I guess I misspoke. There is inherent danger of panicked masses. And the most important thing for you is to get out of it/to a safe place at the edges of it.
The idea to me is you need to create an opening for yourself to get through. Whether the crowd panics more or less is sort of irrelevant to you - you need to the space to get out of it.
Would hammering a whistle as you shove your way through produce enough effect to create a path? Maybe. Apparently, creating a fireball works.