This is the level of oversight we need before something horrific happens. Roskilde itself implemented preventative crowd safety measures, including a barrier system that divides the audience into separate pens and more intensive training for security workers. Following Roskilde, Pearl Jam took a six-year break from festivals and returned with strict, hands-on safety policies that included the right to “evaluate all operational and security policies in advance, such as design and configuration of barriers and security response procedures in relation to ensuring our fans’ safety,” as well as the ability to stop a show if needed. After the Who concert, Cincinnati banned general-admission concert seating for nearly 25 years. These kinds of tragedies should lead to a re-evaluation of safety procedures-and in prominent examples, this has been the case. It can never be said enough: one person’s good time should never come at the expense of another’s safety. But footage from the festival also suggests a pervasive “every-man-for-himself” mentality, from the fans who pushed others to the ground to get inside, to those who danced atop an ambulance as it inched through the crowd to help people who were literally dying. This is not to suggest that concertgoers at Astroworld did not try to help those who were fighting to stay upright: people crowd-surfed unconscious bodies to safety even while the crush made it extremely difficult for anyone to lift their arms, and at least one attendee testimonial describes pleading with event staff to stop the show. A mosh pit is a collective, physical release of energy and there is the understanding-unspoken or otherwise-that if someone falls, you pick them back up. He is far from the only rapper to borrow specific elements from the punk or hardcore underground, but the Astroworld tragedy underscores how important it is that chaos coexist with an ethos of community and accountability. Scott has long asserted that his shows are a place where fans can let loose and rage through mosh pits, crowd-surfing, stage-diving, and general mayhem. This will, and should, haunt us for years to come. It’s another to watch a TikTok filmed from the bottom of a pile of desperate, terrified people. It’s one thing to read someone recall the experience of being crushed between hundreds of other humans. But whereas documentation of those pre-social media events was limited to grainy footage or after-the-fact recollections, Astroworld catered specifically to a hyper-online generation. Astroworld feels eerily similar in some ways-crowds numbering in the tens of thousands and a frenzy created by the artist’s performance. When Pearl Jam performed at Denmark’s Roskilde Festival in June 2000, nine people died after a crowd surge pushed concertgoers down to the pavement and caused a mass trampling. A 1979 arena show by the Who in Cincinnati ended in tragedy after fans heard the band’s soundcheck and stampeded into the venue to claim unassigned seats, causing 11 people to die from asphyxiation. History has reminded us of this time and time again. But in the same way that a gentle ocean can generate a rip current, there is always a possibility that a massive crowd can become dangerous, and at worst, life-threatening. Nine concertgoers, ranging from 14 to 27 years old, have died so far, and hundreds of young people were seriously injured.Īs anyone who has attended a large festival can tell you, there is so much communal beauty to be found in listening to live music around thousands of other people. Those who remained upright were jammed together so tightly that people began suffocating and collapsing, unable to breathe within a crowd of nearly 50,000. As Scott took the stage last Friday evening, a surge of concertgoers pushed forward, creating an inescapable crush of bodies that sucked people to the ground, where they were then trampled. But while Coyne did not mention the event by name, his mind was clearly preoccupied with the tragedy that had occurred four days earlier at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival in Houston. It was an unusually somber note for a band that would shoot off confetti cannons just a few minutes later.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |