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Details of the Astroworld festival tragedy that left at least eight fans dead in Houston are still coming in, and they are absolutely gruesome. “The fans were recording the concert and people were doing CPR,†said Madeline Eskins, concert attendee and registered nurse. Rolling stone. “The fans were screaming at the stage crew around us, saying to stop the show, people are dying. Nobody listened… I tried to jump as much as possible to get some air. I couldn’t. breathe. I just felt it. I knew it was going to happen. “
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that a live music event has turned tragic. There is simply too much that can go wrong when tens of thousands of people crowd together in a confined space, especially if the organizers do not take the proper security measures. Here is a look back at some of the worst disasters in the history of music.
The free Altamont Speedway festival, December 6, 1969
The Rolling Stones planned to end their 1969 US tour with a free Woodstock-style event at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, featuring the Grateful Dead, Santana, Jefferson Airplane, the Flying Burrito Brothers and Crosby, Stills as special guests. , Nash, and Young. But when the city objected, they were forced to move the concert to Altamont Speedway at the last minute. The Hells Angels were hired as security, creating an ugly scene that resulted in the death of 18-year-old Meredith Hunter. Two other fans were killed in a hit-and-run car crash, while another drowned in a canal while under the influence of LSD. (Read the final report of the day of Rolling stoneoriginal cover of the event.)
The Who at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, December 3, 1979
Just three days away from Altamont’s tenth anniversary, more than 18,000 Who fans have come to the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio, to see the band on their first tour since the death of drummer Keith Moon. There weren’t any reserved seats throughout the house, so fans showed up early to look for the best seats. But the venue opened all doors late and fans started pushing when a few of the doors opened well past the advertised time. The stampede resulted in the deaths of 11 fans, although the show went according to plan and the group was not told until the end. Subsequently, reserved seats in arenas became much more common. Cincinnati didn’t even allow a general-admission floor event for decades, until a Bruce Springsteen concert in 2002. (Read Rolling stoneThe original cover story of the Who tragedy.)
Woodstock 1999
The three-day event in Rome, New York, was a horror show of sexual assault, violence, drug overdoses, overflowing toilets and heatstroke that resulted in a riot and fires on the last night ; a fan who collapsed in a mosh pit during Metallica’s performance died a few days later. Organizers were hit by a flood of lawsuits in the weeks and months following the event, and no one was surprised that a Woodstock 50 slated for 2019 failed to take off. There was simply no recovery from the Woodstock fiasco in 1999. (Read the original dispatch from Rob Sheffield of Woodstock ’99.)
The Roskilde Festival in Roskilde, Denmark, June 30, 2000
The exact cause of the crash that killed nine fans during Pearl Jam’s set at Roskilde 2000 was never fully explained, but it seemed to be the result of wet pitches, a rush to the stage, the crowds surfers falling to the ground and a general atmosphere of chaos. Pearl Jam put the show on hold after 45 minutes when they found out what was going on. Going forward, the group refused to perform at festivals that did not include detailed safety provisions in their contracts.
After the tragedy, a devastated Eddie Vedder turned to Pete Townshend for advice on how to continue. “I conveyed what I knew the Who had done wrong after the Cincinnati disaster – in a nutshell, I think we left too early, and I spoke too angrily to the press and disregarded of the fact that the people who deserved respect were the dead and their families, “Townshend later wrote.” If you have faith, please pray for the victims and their families, and for all who were involved. It was a horrible experience for them. (Read Rolling stoneRoskilde’s original report.)
Great White at West Warwick Station, Rhode Island, February 20, 2003
Great White was only seconds away from the start of their opening song at Station nightclub when their pyrotechnics ignited acoustic foam near the stage. In less than a minute, the little club was consumed by flames. Fans rushed to the back doors to escape, but 100 did not make it out alive. 230 other fans were injured. Great White tour director Daniel Michael Biechele has pleaded guilty to 100 counts of manslaughter. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison and was paroled after serving less than two years. It was the fourth deadliest nightclub disaster in American history. (Read Rolling stonereported on the station fire.)
Mawazine musical festival in Rabat, Morocco, 23 May 2009
The 2009 Mawazine Festival in Morocco featured performances by Kylie Minogue, Stevie Wonder and Alicia Keys. It ended with an event at the Hay Nahda stadium starring Moroccan pop star Abdelaziz. At the end of his set, fans rushed to the exits and a fence collapsed. A stampede broke out which left 11 dead and 40 injured. Despite this, the festival continued every year until the pandemic struck.
Love Parade in Duisburg, Germany on July 24, 2010
From 1989 to 2010, the Love Parade was one of the most important annual events on the German music calendar. But the EDM festival ended after tens of thousands of fans crowded into a 260-meter tunnel that was the only way to access the pitch. Much like the Who fans in 1979, they started pushing each other and chaos erupted, resulting in the deaths of 21 people. The German government never held anyone legally responsible for the tragedy; last spring, a judicial inquiry that had lasted nearly a decade was has recalled without any condemnation.
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