The catastrophic scenes at last month’s aborted Fyre festival – and the schadenfreude-fuelled social media response to them – are a rare example of what can happen when festivals go wrong. Glancing at the viral coverage of what was meant to be a luxury weekend in the idyllic Bahamas, a large portion of which emanating from disgruntled festival-goers themselves – it’s easy to assume that this is as worse as it gets when festivals go awry. However, history holds a different story; with bad planning, freak accidents, inclement weather condition and human violence all contributing to a steady stream of unfortunate events, ranging from the comical to the morbidly serious. Here, we take a look back at some of the most prominent.
GLASTONBURY 2005 – ‘Farmageddon’
Glastonbury, and indeed the Great British Festival Experience, is no stranger to the odd downpour. In turn, the Great British Festival-going Public are no strangers to keeping calm and carrying on through the mire; such is our proclivity to accepting the default sky-setting of our little island. Glasto 2005’s weather took rainy little Britain to new levels, though, unleashing a biblical storm on the 130,00 present, striking stages with lightning, sweeping away tents in the newly-formed Rio Glasto, and causing millions of pounds-worth of damage in general. Remarkably, no fatalities were reported, and true to form revellers at the festival just bloody well got on with it. Stiff upper lip, and all that.
ALTAMONT FREE CONCERT, 1969
Known to many as the symbolic end of the peace ‘n’ love Swinging Sixties, Altamont was meant to be a ‘Woodstock West‘, a Californian parallel to that era-defining benchmark event for the hippy generation. Instead, it turned into a violence-saturated shambles. Infamously, the festival’s organisers hired notorious biker gang Hell’s Angels to run the event’s security, allegedly paying them in beer and LSD. The Angels battered countless revellers into submission using an array of ad-hoc weapons including chains and sawn-off pool cues, and during the Rolling Stones‘ set stabbed teenager Meredith Hunt to death. A sad conclusion to the utopian dream of recent history’s most idealistic decade.
WOODSTOCK ’99
Speaking of Woodstock, an attempt was made at the turn of the century (the turn of the century!… sounds ages away, doesn’t it?!) to repeat the original event’s triumph 30 years on. However, with very much non-flowery bands such as Limp Bizkit on the bill, the peace ‘n’ love dream was always going to end in tears here. And punches. The festival was marred by violence, arson, and general bad vibes. Not groovy, maaaaan.
ROSKILDE, 2000
The tragic events at Denmark’s Roskilde in 2000 were a bittersweet blessing, in that their legacy was to precipitate a complete overhaul of global festival safety procedures. During Pearl Jam‘s headline set, a muddy mosh pit turned into a chaotic stampede as people piled upon each other, trampling to death nine people. Roskilde remains one of the world’s biggest rock festivals and a memorial stone has been set in the grounds, reading “how fragile we are“.
INDIANA STATE FAIR, 2001
Beset by ominous thunderstorms, this Indianapolis festival was given the order to cancel just as country stars Sugarland were preparing to go onstage. However, it came a moment too late as a gust of wind toppled the stage, which collapsed right on top of the crowd. Seven people were killed and 58 injured. It is thought the incident was caused by a phenomenon known as a ‘gustnado‘, an extremely rare freak weather event that resembles a tornado and rolls at over 120mph.
