A Hard Summer bummer at the Forum: 'How do you stop 500 people rushing the gate?'

Rowdy fans shut down what was supposed to be an all-night dance event in Inglewood. Full refunds are being offered.

 

Will Fan had sprung for VIP tickets to Saturday night's Hard Summer event at the Forum in Inglewood. But before settling in for a night of dance music, Fan made a trip to the bar.

Then the night went haywire. A back door of the VIP section, where tickets began at $125, flew open and fans ran in from the parking lot in what Fan described as a "stampede."

"We saw about 200 kids run right through the bar area," said the 35-year-old Sherman Oaks resident. "It was a little scary. I saw the bartender push one kid down, but everyone else just ran around him. Eventually, security was able to stop more people from coming in. But the kids ran out of the bar . . . and basically hopped over the balcony and onto the floor. Then the music stopped."

The sold-out all-night Hard Summer concert, which featured a lineup that included U.K. dance duo Underworld and Canadian electronic rockers Crystal Castles, was halted at about 10:50 p.m., according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department, which cited "hazardous life-safety things taking place inside the event."

Inglewood police dispatched a riot unit, and by 1:25 a.m. Sunday, more than 17,000 attendees had been sent home.

The Hard-brand dance events are the brainchild of promoter and DJ Gary Richards, who said he's looking at a "seven-figure" loss from the event's cancellation. Full refunds are being offered to ticket holders, and all artists will be paid.

"We were teetering on the edge of thinking things were getting out of control, and then all of a sudden those crashers came in and started leaping from the lower bowl onto the floor," Richards said. "How do you stop 500 people rushing the gate at the same time? You'd need military at that point."

Fire department inspector Frederic Stowers said a number of ambulances were called to the scene, and that the most serious injury was a broken foot. On Sunday, the Inglewood police said four people were arrested for theft and drunk and disorderly conduct, but a statement released on Monday said no arrests were made.

Videos uploaded to YouTube show fans jumping 12 to 15 feet from the balcony. Prija Cash, 27, feared a riot. The Costa Mesa resident was trapped between an underground room with a second stage and the Forum's main floor for about 30 minutes as crashers rushed the gates.

Tickets to the event were general admission, meaning fans weren't assigned a specific seat. The downstairs dance floor was full by 9 p.m., Cash said, leaving fans that came to dance, but wound up confined to balcony seats, frustrated.

"It was advertised as a dance party, and people wanted to dance," he said.

Underworld observed on its website that the mood inside the Forum went from a "good buzz" to an "uneasy" feeling relatively quickly, as fans ignored a barricade to rush the dance floor. The act wrote that it was advised by its security team to leave. 

News spread on the Web that Crystal Castles singer Alice Glass suffered a concussion in a melee to get out of the venue, but the act’s U.K.-based manager, James Sandom, said via email that while the event was “a disaster,” reports of Glass’ injury were “not true.” 

Richards said security had been beefed up for the concert. "The Forum typically hires I think 200 security guards for events," he said. "We had 320 guards. There were 36 Inglewood police officers and nine fire inspectors. My partners had 10 to 15 meetings with those people to go over and over the plan."

The Forum's general manager, Tina Suca, stopped short of saying the venue would avoid dance acts but said "we're a fun rock venue." Another Richards event is booked for Oct. 31, but it will be moved.

"We learned that the Forum is just not the right place for an event like this," Richards said. "Knowing now that people will jump from balconies onto the floor, the Forum is not good for us . . . My brother and I used to manage [metal band] Slipknot back in the day, and those fans weren't doing that."

--Todd Martens & Scott T. Sterling

Photo: Sterling

Related: 'Potentially dangerous activities' cited in Hard Summer shutdown; full refunds offered

Related: Video: Electronic fest Hard Summer at the Forum shut down [Updated: 4 p.m.]

Comments

[ali duncan]

Any word on where the Halloween event will be? Tough break for Gary

[Brandon Fuller]

Even though the event was cut short, we managed to take over 250 photos of the event and make a great video montage of those photos.... there were some good times had there regardless and I wish the best for HARD and the artists for the next go-round.

http://www.musicforpresident.com (photos/video of event)

Much love.

[Bert]

I was so bummed I didn't get to see Bloody Beetroots and Destructo. I'm still so pissed. I hope the gatecrashers that ruined it for everyone get prison-raped.

