BST in Hyde Park 2014

[the wonderwhy]

Apparently someone has passed out at the front of Libs and they've had to pause the gig briefly

[JonSnuh]

Nme saying people jumped over the middle barrier so the front section was over capacity. Looks like people were climbing the sound tower from twitter as well

[the wonderwhy]

Yeah seen a few people mention barrier jumping, some massive LADS are even bragging about taking part, and there are photos around of the tower climbing.

Ridiculous really, all your doing is ruining the gig for the majority of the people who are there to have a good, sensible time

[dentalplan]

That's shite. I kind of wish they stayed split up now as - looking at the stuff Matt mentioned - a good chunk of the Libertines crowd seems to have really changed into music fans at their worst.

[TenInchToenaiIs]

They were fantastic tonight. Crowd was boisterous, but to be expected I guess.

A lot of really drunk people as well, some were totally out of it.

[lme]

The crowding issue wasn't caused by people jumping the barriers but by the fact that the front section had an expensive premium view area behind barriers behind it, either no access or narrowed access to the right of the stage (I couldn't see which) and open access at the LHS. As the Libs came on and people poured into the front section from the left, the whole area got overcrowded and people were on the floor. The only way to drop back out of the chaos was over the barrier into the premium view area. Security were helping people over the barrier to safety. It was the layout and the fact that there was no control over the number of people coming into the area between the stage and the premium view area caused the problem.

[lme]

The crowding issue wasn't caused by people jumping the barriers but by the fact that the area in front of the stage had an expensive premium view area surrounded by barriers behind it, either no access or narrowed access to the right of the stage (I couldn't see which) and open access at the LHS.

As the Libs came on and people poured into the front section from the left, the whole area got overcrowded and people were on the floor. The only way to drop back out of the chaos was over the barrier into the premium view area. There was no other way back and it wasn't really possible for people towards the back to escape to the left, against the flow of the crowd. Security were helping people over the barrier to safety. It must have been annoying for the people in the premium view area to have a steady stream of people coming over the barriers but security didn't have any other way of getting them out safely.

It was the layout and the fact that there was no control over the number of people coming into the area between the stage and the premium view area caused the problem and announcements from the stage, asking people to move back made the crush towards the back of the front section worse.

Edited July 6, 2014 by lme

[Mouseboy11]

That's shite. I kind of wish they stayed split up now as - looking at the stuff Matt mentioned - a good chunk of the Libertines crowd seems to have really changed into music fans at their worst.

[atomised]

I really enjoyed it myself.

[Tomo18]

some right bell ends attended

[atomised]

Id agree it had more than its fair share but had a decent bunch around me. Moved in from.the left after the pogues and managed to end up around 6 rows back

[the wonderwhy]

Yeah I agree it wasn't the best of setups, when I was at Sabbath (which was pretty cramped in some spots) I pointed out to my mate that the needed to make the premium area smaller really or it would get dangerous for the Libs. They definitely needed to have a wristband system for the front section, but I can see why they didn't as it would've only pissed people off even more.

At the end of the day though an unsafe setup doesn't force you into being selfish and ruining it for over people. Apparently there was a 'riot' (probably over exaggerated a bit) outside the smaller stage which means some people today aren't going to see some of the bands that were billed. Some are saying some of the security were getting beaten up, too.

[Tomo18]

Fighting, people getting kicked in the head when they are on the floor, people trying to help getting punched, looked like the stewards on the podium where people were climbing up took a few punches aswell, pogues and spiritualized just on to make libertines sound good?

[Muppetmark]

The security were dreading yesterday, a lot of them had been on duty for the libs at the barrowlands and they said it was awful.

[justanothername]

The Libertines were great but the crowd were shocking. Me and my brother got to the front area early (before Pogues but we still wanted to see them anyway) and around 20 mins before The Libertines came on it was rammed and there were still people still trying to get forward. Someone even turned around to some people trying to get forward and told them to stop but they didn't listen and in front of us was someone who totally wasted and had to get two of his friends to hold him up and we kept telling his mate to get him out of there but he didn't listen. When they came on the crowd was too intense and we even saw a girl having a panic attack try to get out (tried to help and by creating a small space to get through) and we saw plenty of others as well. Also the dickhead LADs ruined it a bit (especially climbing the tower) as well and was probably the reason why The Likely Lads was dropped from the set and I got covered in numerous liquids. One time there were a bunch of LADs having a fight with wine and they got my hoodie covered in wine and no one said anything and kept fucking about and I couldn't use it later on when I got back in Sheffield and it was freezing. Also got piss thrown on me during The Rifles so that was a bit shite.

The organisation wasn't great either. The Premium view section is half of the front area and was only going to cause problems and there seemed to me no need for it. The other stages were too small as well. We went to go and see Reverend & The Makers (I hate them but my brother likes them and I had nothing better to do) and despite the fact that we got there 20 mins early the queue for it was packed. Then we went to the Summer Stage for The Rifles and we couldn't hear a thing as the crowd was quite big (some people even asked us if they were playing).

[dentalplan]

You deserve it for seeing The Rifles over Spiritualized.

[justanothername]

You deserve it for seeing The Rifles over Spiritualized.

[Tomo18]

Just stop the upper class lower class segregation shit if you want to go to a show go and stand there with the rest of us peasants, saw one bloke who was clearly unable to stand already, continue to drink three bottles of wine in 10 mins, how's he still buying 1 pint never mind three bottles of wine in his state

i think it should just be left as a royal park not a music venue

Edited July 6, 2014 by Tomo18

[the wonderwhy]

Or they could just sod the royals and make it a normal park.

I think Hyde Park is a great venue. They just need to scrap the premium view section and turn the sound up a little bit (although its not too bad if you manage to get in the front section)

[atomised]

Sound was fine down the front.

I get the idea of having a premium section but the current layout for Hyde park is ridiculous

[Muppetmark]

Hyde park was great when it was just HRC and wireless. there was no premium bullshit areas and it had a good layout. however now theyve completely fucked with it and now its quite dangerous especially with crowd surges.

[justanothername]

Lots of people complaining about organization on Facebook. They need to sort it out for next year.

Also find a way to get rid of those flares, no one around me seemed to like them at all but the worse thing was during The Libertines exactly when John Hassell asked people to stop using fireworks some twat threw a flare (and not a smoke one, this one was a pyrotechnic one) into a section of the crowd. That is dangerous. There is not point to them apart to signal to people that you're a twat (also the typical LAD and LASS characters used them as well).

[TenInchToenaiIs]

People complaining about the organisation and citing idiots people climbing the towers and fighting as it being their fault.

Some people are just idiots.

[TenInchToenaiIs]

No one has mentioned how awful Shane McGowan looked yesterday.

Looks like he could have dropped dead on the stage. Really awful viewing

[GuitarManDan15]

I have to say I thought it felt really overcrowded, dangerously so, a few times during Black Sabbath on Friday. I think if you cut the capacity by 5,000/10,000 it would be a much better event with less of an edge to the atmosphere. However they will never do that as it's all about the money I guess