I am in the same boat as many of you. My only bad experience was on a stopped metro escalator in DC many years before I moved there. At one point the crowd carried me forward. I will not go down a stopped escalator.
I read a lot about this incident on its anniversary, it is appalling. I have stayed away from full accounts of Astroworld.
On a crowded day the one place I won’t go at WDW is by the Tangled bathrooms in Fantasyland. That is the place where I have seen reports of the worst and scary crowds in non-panic, non-exiting the park scenarios where the density just becomes too great.
Interesting quote from the article, “ After the tragedy, festival-style seating was banned, but the practice has since made a comeback in venues nationwide — including at the Astroworld music festival Friday night.”
This entire thread is causing my anxiety to spike. We’d been debating where to watch Enchantment and now will for sure watch it from behind the castle, projections be damned!
I hate mosh pit style standing room only at concerts. It’s been years since I have been in the midst of something like that. I’ll never do it again.
At MK, we always stick to the fringe. We don’t like to be in the middle of a crowd. For the new Fireworks, we stood in front of the Plaza Restaurant… in the junipers so we’re above the crowd Watched from the side of the Castle for the Oct 1 show. We were not going near the middle!
I live 20 min from NRG so have been pretty inundated with coverage.
Just to clarify, it wasn’t held in the arena. It was held outdoors in the stadium parking lot. So a lot of regulations apparently don’t apply to outdoor events.
And, yeah, I had seen the coverage already that afternoon about them rushing the entrance and was a bit surprised they didn’t immediately make adjustments.
But he thrives off the crowd frenzy. He intentionally cultivates and encourages “raging”.
The odds of something going wrong in that kind of atmosphere are going to be a lot higher than any gathering where it isn’t being intentionally cultivated.
The risk potential at a protest is probably fairly similar. But I would expect people attending a protest would realize there is a significant element of risk there. There shouldn’t be at an entertainment venue.
If someone is running entertainment events in such a way that they are scared to stop/pause the show in case of an emergency due to the riot potential of the crowd, they need to stop running events. (That’s the reason that’s been floated why they let the event continue for 40 min after it was declared a “mass casualty event”.)
We used to live in New Orleans. One year we had out of town visitors so we went to Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras. It was so crowded I was moving, but my feet weren’t touching the ground. Never again. I will not put myself in such crowds again. We don’t have children, so we go to WDW on the off-season when it’s not so crowded. I realize Disney has better security and contingency plans than many other locations, but I can’t be that crowded.
Hillsborough was horrific, I saw most of it live on TV as a kid. But there were a lot of terrible mistakes that led up to it. If the crowds had been managed, it would never have happened. Terraces - standing - are very probably going to come back in the very near future.
Same. We rope dropped MK this summer and will not do it again. We were probably in the first 100-200 people. Once the line started moving, people started shoving. One guy kept intentionally ramming his stroller into people and shouted at his wife to do the same. Since he was right in front of me, I slowed down to get away from him with my 10 year old son and got separated from my husband and 14 year old daughter. When we got to the line, I found my husband, and the people behind him started complaining that we were cutting. They calmed down after I explained what happened, but it just added to overall anger we were feeling from the crowd. It was such a scary experience that my family said they would never rope drop again.
We see a lot of concerts with a lot of different type of artists. The only situation I’ve been in where I really felt unsafe was an outdoor concert after an X Games event. We were in a seated area near the back, and there was a large general admission area behind us. I’m not sure what prompted it and the concert had not even started yet, but the crowd in general admission started hopping the fence and running towards the stage. Just as I was shouting at my husband that we should head to a side exit, it was over. It felt like security and police materialized out of nowhere. The rest of the concert was fine.
I did actually arrive early and was at RD time shortly after reopening after the lock downs. The crowds were not there and we were all required to stand on dots on the ground that were spaced 6’ apart. I was fine w/ that ppl at that time were forced to keep their distance.
I’m sorry all this happened to you. This sounds like pre-pandemic behavior. Once we were early to AK, years ago, and ppl started running to FoP, CMs kept yelling to stop running. Our family saw the wet pavement and were on the look out for wipe outs and falling. By the time we got to the line it was a 2 hr wait; we didn’t get in line.
RDing during the pandemic spacing YES, now and before NOPE!
Welp, looks like RD might be out for us as well. I would absolutely lose my mind in any of the situations described here. And if someone intentionally rammed me with a stroller…
Is it as bad if you’re not in the very front? We (just my husband and I) aren’t planning on heading to the headliners but did want to get an early start on the day. We’re staying onsite so were going to do early entry and were thinking of Teacups, Winnie, IASW then HM after 9:00. But if even that is going to be a madhouse, I have to rethink.
My DS and I were at the very front and were quickly over taken by the crowd as soon as the CM dropped the rope. Maybe if we had been able to stay ahead of the crowd, but …nah
I frequently rope drop the less crowded rides from the back of the pack. It’s much better. Just plan on walking through the taps 10-15 mins before opening and you should be fine. Go for anything but 7DMT, SDD, ROTR, and FOP and you will get the advantage without the stress.
I think in the Astroworld incident there were several factors that played a role in things going so wrong. It was about poor planning and poor crowd control and enforcement from bot the organizers and the artist. When I’ve seen and have been to concerts where someone, often the artist, has had to address the crowd and it has worked. I’ve seen crowds of thousands do moshpits and no one got hurt because 1. there was enough space and leeway, 2. the crowd is aware - I’ve literally seen artist announce that if someone falls, pick them up, 3. artists and/or organizers are ready to react if something goes wrong. When thousands of people move simultaneously it creates a huge domino effect and it needs to be fully stopped. In Astroworlds case both the organizers and the artist were for whatever reason totally ignorant about this and it’s one of the reasons it went horribly wrong.
In the NPR article posted upthread I really liked the advice “help each other out. Altruism is contagious and will spread. Aggression is contagious too”
The world has changed. Too many angry and aggressive people. I was at the 1969 Woodstock festival with 500,000 others (albeit in a much larger venue) and no one rushed a stage or went bonkers.
Watched from the side of the Castle for the Oct 1 show. We were not going near the middle!
ppl at that time were forced to keep their distance.
I would absolutely lose my mind in any of the situations described here. And if someone intentionally rammed me with a stroller…