i completely understand and value your experience in this field, and i understand certain legal stipulations with helping people. i did speak vaguely in my response to that ask just to keep it short, but what im referring to mostly is people asking venue staff for directions, info about water refill stations, water vendors, cooling stations, medics, etc and them turning their backs to them, completely ignoring them, or saying none of it was available when it was. and for security, it was people in the pit asking for assistance to get out.
vendors were raising the prices of water as the day progressed, water refill stations had lukewarm to hot water and were shut off immediately after they announced the show was ending early (despite tens of thousands of people still being inside). this coupled with long lines made it difficult to even get water once you were inside the venue, especially if you were on the floor.
prior to the show an email was sent out that stated fans could bring in a full, factory sealed water bottle or an opened, empty water bottle. staff at the gates were making people throw away their bottles even if they followed venue protocol. there were piles of water bottles on the ground outside the gates because we were suddenly being told we can’t take them in.
we were being told that water wasn’t available on the floor but later on staff started handing it out left and right along with cups of ice. i do think some of this part was miscommunication because i did purchase water on the floor before and right after soundcheck, so it’s possible that the floor vendors just ran out. i’m not sure why they couldn’t restock on the floor, but as far as i saw water was always available from vendors up in the stands.
i completely understand that security is not there to fetch water for people and didn’t mean to imply that. people were asking security to help get them out of the pit because it was impossible to move and get out on their own, especially people near the barricade. security ignored them and turned their backs to them. it’s possible that this varies by venue or independent contracts, but every show i have been to prior to this one (skz or other), security stationed at the pit/stage were allowed to pull people out for safety reasons. later on, security did start pulling people out.
security between the crowd and the stage started handing out waters towards the end of the show after event staff told them to. it wasn’t just stray kids’ waters from the stage that were being passed out, it was water from the venue/their vendors. skz had completely different water from what we were being given on the floor. it’s true that skz were handing out their own personal waters first, but once things got extremely severe the venue started handing it out as well. this leads me to believe that they could have been doing this all along if the venue gave them the instruction to, in which case i don’t blame security, i blame the venue.
water situation aside, event staff closed the gates on vip ticket holders who were lined up at the time staff told them to be. they were left out in the sun for 2 hours until general doors opened because no one was monitoring the lines outside the venue. an email had been sent out prior saying to line up no earlier than 3pm but no later than 3:45pm or you would miss soundcheck. people who lined up within this timeframe were locked out and not given a reason why. i’m assuming the line was just too long to get everyone into the venue by the time soundcheck started as i got in line at 3:05pm and didn’t get into the venue until 4:30pm. it was poor planning.
there was little to no signage and no staff directing people where to line up or what to do, we were all just guessing based on wristbands. so many people were walking around outside the venue confused with no one other than other clueless fans to ask. once we got into the venue for soundcheck, they kept us all up in the mezzanine for about 15-20 minutes before they let us go down to the field. as far as i know no one knows why they did this, but packing that many people into an enclosed space certainly didn’t help the heat. i’m choosing to believe it was for some safety reason.
in general, to say that this heat wave was unexpected isn’t true. alerts were sent out a week in advance, everyone knew it was coming and how high the temps could get. the venue seemingly did little to nothing to prepare and event staff were seemingly poorly trained since they couldn’t even direct people to cooling stations within the venue.
i understand there are some legal stipulations that prevent certain things from being done, especially medically, but at the end of the day people were suffering and i am frustrated with how the entire thing was handled. asking event staff to contact medics or for directions within the venue is normal and fans were straight up being ignored.
as for the show itself, everyone on the floor was asking about the pyro and why it was being used because it was ROASTING us the entire show. it was affecting us in the seated floor sections pretty badly, so i can’t even imagine how it was to be in the pit or on the stage.
everyone there was concerned for stray kids, their dancers, and their band. we could tell, even at soundcheck, that they were feeling the heat too. outfits, lights, choreo, pyro- we all could tell that they were already exhausted from song 1 and we were grateful they were still giving us a performance. no one is blaming stray kids or thinking they had it easier than the rest of us.
it’s easy to say what you would’ve done differently in hindsight, if you had a different experience, or if you weren’t there. a lot of fans 100% could’ve been smarter about their outfits and taken better care of themselves in general, but most of the issues people had were venue related or were escalated due to the lack of care of venue staff members.
i was wearing shorts, a tank top, and a very lightweight baseball jersey (which ended up being my saving grace tbh and i would absolutely recommend for outdoor sunny events!) and was still struggling to keep myself hydrated and feeling okay. i’m still feeling the effects of exhaustion 2 days later and at no point did i personally feel sick during this day. it’s just a lot for your body to go through.
so while i value all of this info and it’s nice to get an inside perspective, i don’t think potential liability excuses a lot of what happened and how poorly this event was executed.
i’m grateful i got see skz again, but the reality is that this date should’ve been canceled or rescheduled, especially if the venue wasn’t prepared to maintain throughout the entirety of the event.
turnnoffyourmind
prguitarman
stormborns
snowghoul
discoholicmusic
pixelskylines
baratheonpilled
germansingergirl
jacobvanloon
