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

Saturday's all-night electronic event Hard Summer at the Forum was shut down by midnight. The event was declared a "hazard" by the Los Angeles County Fire Department, according to an Inglewood police representative. Based on the county department's recommendation, Hard Summer was called off. [Note: An earlier version of this post said the LAFD had made the recommendation; the LAFD is the city fire department, not the county department.]

The Forum has a capacity of about 18,000 people. According to the Hard Summer website, the event was sold out. Attempts to reach the responding fire department were unsuccessful, and calls went straight to voice mail. 

Pop & Hiss is attempting to get more details and will post them as we have them. From a reporter on the scene, we're told that at least one act played -- the electronic noise act Crystal Castles. Yet those who made it into the Forum were then subject to two hours without any music. At some point, the crowd began chanting,  "We want music." 

According to some of those on scene, shortly before midnight, when acclaimed U.K. dance act Underworld was to be on stage, uniformed police officers in riot gear entered the Forum and emptied the room. Not everyone in the crowd left quietly. There were reports of bottle throwing and heavy booing, but our reporter said there wasn't anything extremely violent or worrisome.

Updated at 10 a.m.: The following statement has appeared on the official Hard website: "We are terribly sorry. Inglewood PD made the decision to shut down the event tonight much to our astonishment and yours. There are many questions to answer; rest assured you will not be left hanging. Please check back soon." Information regarding ticket refunds has not yet been released. 

Updated at 11 a.m.: Underworld has updated its website with a detailed, firsthand account of last night's events. The non-bylined post appears to be written by Underworld member Karl Hyde, who provides a behind-the-scenes perspective of last night's shutdown. The post observes that the mood inside the Forum went from a "good buzz" to an "uneasy" feeling relatively quickly. The act writes that things changed when fans began moving from the seated area onto the dance floor, jumping over a barricade. "At any moment the flow of people coming over the barrier could've turned into a cascade & people could've been badly hurt," the post reads. "I watched with increasing concern as it continued unstopped." The act writes that it was eventually advised by its team to leave the venue because of safety concerns.

Updated at 4 p.m.: Attendees on Saturday waited in line for an hour or more to get into the Forum, and a spokesman for the Inglewood police confirms online reports that fans made "multiple attempts" to rush the gates. A total of four people were arrested, according to the police, on charges of theft or drunk and disorderly conduct. Information regarding any injuries was not yet known.

Follow thoughts from attendees via Twitter. Where you there? Was it crowded? What was the mood? Leave your thoughts in the comment section.

Another Hard event is set for the Forum on Halloween. Video of last night's shut down is after the jump.

-- Todd Martens

-- Additional reporting by Scott T. Sterling. Photos and videos by Sterling, who posted a firsthand account on his blog.

Comments

[Bryston Ulrich]

Probably the worst and most disappointing event I've ever attended. Last year was a great event and venue. Balconies are never good for a festival like this! If they want anyone to even think of attending Haunted Mansion, they should move it back to the Shrine

[zeus]

hahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

[tanis]

As much as I like tiga, I didn't feel like going to this one, thank goodness I didn't force myself....but terribly bad and stupid location!

[Trent L]

In my lifetime I’ve been to dozens of clubs, concerts, and raves all over the world and never before have I showed up to not hear a single second of music.

Now that I reflect on everything it was a really horrible, disappointing, and scary experience. I’ve never seen an event with thousands of people already there and the show simply being stopped before it even had a chance to begin by the police. No matter what actually did prompt the show to be canceled the fact the police showed up in full riot gear to control a relatively peaceful unarmed crowd simply reinforces my belief that we live in a police state.

I really do not blame the crowd for anything that took place for the event was clearly over sold, poorly organized, under staffed, and in an inappropriate venue that was not sectioned properly. I blame the promoters and producers, as well as the police for over reacting. While the police presence was understandable, the use of riot gear was not warranted. Given the outrageous demoralizing circumstances the crowd was actually relatively peaceful.

http://trentlapinski.com/?p=871

[Da Maverick]

See what happens when the red bull and skittles run scarce?

Skiddish ravers...yikes.

