Riviera involve a full pat-down to the ankle and a bag check upon entry, Emami said. However, Riviera has increased these measures to include the use of metal detection wands, which Emami said was an action taken in response to recent events including the Las Vegas shooting.

Riviera’s security policies have definitely become stricter over time, according to Emami. Until Illinois allowed the concealed carry of firearms in 2013, Emami said that Riviera did not even perform pat-downs.

Those who attended A&O Blowout on Oct. 13 at the Riviera were therefore subject to bag checks, pat-downs and metal detection wanding.

A second student group is University of Chicago’s Major Activities Board, who organizes two on-campus live music events during the school year: Fall Show in November, and music festival Summer Breeze in May. Major Activities Board chief of operations and University of Chicago student Simeon Daferede said that they get security for these events from the University of Chicago Police Department and private security force AlliedBarton.

Major Activities Board enforces a strict no bag policy, which eliminates the threat of any foreign objects being brought in, Daferede said. They do not perform pat-downs or use metal detection wands.

Northwestern University’s annual festival, Dillo Day, also uses a combination of university police and a private security force, according to Max Leef and Ryan Wexler, Northwestern students and co-heads of the university relations division of Dillo Day. The private security force they hire from is Luna Security, which specializes in crowd control.

Captain Ken Jones of the Northwestern University Police Department said that this ensures maximum security at the event, as Luna Security provides bag checks upon entry and crowd surveillance at the barricades of the two stages, while NUPD oversees the festival as a whole.

Although only bag checks are performed upon entry, Dillo Day’s QR code wristband system is their largest form of security as it keeps the audience limited to Northwestern students, Wexler said.

The university relations team also holds meetings throughout the day of the festival to ensure that any possibly dangerous situations can be eliminated. Since Dillo Day is in May, security policies have not yet been finalized, but Leef said that the Las Vegas shooting will play a major role in the adjustment of their procedures this year.

“It is incredibly unfortunate that these policies end up being reactionary to tragic events like what happened in Las Vegas. But, we are trying to be proactive, whether that involves metal detection wands or revisiting our entrance system,” Leef said. “That’s definitely going to be something we develop and think about moving forward.”

The review and adjustment of security policies is a strategy that Emami stressed highly, as he said that it is key to the improvement of safety at live music events that those who organize them recognize the increasing frequency of mass violence.

However, there is only so much that can be done by security to prevent these tragedies, Emami said.

“It sucks to say this, but when someone’s crazy enough, you’re not going to stop it,” Emami said. “You can have all of these procedures, but if someone really wants to do something, they will.”

This is especially pertinent to attacks like Manchester and Las Vegas, where the violence occurred from outside of the venue. In cases like these, security has no jurisdiction and can do little to prevent harm, Emami said.