There’s more to a concert than meets the eye.
Concerts are a fantastic form of entertainment. Fans of the artist and the artist themselves get the opportunity to interact with one another and create core memories. During a concert, artists are one with their community, whether it’s by jumping up and down, creating mosh pits, or waving their arms in unison.
To increase events’ memorability and provide an unforgettable experience for concertgoers, artists continue to innovate, push boundaries, and sell out bigger and better arenas. However, as shown time and time again, there’s a thin line between providing a safe and enjoyable concert experience and one that generates horror stories populating our social media feeds.
A very recent example is Taylor Swift’s concert in Brazil as part of the South American leg of the Eras tour. The concert was the first of three consecutive shows in Rio de Janeiro and took place during a record-high heat wave, leaving the venue with a staggering temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit. According to the local fire department, over 1,000 fans fainted, and one young fan ed away after a cardiac arrest.
If you hadn’t heard of the Taylor Swift incident, a less recent example is Travis Scott’s 2022 Astroworld festival, “Astrofest.” With 50,000 attendees and a fan culture of moshing and rushing the stage, the festival left nine fans dead and many more reporting severe injuries and panic attacks as they were pushed and trampled in the crowd.
The aftermath of both events has cultivated widespread discussion of the ethical responsibility artists bear for the safety of their concert going fans.
Artists must choose venues that can supply the demand for tickets, while matching this with adequate medical and teams when crowds get rough at the barricades.
However, there are other factors artists must take into s. Though an artist can’t control the temperature and weather on the day of a concert, they can choose to perform at venues that are well ventilated. Artists must also better for fan culture, since mosh pits, shoving, and stage rushes consistently leave attendees injured.
If these considerations result in the need to cancel or postpone a concert, the artist faces repercussions. Cancellations can cause monetary loss and backlash from fans, which can set the artist back in their career. Adele’s postponing of her Las Vegas residency shows is a prime example. She described the aftermath as “gut-wrenching,” “horrible,” and that all she could do was “wait it out and grieve.”
However, when safety is concerned, repercussions for artists don’t outweigh fans’ lives. Despite the potential drawbacks of canceling or postponing shows, when performers seek to preserve lives and communicate effectively with tired fans, it can strengthen the bond between the artist and their audience.
Numerous artists have proved this to be the case, cancelling and stopping shows for fan safety, and still succeeding today. Lady Gaga cancelled her show in Miami Hard Rock Stadium due to a tropical thunderstorm, telling fans “I’m sorry that we can’t finish but I don’t want to put your life in danger, and I don’t want to put our life in danger.”
Doja Cat is another artist exemplifying precaution. During her Lollapalooza Argentina show, she stopped mid-show and didn’t continue until a fan asking for help received care. In her words to her fans during the show, “I can’t keep going if things aren’t good.”
It’s key that the conversation extends beyond the immediate aftermath of tragic live events. The commitment to fan safety should be an integral part of an artist’s character, and legislative frameworks should adapt to ensure grey areas are addressed comprehensively.
As we move forward, combining artistic expression with responsible event management should become the norm, ensuring concerts remain thrilling, memorable, and, above all, safe for everyone involved.
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Jim Digby
This is the ongoing work of the Event Safety Alliance (eventsafetyalliance.org). A nonprofit global live event safety organization founded in 2013. Our work to create applicable standards for those who produce live events establishes the practices, which when applied effectively, help to minimize life threatening risks to audiences, artists, and staff alike.