Goh, Sandra2025-05-052025-05-052025Event Management, ISSN: 1525-9951 (Print), Cognizant, LLC. doi: 10.3727/152599525x174581767677831525-9951http://hdl.handle.net/10292/19145The 2022 Itaewon Halloween tragedy highlighted the urgent need to understand and mitigate risks in unplanned mass gatherings. There is currently no established framework for identifying, evaluating, and disseminating the legacy of mass gatherings at unplanned events. This lack of structure presents significant risks to the health and safety of participants at non-ticketed events. Using a qualitative research approach involving an integrated literature review, a case study, and a best fit framework, this paper examines the validity of the World Health Organization (WHO) standard health legacy framework for unplanned events involving mass gatherings and highlights critical areas for further research. Specifically, the current research updates and streamlines the WHO framework, incorporating a risk legacy from a recent unplanned event, and advocating clearly defined stakeholder responsibilities. Further, this study seeks to contribute valuable insights for place-makers, inviting a critical awareness of unplanned events involving even smaller mass gatherings and their stakeholders.NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Event Management. The original publication is available at https://doi.org/10.3727/152599525X174581767677831503 Business and Management1504 Commercial Services1506 TourismSport, Leisure & Tourism3504 Commercial services3507 Strategy, management and organisational behaviour3508 TourismJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.3727/152599525x17458176767783