By Anita Kazmierczak in Adelaide, Australia

Organisers of Australasia's biggest touring music festival, the Big Day Out, say the event is now leading the world in crowd safety and security initiatives.

Following the death of teenage music fan Jessica Michalik, who was crushed during the Sydney Big Day Out in 2001, a coroner ruled that organisers had not done enough to ensure safety at the event.

PJ Harvey will perform

The hard, fast and fun bands are still on Di Joy

Last year, organisers introduced the D-barrier, which acted to spread out the crowd at the front of the main stages.

This year, audiences are being cleared from the D-barrier in-between acts, to ensure fans take a breather from the mosh pit.

Rotating the crowd gives punters the chance to refresh themselves and makes way for a new audience.

An intermission after Australian rock act The Vines finishes its energetic set has also been introduced to disperse excited festival-goers.

"The Big Day Out has done everything that is within its knowledge to make the event as safe as it can be," organiser Di Joy told BBC News Online.

"I'd say that it is second to none. I think that the Big Day Out is setting the safe benchmark, certainly nationally and probably internationally."

Festival performers

The Vines Foo Fighters PJ Harvey Jane's Addiction Kraftwerk Queens of the Stone Age

As the 2003 Big Day Out rolls into Adelaide, South Australia, it has a noticeably toned-down line-up, compared with most other years.

Organisers carefully considered main stage acts with regard to their audience demographic, as another active safety initiative.

International headliners include Foo Fighters, Jane's Addiction, Queens of the Stone Age, PJ Harvey, Underworld, The Music and Kraftwerk.

New Measures

"The hard, fast and fun bands are still on, but most of them are on in the daylight hours, so it's very much easier to spot any potential pressure that is coming and to delete it with good visability," says Joy.

So far, the new measures as tested in Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne in the summer heat, have proved a success.

In Brisbane, temperatures soared to the mid-30s celsius and state water-restrictions due to Australia's extended drought conditions, meant that free drinking water ran low.

The mist tents, designed to cool punters with sprayed water at various points around the venue, were also banned.

Several hundred people in the 45,000 sold out crowd were treated for dehydration.

Australian acts on the bill include The Vines, 1200 Techniques, You Am I, Pacifier, Augie March and Waikiki.

After the Adelaide leg, the Big Day Out festival will complete its tour in Perth.