Rage Against The Machine Performance Turns Violent; Australian Festival Marred By Deaths
-
Artist:
Two casualties and a crowd surge left thousands of fans angry and confused as Melbourne's biggest musical festival, the Big Day Out, ended in mayhem last night.One unconscious man had to be crowd-surfed to an ambulance, while another fell from a marquee as crowds pushed forward to see the final act, Rage Against the Machine.Organisers interrupted the American headliners towards the end to appeal to the 45,000-strong crowd for calm.Revellers said they feared for their safety as the crowd surged towards the main stage and fans climbed every available vantage point at Flemington racecourse.
??Concertgoers crowd surfed this injured man to waiting ambulance staff??Organizers rushed the band off stage, and ordered people to climb down from the structures and trees before the band would resume.One man who was on top of a marquee fell and was rushed to hospital by ambulance officers, who put him in neck brace.At the time of this report the concertgoer's condition is unknown.Festival spokeswoman Miranda Brown said security and medical staff were kept busy at the front of the stage.She said regular announcements warned the crowd not to push and that the front-of-stage barrier was there to protect their safety.At one point more than 30 people climbed a multi-level speaker stack in the middle of the crowd, which was manned by just one security guard.It took police and security staff more than 20 minutes to get them off the structure.But they failed to deter dozens of people who climbed a beer marquee to watch Rage Against the Machine.Police said they were disappointed with the crowd behaviour and arrested a few people for letting off flares."There were quite a few idiots around," one officer said.Jordan, 25, of Newport, said grandstands should have been erected around the back of the main stages."People couldn't see anything at all, there were so many people there . . . so of course they climbed on to things so they could see."Veteran attendee Cameron Oliver, 26, said he saw a lot of violence in the crowd."In nine Big Day outs and numerous other festivals, this is the most violent and least policed I have been to," he said."We had to pull back from the stage – so far back we couldn't even see because we were afraid for our safety. And I'm a six-foot (183cm) bloke.""Herald Sun":CH[CH]http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23124813-2862,00.html
??Concertgoers crowd surfed this injured man to waiting ambulance staff??Organizers rushed the band off stage, and ordered people to climb down from the structures and trees before the band would resume.One man who was on top of a marquee fell and was rushed to hospital by ambulance officers, who put him in neck brace.At the time of this report the concertgoer's condition is unknown.Festival spokeswoman Miranda Brown said security and medical staff were kept busy at the front of the stage.She said regular announcements warned the crowd not to push and that the front-of-stage barrier was there to protect their safety.At one point more than 30 people climbed a multi-level speaker stack in the middle of the crowd, which was manned by just one security guard.It took police and security staff more than 20 minutes to get them off the structure.But they failed to deter dozens of people who climbed a beer marquee to watch Rage Against the Machine.Police said they were disappointed with the crowd behaviour and arrested a few people for letting off flares."There were quite a few idiots around," one officer said.Jordan, 25, of Newport, said grandstands should have been erected around the back of the main stages."People couldn't see anything at all, there were so many people there . . . so of course they climbed on to things so they could see."Veteran attendee Cameron Oliver, 26, said he saw a lot of violence in the crowd."In nine Big Day outs and numerous other festivals, this is the most violent and least policed I have been to," he said."We had to pull back from the stage – so far back we couldn't even see because we were afraid for our safety. And I'm a six-foot (183cm) bloke.""Herald Sun":CH[CH]http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23124813-2862,00.html
Comments (30)
After the show, they were bent back at a 45 degree angle just from the crowd pushing against them...