Poor safety, overcrowding, water shortages, incompetence, fraud, and horrible climate have spelled catastrophe for a lot of music festivals through the years. Right here’s a have a look at ten of the worst.
The 2023 pageant season is winding down, with summer season within the rearview mirror — general a massively profitable summer season for the music pageant trade, with followers desirous to get to occasions following the COVID-induced shutdowns and cancellations in 2020 and 2021. However for all of the wins, there have been some irrefutable losses, like this yr’s version of Burning Man and Virginia’s Blue Ridge Rock Competition.
Nonetheless, these occasions don’t maintain a candle to the disastrous festivals which have taken place in years previous; November marks the second anniversary of the Astroworld crowd crush occasion that proved deadly in Houston, Texas. Poor safety, overcrowding, water shortages, and horrible climate have spelled catastrophe for a lot of music festivals through the years. Right here’s a have a look at ten of the worst.
Altamont Speedway Free Music Competition (1969) – Tracy, California
Competition organizers on the Altamont Speedway employed worldwide motorbike membership Hells Angels to deal with safety for the occasion, which they shortly got here to remorse. Bikers “dealt with” safety by beating the gang again with sawed-off pool cues and whipping them with chains, leading to numerous accidents and the deaths of 4 folks.
The Who Live performance Catastrophe (1979) – Cincinnati, Ohio
Through the US leg of their 1979 world tour, The Who performed to a sold-out crowd at Riverfront Coliseum (now generally known as Heritage Financial institution Middle) in Cincinnati on December 3. A swell of would-be concertgoers outdoors the venue’s entry doorways, solely two of which have been open early, resulted in crowd crush that killed 11 folks, a number of of whom have been youngsters, and injured no less than 26 others. The next evening, information anchor Walter Cronkite led a prolonged section on the CBS Night Information about violence at rock live shows.
Glastonbury Competition (1990) – Glastonbury, England
A pageant with a near-20-year historical past of profitable incident-free Glastonbury Competition’s 1990 version was going as deliberate till the tip. A bunch of hippie-adjacent counterculturists known as the New Age Travellers, who had permission to arrange camp in an adjoining area, shortly clashed with Glastonbury Competition safety, resulting in tens of hundreds of {dollars} in harm and 235 arrests. The occasion got here to be generally known as The Battle of Yeoman’s Bridge and led to the pageant being cancelled in 1991. It returned in 1992 to good success, with heightened safety measures.
Woodstock (1999) – Rome, New York
The unique Woodstock pageant in 1969 has lengthy been a pinnacle of music festivals, legendary for its highly effective message of peace and unity that a whole lot of festivals after it have aimed to duplicate. For its thirtieth anniversary, the now-infamous Woodstock ‘99 had an enviable lineup of performances, however that’s about the place the similarities between it and the unique pageant begin and finish.
Over the 4 days of the pageant, sweltering climate mixed with the tarmac on the former army airfield at which the pageant was held, resulting in a scarcity of water for attendees. The accessible water was subsequently overpriced, and mixed with poor sanitation and extreme alcohol and drug use, resulted in lots of a whole lot of offended folks. Unsurprisingly, rioting, vandalism, and violence broke out; a number of experiences of sexual harassment and rape surfaced and three folks misplaced their lives. Over 250 extra required hospitalization.
Roskilde Competition (2000) – Roskilde, Denmark
Lengthy thought-about a comparatively “protected” pageant since its debut within the ‘70s, Denmark’s Roskilde Competition took a darkish flip in 2000 when a mosh pit close to the entrance of the stage led to folks being knocked down and crushed by the gang. It took pageant organizers too lengthy to understand there was an issue, and regardless of pausing the efficiency to maneuver the gang, 9 folks misplaced their lives.
Love Parade (2010) – Duisburg, Germany
A large crowd of roughly 1.4 million folks confirmed up for the extremely anticipated pageant, lots of whom have been denied entry to stop overcrowding. Some would-be festivalgoers sought entry by way of a tunnel, which brought on a crowd crush ensuing within the deaths of 21 and no less than 650 extra accidents. Competition organizers and metropolis officers confronted trial for “negligent manslaughter and bodily hurt” for the incident in 2017. Nonetheless, due to Germany’s statute of limitations, the trial was discontinued in 2020, with nobody held accountable.
Electrical Daisy Carnival (2010) – Los Angeles, California
Electrical Daisy Carnival has obtained criticism for years because of the excessive ranges of drug use within the crowd, however the 2010 version was egregious attributable to missing safety and negligent ID-checking. Lots of of minors have been admitted into the primary space, and a number of accidents have been reported attributable to overcrowding. A 15-year-old misplaced her life, leading to a number of lawsuits and heavier scrutiny on pageant organizers to crack down on drug use and the admission of minors.
Indiana State Truthful (2011) – Indianapolis, Indiana
When excessive winds threatened the 2011 Indiana State Truthful, organizers determined the present should go on since a number of acts have been able to carry out. Simply minutes earlier than nation duo Sugarland was scheduled to hit the stage, extreme winds collapsed the roof of the out of doors stage, crushing spectators and leading to seven deaths. A number of lawsuits adopted, no less than one in every of which was settled in 2014.
Fyre Competition (2017) – Nice Exuma, The Bahamas
Marketed by con artist Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule as a luxurious music pageant within the Bahamas, Fyre Competition’s tickets went for $13,000 on common. To say the location was unprepared is an understatement: most of the introduced acts failed to indicate up, rain soaked the (extraordinarily primary) tents and mattresses accessible for attendees to sleep on, there was no working water, and an inadequate variety of porta potties. Promptly realizing they have been scammed, attendees rushed to catch a airplane again house, resulting in an absence of flights and resort rooms..
Billy McFarland was sentenced to 6 years in jail (he solely served 4 years) and ordered to pay $26 million in restitution — the funding for which he miraculously appears to be elevating by promoting tickets to Fyre Competition II. No less than eight different lawsuits have been filed in opposition to McFarland and his firm. In the meantime, Ja Rule, who co-founded the pageant alongside McFarland, obtained no expenses.
Astroworld (2021) – Houston, Texas
One of the crucial current and tragic pageant disasters within the final 20 years, Travis Scott’s 2021 Astroworld live performance was cancelled after the primary evening following a crowd crush that killed 10 whereas 25 others required hospitalization, with many extra handled for minor accidents on-site.
A police investigation after the very fact uncovered a number of logistics points with the pageant’s planning and safety, and no less than 275 civil lawsuits have been filed in opposition to Travis Scott or pageant organizers, with solely a handful settled to date. Scott was cleared of doable prison expenses on the finish of June 2023 when a grand jury selected to not indict him.