Iggy And The Stooges @ Glastonbury 2007 - have your say

Chaos at Glastonbury!

So does crowd safety really matter? do we actually want to feel and be safe at concerts and festivals or do we think a bit of collateral damage is just good old rock and roll?

There was a near miss at Glastonbury this year when crowd safety was compromised by a stage invasion at the Other Stage during the Iggy And The Stooges set. Fortunately no-one got hurt - but this was purely down to luck and not judgement - is that good enough?

Iggy's management put the blame with Glastonbury management and the security firm, forcefully absolving themselves of any responsibility. Glastonbury organisers have properly investigated this and the results of their investigations suggest that they were placed in an impossible position by the performer and his management. Iggy's behaviour could be seen as inciting the audience toward violence to the security staff.
The result of all this is that the performance came to a very abrupt end and in our opinion the audience were placed at risk.

Does the performer at an event have any responsibility toward the audience or is it okay to stir it up and when things go awry pass the buck? does it matter if you consistently get away with it? Is putting the crowd at risk during your gig okay?

In the UK we have a pretty good track record as far as deaths and major incidents go at our events - but that track record is only kept in tact by the cooperation of all those involved - that means those responsible for organising and licensing events as well as those who have the most power over any given audience - the performer.
It's not nice when things do go wrong and dense crowds do present some big challenges - check out our crowd info pages for what can and has happened here

Although crowd safety can be a pretty dull subject it does matter and there are all sorts of issues that arise when you're in a dense crowd - we all share responsibility but there are major issues that are really under the control of those organising and managing an event and those performing.

Iggy Stop

Iggy is the edgy punky performer who turned 60 in April this year and seemingly likes to perceive himself as an iconic figure - do we buy into that? He seemed determined to show the Glastonbury crowd that he still had 'it' - whatever you're definition of 'it' might be. And it's probably fair to say that this is an astonishingly fit guy and the start of the performance was enough to show anyone who doubted that Iggy had 'it' in buckets! But as the unexpected drama unfolded were we in for the biggest disappointment of the festival or what?

The problem with this show wasn't just that the storming start faded to nothing, it was about a seasoned, experienced performer inciting the crowd and seriously compromising their safety. The thing is, we're not talking about a young band here who can possibly be forgiven for not understanding the impact of their actions on the crowd, we're talking about someone with years of experience who knows full well what impact his actions will have on the audience. We were there right in the crowd when it all kicked off, thanks to Iggy's decision that anarchy against security would be quite a nifty idea. The funny thing about it all is that it really backfired on him because it was quickly obvious that the great anarchist Iggy was utterly and totally out of his depth - and who do you think were responsible for getting him out of that dilemma? - yup - the very same security that he's spent serious time dissing and encouraging the crowd to do the same. Some anarchist eh?

There is a reason that crowds need some sort of management, the reason being that if we don't have it there can be serious crowd issues and injuries arising from crowd crushes, crowd surges and the like, there have even been deaths. Crowd barriers are in front of the stage for a purpose - think how it would be if we could all just storm the stage when we pleased! Many, many people would jump at the opportunity to get near their heroes - and it's not exactly rocket science for a performer and his tour manager to grasp the concept of actions and consequences is it?.

Being right there in the thick of the crowd that night it was pretty clear to us that the situation was caused by Iggy himself. Shouting full volume at security while simultaneously shrieking for fans to come up and join him on stage was only ever going to have one outcome wasn't it? No amount of saying that they had a 'planned' invasion of 40 people quite cuts the mustard here - there were at least 300 people who stormed through the crowd to get on that stage - adrenaline was clearly pumping as Iggy continued to encourage folk to join him - and being in the midst of the crowd with people storming through was not a nice place to be. This behaviour seriously compromised the crowds safety - we were lucky this time - there were no serious injuries and no-one lost their life - but I wonder how many people are aware of the potential danger that lurked around the Other Stage that night?

Iggy stop

So - the infamous Iggy - is the guy a hero or a villain?

We doubt that Iggy is a stupid man - but we do think he is an arrogant man who clearly believes that his own needs come way before those of the people who have paid to see him - after all, if things had really gone bad and people were getting injured who do you think would have been pulled to safety and looked after first?

We like Iggy as a performer, we love edgy people and we don't think performances have to be staid and boring - that just isn't our definition of rock and roll at all - but at the same time there have to be certain limits when you're dealing with large dense crowds of people - many of whom might just be a little the worse for wear and may not respond as quickly or maybe even in the manner you might otherwise expect them to.

We think that the blame for the fiasco at Iggy And The Stooges set that night lies squarely with Iggy and his management and we have no doubt that this behaviour seriously compromised the health and safety of everybody in that crowd, the fact that there wasn't a serious crowd incident was purely down to luck and not judgement.

The fact that Iggy And The Stooges have been booked to play the V festival in august is a concern, the response we had from Iggy's management show that they have learned nothing from the Glastonbury fiasco and are not willing to look at their own behaviour.

So - if there is a repeat performance of what appeared to us to be contempt for both staff and audience safety by this performer and his management there will be an unacceptable potential for a crowd incident - we suggest that nobody wants that and so can only hope that the festival organisers look seriously at the issues raised and take action to ensure that health and safety is not compromised again.

 Were you there for the Iggy stage invasion? - we thought this put the crowd at high risk - very unusual for Glastonbury - were you there? what did you think of it? leaving aside the safety issues for a moment we lost 30 minutes of the performance due to this - good or bad? - what's your opinion - you tell us.

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