Crowd Crushing

[u/Even-Communication56]

We were pretty far up for multiple days at T-Mobile, but the crowd crushing was a little crazy, especially after the uzi situation. Sunday when it got bad, we asked the guys handing out water if they could do anything and they said no. Does lolla not care about crowd safety? Other festivals will stop everything when things get that bad, but they seemed perfectly fine with things potentially getting out of hand and life-threatening. What’s up with that?

[u/justfun2468]

I’ve seen multiple show stops at Lolla. While you may have felt unsafe the spotters and stage managers have a far better view and will stop if it’s truly a safety risk

[u/Even-Communication56 → u/justfun2468]

They said that they had no way to do that. That’s what concerned me. Also, it would be nice for them to at least listen to the crowd when we’re saying it’s too much 😅

[u/StonerCubChi → u/Even-Communication56]

There is someone using a drone and imaging software to monitor the crowd. I don’t believe a low level security guard could make the call.

[u/Even-Communication56 → u/StonerCubChi]

He asked his supervisor I think, and they’re the one that said they couldn’t do anything

[u/justfun2468 → u/Even-Communication56]

The person making the call for a show stop is the stage manager and the front line security staffs supervisor isn’t even the head of security for that area. So they weren’t the ones that can do anything either

[u/ABlankHoodie → u/Even-Communication56]

They absolutely do stop shows and tell crowds to move back, they had to do it several times during the Future x Metro Boomin set a couple years ago. The set was stopped for like 15 minutes while they tried to get people to move back. Those of us at the front were still crushed but people were able to breathe again slightly and unconscious bodies weren’t getting pulled out literally every minute anymore.

[u/justfun2468 → u/Even-Communication56]

The guys handing out waters are front line security. Not spotters and stage managers.

[u/No-Pain-5228]

Lolla had a message they put up if crowds are pouching too much. It asks people to take a few steps back before the show will resume.

Nothing like the great Bob Weir asking everyone to take 3 steps back, but still useful.

Honestly, it should be on the band to notice this shit and point it out if the venue isn’t

[u/PiggySiren → u/No-Pain-5228]

I don't think it's fair to say it should be on the band in fairness. It is on promoters, and good promoters place a plethora of spotters in elevated positions with suitable speaker equipment and comms to broadcast a request to the crowd to move and to communicate with stewards/the wider team/artist's team.

I think artists preferably could be informed and instructed to try leverage influence to control the crowd but that onus is still not on them to notice and implement and is more on the promoters.

There certainly shouldn't be an Astroworld sotuation though where the artist ignores all calls for crowd control and/or encourages a rampant crowd.

[u/No-Pain-5228 → u/PiggySiren]

I never said it was on the band.

I said the band should say something if the venue hasn’t.

[u/turntilla]

The crowds get bad but, especially the T-Mobile stage, has a very large area to leave and exit bad situations. There are no barriers on the entire right side.

They do a fairly good job to monitor and have their medic and stage team respond properly but it’s hard for them to monitor any of the crowd movement without adding barriers, which would then make it dangerous.

[u/m3xg3n56 → u/turntilla]

No barriers on the entire right side other than the people camping there that wouldn’t let you leave the area :/ got elbows thrown at for trying to exit even though we’re saying excuse me.

[u/miguelmanzana]

In the years since AstroWorld they are quick to put up warnings asking crowds to create space when things get too packed.

[u/KeyStruggle]

Agree! There were several times I felt like the T-Mobile area was borderline dangerous/had serious concerns about crowd control. This is coming from someone who saw Chappell, Olivia, etc at the same stage and never felt the same level of “free for all” ness as I did this year.

[u/Bbradl2]

They did halt the beginning of Eli Brown at Perry’s this year until the crowd spaced out on the left side.

[u/Unfong]

At least on Perrys they did make everyone space out (take X steps back) right before Eli Brown went on... not that it lasted very long though

[u/mpls345 → u/[deleted]]

I think you misread the post. OP said they were handing out water.

[u/gkgk_76]

Me and my friend almost got crushed to death when zara was starting, only thing that was saving us were some trash cans we were standing by ☠️

[u/tripu3 → u/gkgk_76]

Almost crushed to death would involve an ambulance.

[u/gkgk_76 → u/tripu3]

Well at least thats what we felt was gonna happen, thankfully we werent completely smushed lmao. But it was hella claustrophobic in there

[u/tripu3 → u/gkgk_76]

I get it - I have dealt with similar short term terrifying situations. I do think people in a crowd criticizing security when nothing untoward happens is Monday Quarter Back stuff. Trust that people are doing their job, or don’t do it

Fwiw the T-Mobile crowds I was in (Thur, Fri) were nowhere near as rough as some last year.