[al]

Thank God i didn't go!

i just went to infocus last week, and it sucked more than this..

[Dave Park]

Here are over 100 photos from the festival/shutdown:
http://www.prefixmag.com/photos/hard-summer-2009-pics/

[cactus]

any venue that agrees to let crystal castles play is asking for bad karma

[Captain Fisheye]

Expect more of this. The police are feeling the recession too. This is how they make a living in this country. If you organize an event for a large number of people, they see it as an opportunity to collect revenue by fining and arresting as many people as possible. Music events are an easy target for them because most people who attend music events are nonviolent. There'd be too much press and many injuries and deaths if they tried this at a sporting event.
I truly hope someone comes up with a nonviolent solution to the police corruption we are seeing more and more of. Otherwise the situation can only get more frightening.

[Will]

I was hanging out in the VIP area, and around 10:15 about 200 kids burst through a back door. One of the bartenders tried to stop the cattle run, but he was lucky that he didn't get hurt. It almost felt like I was at the Running of the Bulls. Some of the kids jumped down 12 feet to the dance area, and some of them were hurt. So the party was over at that point.

[Alex]

Will after seeing all the video's and talking to many friends that actually went to the event. Its sad to say that it seems like the floor planning was not very bright and it was an accident waiting to happen. A lot of the articles that I read indicate that they stopped the music due to concertgoers jumping from the 1st tier on to the main floor. Unfortunately I hadn't seen people jump until the music was actually stopped. However many of my friends do say that there was a lot of stupid activity such as people actually trying to jump off and many fights. Which was very surprising as raves are known to have great vibes and never seen or heard of fights in a rave. One incident is the gate crashing that goes on at every event which needs to stop. Its only a matter of time that police start to get a lot more aggressive. However I have to admit that it seems like the crowed did have a lot of persuasion on the LAFD's decision. People were telling me there was a lack of security I mean no one really likes security but believe it or not they actually help the events go on. Once you let police get involved the result is always "shutdown". Unfortunately stupid stuff happens at every concert regardless if its a rave or a rock concert. Its the securities job to control the situations and allow the event to go on. Even if people were acting out of control which again should not be the cause of a shutdown where was the security and why did they allow it to get to that point? A lot of people are bashing on HARD promoters and organizers but trust me its hard to convince the city officials not to cancel an event when the PD and LAFD probably didn't want it there in the first place and they never look forward to these events. I think the POLICE and LAFD saw an opportunity to shut down an event and they did. Some people say that if everyone would of just calmed down it would of continued. I say bull I think the decision was already made when the music was turned off and the city officials got involved.

To everyone that went hopefully you still enjoyed your night and was not hurt. Also lets stop bashing on HARD as they have brought us many great events that we have all enjoyed. I do have to agree with some people about bringing it back to the shrine.

[Simon]

The ORGANIZERS are blaming the POLICE "to their astonishment" for shutting this down. The ORGANIZERS being GREEDY & OVERSELLING SHUT THE PARTY DOWN. BOYCOT HARD, NITRUS, and ask how much the Dj's had to do with putting this together. Dj Destructo ? They make this happen . Dance party with 30% of space for dancing and they wonder why people won't sit. Just GREED. I agree with the previous post, the kids were very well behaved, and WE DO LIVE IN A POLICE STATE. CALIFORNIA IS BANKRUPT and POLICE FINES are a quick money flow. " To protect and serve," when have you needed police protection or been served by them. Or have you been simply punished?

[Karadan]

Thank God i didn't go!.

[Cat]

You're think it was their first time planning an event! How can they expect 17,000 ravers to dance in the stands, when that is the only place that holds the most people? They did a terrible job organizing the event - no signs outside for helping you find will call, they didn't think to rope off the first 5 rows of the inside (to prevent people jumping over) and all of the security staff was very ill-informed as to where everything was! I left as soon as I noticed the sound booth in the middle packing up their stuff. Luckily we missed out on the riot police! If they want anyone to go to Halloween, they'll rebook at the Shrine.

[Eric K]

i paid 80 bucks to hear jack beats and crystal castles terrible set. the whole event was a mess. ...stupid forum..