[rosie love]

man i was there and it wasn't that scary u guys just make everything more exagerated.. well the forum sucks that will teach a lesson to the promoters and all the people incharge of this event..grrr so angry i thought u promoters had been doing this for a long time but it just shows they still need to get their planning skilsl up on game.. i hated hard so much it ruined my 21st b day i regret going for my bday... i hate hate hate hard

[sarah]

How about you guys STOPPING from having these events being ALL ages. What do you think is going to happen when you have kids, literally running around on illicits under the age of 18. These events should be 18 and over or 21 and over. The events would STILL sell out. I'm planning on being at the one for halloween, I shudder to think that something like this could happen. Trying to have a good time while some 15 year old is having some sort of a 'trip' next to you is seriously a buzz kill.

[F*U YOU RICHARDS]

REMEMBER SLIPKNOT PLEDGE OF ALLEGANCE TOUR, THE FANS DID DO THAT. YOUR AN IDIOT TO BLAME THE CROWN, BLAME YOURSELF.

[G]

You'd need military at that point? Come on, Gary. Is that what you think the military is for? To do the job of what your security guards where suppose to be doing? YOU are not the first promoter to do a 10K size party in LA and wont be the last. Dozens of parties have gone on in LA that size without any problems. You just thought you can have a DANCE party on nosebleed bleachers. I hope you've learned your lesson. You put a lot of people in danger. No money loss would equal to what would have happened if someone had a tragic accident leaving your bogus event.

[Jenny]

I believe that it was a combination of a horrible venue for a dance party and bad organization. My friends and I searched the place an hour for the Underground stage, there should've been signs. One of the workers told us that we had to get down to the dance floor to get to the Underground state and you can imagine how horrible it was trying to squeeze our way to the dance floor in that crowd. HARD overbooked a tiny, enclosed stadium with a bunch of fucked up people. I'm super pissed that we never found the Underground stage because i was so excited for Jack Beats! Thank god we're getting refunded.

[Jqwertyuiop]

I blame the ravers with the 'hardstyle' flavor. HARD was NEVER a rave, and will NEVER be one. But as I approached the forum I saw thousands and thousands of 'kandi' kids waiting outside kandi stomping and two-stepping. I was disgusted to see that my favorite event, had turned into an abode for these hypocritical ravers who don't even follow their own logic of P.L.U.R. Not only have these so-called ravers ruined my favorite event, but the local dance parties and 'clubs' (i.e Smash Disco, Nurave, Propr,dANCE,) as well. These were once dominated by the L.A. clubkids. The monthly event Mode7 is at least doing the right thing, and enforcing a dress code and asking ravers to dispose of their ponybeads or go home.

HARD Halloween is still on, and I expect better from HARD and the people over at Nitrus. Also, if you don't want the fire department to stop the next HARD. Ristrict anyone with kandi, stuffed animal backpacks, and pacifiers and tell them that this is L.A. not San Bernardino(rave capital of California)

[Galileo]

These big named raves are just to big now a days. this is a new generation of music. these raves are meant for people to dance. thats obviously why we attend these events, to dance and enjoy music from some of the best electronic artists in the world. "EDC" for example was held at the Colosseum, that place was big enough for 100,000 people and it was fairly easy to get to other stages most of the time. I personally was extremely angry when the forum was shut down, but that just give me even more excitement an anticipation for "Hard Haunted Mansion" because the line up for 09 is incredible, and the fact that Crookers and bloody beet roots confirmed their performance give us ravers and electronic fans a change to see them tear the stage up even harder than the would've done at "Hard Summer!"

[Mike]

Wow... sounds like de ja vu. Wasn't Gary involved with K-Rave at Knotts, where ravers also "stormed the gates"? Lesson forgotten?

[HoneyBinHB]

Just to let you know how it feels to be an ER nurse who receives these underage (some not) Ravers who are on E and have elevated temps of 106. They come in Aug. 15 to the hospital with no ID and die. Their bodies are sent to the morgue. Kid after kid come in, are packed in ice and die. The nurses don't want to work the weekends at Olympia and California Hospitals. The kids drop, paramedica take them to the hospitals and they live but some die. My daughter worked in the ER and felt like she too was at the Rave.
But still 4 kids died. How many weekends a year? How many kids?

[Anonymous]

If the event was planned right this would have never happenend.
It's easy to just blame the poor kids for your lack of planning and general rookie moves.
Massive dance music events have been going on for centuries without a riot, maybe you should look into getting more experienced people in your crew and that might help you throw a sucessful massive.
Stop blaming the kids - Turn off the music for Hours to a show that you paid $80 to go to and don't get on the microphone and say anything, that's asking for a riot with that kind of a crowd.
HARD - Shame on you

[Jesse B]

I knew an event like this would not work at the forum. Good thing I didn't buy my ticket because I knew this would suck. EDC was already crazy and it was at a huge indoor/outdoor location. Venues like that are the only place where these events can really go down!

