The quintessential freshman experience.

As a freshman, I was super excited for my first Bacchanal. I woke up at around 10 to the sight of people all around campus (many of them holding lots of alcohol). I honestly didn’t know much about the artists, but I love going to concerts and I got free tickets. After braving a long line to get in, my friends and I were pretty close to the stage!

The first set, Chandra, was amazing. She had such a beautiful voice. The vibes in the crowd were great. Everyone was dancing along, but more people were progressively filling the pit area. At this point, it just felt like any other concert that I had been to.

As we waited for AG Club to come in, these girls started pushing next to us to get closer to the front. It was so weird because they seemed to be plotting a path to find breaks in the crowd instead of just asking us. As the set started, more people started pushing and I got a little overwhelmed. My friend and I went closer to the back barricade, making us still pretty close to the front. All around us, however, were big, drunk boys with absolutely no sense of personal space.

We watched multiple times as one person swayed too hard, causing people to fall backward. The girls in front of me tried to push this one boy back but to no avail. Both AG Club and JID asked the crowd to take a couple of steps back, which was a bad idea as it just pushed us closer to the barricade. I’m very worried about crowd crush, so this was a scary experience.

The crowd wasn’t even bad during parts of songs where everyone was jumping around. If anything that part was much less crushing. During gaps in between songs, I felt crushed on all sides and as someone who’s only 5’4, I was almost swept off my feet and knocked over.

This didn’t feel like any other high-energy concert. I think there were serious public safety concerns, largely due to people being too drunk and swaying in the pit area. Around 15 people were picked up by public safety to get out, as they couldn’t reach the exit. They had to be carried over the barricade. Afterward, similar sentiments were shared on Sidechat and Reddit.

Maybe I’m just not built for this type of concert, but it wasn’t only me. I think too many people were crowded in one area, and concertgoers needed to be more aware of how badly they were pushing. Also, never be that person to push into the front then not even know the lyrics…

Bacchanal via Author