I saw The Who at Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium in 1982. We had general admission tickets, and got there early, about three or four hours before the scheduled start, so we were near the front. There were no seats or chairs in general admission, so we sat on the field, or stood. As the scheduled start approached, the crowd surged, and my friends and I were caught in the tide. It was not fun. Eventually, somebody in authority had the idea to deploy fire hoses. Not directly on the crowd, but close enough that everybody moved back. Still, we all got wet. It was great to hear The Who (eventually), but not a fond memory.
Let’s go forward to 1989, when The Who again played Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium, and I was there. This time, there was no general admission; the field was covered in chairs, and it was assigned seating. It was a much more enjoyable show than it had been in 1982–the chairs meant that the crowd was more orderly as the scheduled start approached, there was no general admission so no surging, and there were no fire hoses. I got to enjoy the show, instead of being worried about being carried off or trampled by the surging tide.
While I suspect that the young man was simply crushed, it is possible to have both happen to you.
Still a lot of sloppy reporting. Although some outlets have been decent about describing “a crowd crush” or “crowd surge” and talking about them in non-sensationalist, factual terms I still see too much talk of “stampedes” and “trampling to death”.
And note " Scott and event organizers now face hundreds of lawsuits totaling more than $10 billion in damages alleging the named parties failed to provide adequate safety for fans.
Not sure if this is a legit reason to create a zombie (my first one!), but Netflix recently released a documentary about this as part of their “Trainwreck” series. I watched it over the weekend.