[Eric K]

The only reason they had us sit for 2 hours without music is so they had time to set up the swat team with their gameplan..

[llorona]

Gary Richards was greedy and does not care about the fans that love the music and just want to have a good time. This kind of thing does not happen to other large dance events and festivals. Why? Because they care, they live the music, the fans and the culture that is dance music. There are other event companies that know how to do it the right way.

The dance music fans were awesome, they are fun, loving and not the riot kind.

Shame on you Gary Richards for bringing a bad name to dance music.

I urge for a boycott of Hard!!! I urge for a boycott of Hard!! They are not up to standard.

[Augh]

HARD = EPIC FAIL!!!
Awful promoters & Terrible sound system! LOL!

INSOMNIAC IS THE WAY TO GO!!!

[IPD]

I worked that event as one of the 'riot police'. And for those that paid top dollar for what was essentially an overpriced concert, I can understand the frustration of waiting and looking forward to an event that eventually was canceled. But to affix blame to authorities is just being plain naive. The Forum is just not a reasonable venue to hold such an event, as was evidenced by the leaping of party goers from the upper levels. Some kid broke their neck too. What did the fire department or police department have to do with these shenanigans?

As far as the police dressing up in our party gear, it's absolutely a misquote to say that the crowd was 'relatively peaceful'... truly not a blanket statement, when there were unruly types tossing bottles (plastic and glass) at us while we were fairly unprotected in our 'riot gear'...should we have smiled and hoped the rowdier types would be understanding? Or are we paid to tolerate injuries? One officer near me had a bottle smack them directly on their helmet, others had glass bottles shatter on them, with bits of glass causing minor cuts to officers. Who can they blame? Com'on folks! I was surprised to hear on the radio that the watch commander was calling so many resources, but when the event was shut down, I can see they were needed. And, we were pleased that there were not substantial injuries or any uses of force; most of the crowd was cooperative and just angry (understandable).

The next time you chose to attend a venue of this caliber, perhaps a little research would be in order to logically forecast if it is a safe location for the type of venue (i.e. it sounds like the Shrine would have been a better repeat location). That statement is not meant to provoke; but to proffer advice, so you can enjoy your concert next time!

[steve]

In this case I do think it's fair to affix blame to the authorities. An event like this should never have been booked at the Forum. I knew it was a bad venue as soon as I heard the announcement but thought that they must have figured out how to throw it (outside dance area etc). It says that the organizers had 10 meetings before the event with the Forum officials, police department and fire-why did nobody in these meetings voice these concerns or have the common sense to realize that nobody is going to want to sit at a dance party ?
Bottom line: this was the wrong venue-it was only chosen because it was cheap and the promoters were greedy. It was completely disorganized inside, security knew nothing and were useless. Why have the Forum officials not made any statements about their responsibility in Saturday's disaster?

[Elbert Reinhart]

WE CANT BLAME ANYTHING ON THE FANS. ive gotten to raves for the past 3yrs this is so far the rave and very disappointing event ive been to. HARD or Nitrus ent. really force this event up. yes, HARD SUMMER been number one on the upcoming rave for more than 2months. if you look at the flyer etc, event capacity is 15000. Nitrus ent force this event and make it into 18000s. security line up is all mess'd up. i literally saw 4security 'rolling balls' holding hands and holding girls hips. professional? Nitrus ent is doing the right thing by refunding people's money but inglewood pd made a bad move by closing the raves. they really taking risks on this. theres nothing worster than unhappy n angry raver whos on skittles mix redbull lol very dangerous. Forum is a bad choice of place.
lets hope nitrus didnt make the same mistake with the security or with their greed with hard haunted. if they do im pretty sure noone will ever trust nitrus or any other hard events.

[Gangstella]

Don't be lame.
The people who organized HARD SUMMER , worked hard to make it an amazing night for everyone. If they were greedy they wouldn't be paying the bands and refunding the fans. They care that all of us fans had a bad night, and they are trying to make up for it how they can. I wouldn't except a refund from any other company but Hard, they seem to know what they are doing. The people who rented out the Forum, they may be the ones hurting for money but everyone should be happy to be alive and to get a refund.
-Gangstella