The ingenious way Eminem prevented a crowd crush disaster
Crowd crushes can be really serious incidents, with the potential to lead to serious injury and even death. Concerts are obviously susceptible to these disasters, but there are certain things performers can do to help alleviate the dangers. Eminem, according to one expert on the subject, has proven himself to be especially skilled in such scenarios.
The subject of crowd crushes at gigs was brought into stark focus in November 2021, after ten people were killed in one at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival. Scott was later cleared by a Texas grand jury of criminal responsibility for the disaster, but, around the time it happened, he was subject to a lot of criticism.
Chuck D of Public Enemy was among Scott’s defenders following the tragedy. He argued in an open letter that Scott, as a young Black man, was being blamed for the incident, while “the old white men running the corps that Travis and his fans trusted with their lives stay quiet in the shadows, counting their money and watching their stock prices go up and up.”
Chuck primarily blamed Live Nation for the incident, making a point about corporations shirking their responsibilities and blaming scapegoats when things go wrong. He wasn’t necessarily saying that Scott, as the performer on stage when the crush happened, was totally blameless. Indeed, there are those who think Scott could and should have done things differently.
In the immediate aftermath of the Astroworld disaster, a crowd management expert, Dr Gil Fried, spoke to CNN about some measures that performers can take to help alleviate potentially dangerous pressure within crowds. To help illustrate his point, he mentioned an incident that once occurred at an Eminem gig.
“I handled a case a number of years ago with Eminem where there was a crowd rush at an Eminem concert down South,” Dr Fried said. “And a number of people got injured, and he ended up making a game out of it.”
This “game” that Eminem started playing was actually a way of relieving pressure in the crowd. According to Dr Fried, Em told the crowd, “Okay, everyone, I’m going to start a new dance with you. Okay. Two steps back, one step forward, two steps back, one step forward.”
By doing that, Eminem was helping to create space for the people in the crowd that were being pressed against the barricade. He helped to get the crowd to synchronise, to move together in a way that created space, and, by making it a game, also to ease any sense of panic that might have been bubbling.
Dr Fried admired Em’s technique, and he believed that other artists should be able to do something similar. “Artists can do that,” he argued, “and that’s not going to trigger a mob. People are going to be respectful and listen to that.”