[Radioactive]

I love how they make it seem like were the only bad guys here.....
I heard reports that Hardfest sold 18,000 tickets for a venue that can hold 15,000 max.

They also forgot to mention the fact that the forum (which is owned and operated by a church now) was so greedy for money that they turned off all the drinking fountains in the place and would take the caps off the $5 bottled waters you were forced to buy so that you couldn't carry it around with you.

The forum has a horrible layout for this type of event. Only 2 staircases down to the main dance floor that security had blocked off the whole time. The underground stage was filled to capacity by 8:50.

So lets think here:
Can't get to any stages or dance floors because?
Layout of venue is horrible and overselling of tickets.

Being forced to waste all the money you brought for souvenirs and such on water?
The Forum in their greediness decided to turn off all the drinking fountains and steal your bottle caps to make using the same bottle impossible.

People jumping down to the main floor?
Because there was NO WAY other than that to get there.

The L.A. times also forgot to mention the fact that around 10:10 (when the event really got shut down) that us concert goers were told to sit down by the fire marshal. It took a bit but everyone complied because we wanted it to start back up, soon after this they started quietly packing up the stages. Then they said no one could be in the stairwells anymore. It took a while again and some people jumped down from the ledge....but eventually everyone followed directions. next they said that we had to clear the first five rows. After some angry yells and and angrier faces eventually everyone moved. Finally they told us that no one could be sharing seats. Which took another decent chunk of time to comply with. So around 12:20 after a little over 2 hours of "busy work" as my teachers would say, raid police swarmed in and we were told to leave in an orderly manner.

This was my first Hardfest Event and it will be my last. I have never seen a concert handled as poorly or greedily. I have received a refund for my ticket, but its not what i want. I payed for a ticke3t to see some of my favorite DJ's, spent $23 on parking (not getting refunded) and invested the better half of my Saturday on this event. The least they could do is give us a free ticket to a "redo show" at a better venue with the same artists, but all Hardfest cares about is whats "cost effective." It's cheaper to give us back the money for our tickets than to rebook the artists so that's what they are doing.
Although it may save Hardfest money now, and seem like a good idea, in the long run they are losing thousands of future ticket buyers. You've made your bed and now you will lay in it. Good luck with Hard Haunted, everyone i know who was going has already bought Monster Massive tickets instead.

-RadioactiveR

[Kat]

Not quite fair to compare a Slipknot show to a RAVE. The event was advertised as a DANCE event - how can you expect a ton of stoned ravers to stay in their seats and dance? Obviously everyone wants to be on the floor near the stage (see all past HARD events at the Shrine)

The event was obviously poorly planned. They didn't even have signs outside as to where to find will call tickets, VIP, the entrance, etc, and the security was ill-informed also, as they gave me wrong directions several times.

You'd think this was Richard's first time planning a concert...

[Little Elsa]

MonsterMassive producer and Fire Marshalls worked togther.
No one knows the real truth.

[Heather Ferman]

IM very upset considering i drove to LA from El Paso, Texas. I can't even explain how disappointed I was and still am... I want my parking refund!!!!
How will Hard Haunted Mansion be handled in there by the way, if they couldn't even handle Hard Summer!?

[p.one<$$]

well i still love HARD concerts.even though im bearly 15.it all depends on us people we should just have fun and follow rules i guess.yeahh destructo might have messed upp but he really did tried as much as we did.the copps were the ones who stopped it so dont put as much blame to richardd.hard haunted mansion will be another great concert.=]

[Vonnie]

Gary Richards would be smart to hire a few city law enforcement officials. (Police) Having law enforcement present would thwart illegal activity and crashers when theres the prospect of immediately being arrested cuffed whatever compared to the non threat of a yellow jacket(security) grabbing you by the arm and who really cant enforce anything. Im sure he was thinking about the cost that would be but 10 officers would be enough for an event along with security and a far better deal than losing 7 figures. I go to these events and theres a bunch of unrully adolescents. Not to mention 90 percent are just not right or not there and have no means to pay for a ticket. This type of melee will continue to occur with just security present. I've witnessed it at every single event I've attended.

[Adrian Dumas]

What was the capacity of the venue? failed to metion how many people could fit inside comfortably and also, how many tickets HARD sold. Dont blame the kids who are paying for your pay checks however blame the promoters for POOR planning. HARD HALLOWEEN IS GOING TO FAIL JUST LIKE HARD SUMMER