I had gone to Joost’s concert last year by myself, I had a great time. Everything was fine, I was up at the rail, I had no fear. So I bought tickets for last nights show the second they were announced, and i decided to buy a ticket for my sister too.
That show was incredibly unsafe. The crushing that was going on was entering really dangerous territory. We were on the right, where a lot of shorter women were standing. For about four songs everything was fine, definitely a little more hectic than last time, but I wasn’t scared.
Then there were like five huge dudes that decided to barrel through our section really aggressively, no regard for anybody who they were shoving and elbowing. Again, this was not the center at all, we shouldn’t have been anywhere with a large mosh. Especially with men of this size. They pushed their way over there specifically because they saw a group of smaller women that they knew they could get through. And I know this because they were fucking laughing at the dozen girls or so who were checking up on one another and complaining about them.
Then it got worse when Joost said to open the mosh. A literal wave of people started pushing on my back, and i really started to have to get violent to make sure my sister had enough room to breathe. People kept trying to push through us, and kept getting more aggressive when they saw I wasn’t breaking arms with my sister. I refused to let us get seperated. Now I’m a heftier girl, I can usually stand my ground in a crowd, but things got so tight and aggressive that I felt my feet lift off the ground completely. I knew that if anyone fell at that point someone was getting seriously hurt, and I feared that could be my sister.
So at that point I was done, I started shoving her in front of me and yelling at everyone to get out of my way as we pushed towards the entrance. The looks of confusion I was getting, not warranted. Big heads up concertgoers but if someone in beside you is trying to part the crowd to get out of the crowd and is yelling at you to make way, MAKE FUCKING ROOM.
I can only remember about four songs of the performance before things started getting bad, and the roughness of the crowd and trying to keep my footing became my only focus. I don’t even remember what songs were playing at that point, I literally zeroed in on trying to remain upright and not getting hurt. This was the absolute worst show I’ve ever gone to and I’ve gone to many. No other concert had me genuinely fearing my sister’s life before.
And to top it all off, Terminal 5 didn’t pass out any water bottles after the openers (at the point in which i left), which they ignored several hands waving for water in our section (including ours) when they were giving them out. When I finally broke us free of the crowd I had to obnoxiously yell “who tf even works here” before a very nice girl and her boyfriend (thank you gang) helped find someone for me since I had left my sister sitting down so she can get her bearings, and I wasn’t about to seperate us with a crowd who clearly doesn’t care about safety.
Yeah, least to say, those of you who were aggressive, get fucked. That was a fucking horrible show and only because of the crowds behavior. Both me and my sister felt real fear that something was about to go horribly wrong. I kept thinking about that travis scott documentary, i saw all the signs. CONCERT ETTIQUETTE EXISTS AND THERE WAS NO REASON TO MOSH IRREESPONSIBLY. PEOPLE CAN AND WILL GET HURT.
Idk I’m done now but that was legitimately a little traumatizing. I’ve never felt that quite out of control and at the whims of others who clearly had no regard whether I lived or died. I heard something about ems later on too? Idk I didn’t stay long enough to see that. This was incredibly disappointing, I don’t think I can go to another one of his shows if this is what theyre becoming.
Edit: i wanted to add a lil extra context. We were not in the pit, if anything we were actively avoiding the pit. My sister and I are 5’2 women, we know our limits. We are NYC locals, I’ve been to plenty of concerts without incident and without legitimate fear, even at Terminal 5.
I also wanted to add on the amount of times people touched me and me sister. I felt mutiple hands on my hips throughout the very short time i was there and that felt pretty gross. In general the main problem was the very aggressive men who were just barreling through what looked like very young women and girls.
And i get it, there was water. Water provided at the back wouldn’t have helped because we weren’t near the back. Water should be easily accessible at all sides of a crowd in an environment that hot, cramped and aggressive, and there should have been more employees looking for people in distress.