My sympathy for those in Denmark affected by the deaths at the Roskilde festival tonight.
Odd. Pearl Jam are not that hardcore, really; you wouldn’t expect this to happen during one of their performances. Guess it just goes to show that it’s not the music that’s to blame.
Such tragic, senseless deaths.
Apparently some of the barricades set up to prevent this sort of thing from happening actually accelerated the tragedy - making it harder for people to get back from the stage when they realized the problem.
From what I read in the Danish papers, the stage area was constructed exactly by the book - a low fence in front of the stage, guards to pull people out of the throng when it gets too tight, barricades to prevent “waves” through the crowd etc. Tragically, the situation escalated much faster than anyone expected. The Roskilde festival is supposed to know how to handle situations like this, but something must have gone terribly, terribly wrong.
I’ve been to a few festivals myself (not Roskilde - I’ve always considered it too big, sometimes it sucks to be right) and I can’t imagine what it must feel like, not knowing if a friend or sweetheart have died - and having no way of knowing for hours, perhaps days. In the chaotic festival environment, where nobody knows where anyone is - it must be truly awful.
BTW, the festival boss decided to keep the other concerts going - he didn’t want 100.000 people milling around in a half-panic in the dark, some of whom would surely get hurt as well. He apologized for that this morning, but I guess he made the right decision, although it did look cold-hearted.
Thirty years with nary a problem, and now this tragedy.
S. Norman