Concerts and festivals are supposed to be safe spaces. You’re there to enjoy the music and the company of fellow fans, and there’s the very reasonable expectation that the promoters and venue will see that nothing goes wrong.
Most of the time, that’s exactly what you experience, but, being humans, things can go very wrong.
Maybe it has to do with crowd control. Maybe someone in the crowd starts something that spirals into something dangerous, like a riot. If it’s a festival, the weather could turn bad—never a good thing when tens of thousands of people are exposed to the elements. People get hurt, and occasionally, people die.
The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Limp Bizkit, and many other bands have found themselves inadvertently involved in riots, tragedies, and disasters. Some were beyond anyone’s control. Others could have been avoided.
This is episode 63 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry” and this is a grim recitation of rock’s worst concert riots and tragedies.
In addition to the podcasts, you can hear Uncharted on these Corus radio stations (all times local):
- Toronto: AM 640 (4-5am)
- London: 980 CFPL (4-5am)
- Vancouver: 730 CKNW (1-2am)
- Edmonton: 630 CHED (1-2am)
- Calgary: QR77 (770 AM) (1-2am)
- Winnipeg: 680 CJOB (1-2am)
© 2026 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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