Concert Safety - Performers Must Be Involved!

One of the most important concerns about going to concerts - especially for women and girls - is the very real fear of being physically or sexually harassed or assaulted.  A lot of stuff can happen when the lights go down, and even in broad daylight.  Perhaps the worst case of widespread violent behavior happened at Woodstock '99, when several women reported being raped and pretty much nothing was done to protect anyone's safety.  That festival, of course, turned out to be a dangerous mess by the end, with fires and destruction by a bunch of idiots, and not enough security to deal with what was happening.

The Salon article below is from Woodstock '99.  A "counselor" said there wasn't a lot he could do as he witnessed a rape of a young woman because the "big, brawny people" engaged in rape were too much for him to handle.  The article also mentions a report by a woman who said she was raped, but who appeared to have been intoxicated, so police couldn't get a clear story from her.  This is, of course, the lame excuse police give for not doing their jobs:

http://www.salon.com/1999/07/29/rape_4/

Sadly, not a lot has changed since then, except that maybe the violence has become less obvious.  Sleazy jerks know how to get away with this behavior and keep it hidden from security and other concert-goers.

Recently there was a story that Staind lead singer Aaron Lewis called out a bunch of guys for molesting a teenage girl who was crowd-surfing.  He told them he was going to make sure everyone knew who they were and was going to have the people around them beat them up if it continued.  This made me so happy to hear that a band was clearly getting involved.  Below is a link to the story with the video (NSFW due to language, but very important to watch):

http://www.pitch.com/FastPitch/archives/2014/06/02/staind-lead-singer-interrupts-rockfest-set-to-save-teenage-crowd-surfer-from-molesters

Performer involvement in making sure women and girls are protected gained a lot of momentum during the Riot Grrrl movement, which started partly in response to the problems young women were having when they went to shows and couldn't enjoy themselves because of the mosh pits and harassment.  As some of the bands of my generation start having their own children who are old enough to go to shows, they will hopefully be more aware of what is happening, and try to call out bad behavior like Aaron Lewis did.

I'm not going to create a list of things women and girls should do to protect themselves, with the stupid suggestions like not crowd-surfing, not drinking, not wearing "revealing" clothing, etc.  These lists already exist, and more importantly, they perpetuate the notion that the victims were doing something wrong and brought on their attacks or situations themselves.  What are we supposed to do, dress like an Amish person during an all-day summer festival and stand quietly in the back?  Instead, let's focus on the perpetrators NOT ENGAGING IN THE BEHAVIOR, and BETTER SECURITY to help if something bad is happening.

It appears that most venue security just want to get you in and out in an orderly fashion, and are there to protect the performers from you getting too close.  A lot of venues are too cheap to provide adequate security.  Some venues get it right, but way too many don't.

Artists, bands, and promoters have tremendous influence over what happens at their shows.  If they insist, as part of their performance contracts, that they must have a minimum ratio of security personnel-to-X number of concertgoers, it could go a long way towards making sure their fans have a good time.  Additionally, better training for security would allow them to spot people who are intoxicated or becoming violent, and prevent or handle problems immediately. 

There will likely be an argument that increased and better trained security would increase costs to put on a show, and that ticket prices would increase.  Or, that it would cut into the (usually way to high) profits that big artists and promoters make.  I would need to do a more thorough analysis of costs, but hiring 100 extra security personnel for a big festival, at $300 per day, would be $90,000 for a 3-day festival.  This is maybe $2 extra per ticket.  Or, ya know, the headlining artists and promoters could chip in and make less money - crazy, I know.

My other possibly unpopular opinion is that alcohol sales should be strictly limited at shows.  This doesn't prevent assholes from getting wasted before they get to the show, but it would greatly reduce the amount of violent and stupid behavior that goes on.  75% of the problems I see at shows are because people are under the influence.  Of course, alcohol sales are a huge money-maker as well.  Well guess what?  It also leads to a lot of people potentially having a bad experience at your venue.  Ticket sales are already suffering, and not providing a safe environment at your shows will only mean less people attending them in the long run.

I am happy to say that I personally have never been physically harassed at a show, but I know many people who have.  Ultimately, everyone in the concert business has to care enough to make safety a priority, and we, as the people paying money for tickets, have to make them care.  If these situations aren't fixed soon, there will be little left for women and girls to do but to boycott all of these events.  Let's figure out a way to work together to make sure harassment and assaults stop happening.

Comments and ideas are always welcome!

What to bring: Travel light with Velcro

I was a Girl Scout, so I always like to Be Prepared when I go to a show.  I usually have lip balm, gum, tissues, and other items on hand for myself and the people around me.  If you've been to a general admission concert - especially outdoor festivals - and you wanted to bring in more than just your wallet and keys, you may have found yourself in one of the following situations:

• Lack of pocket space to bring everything you want to bring into the venue,
• Stuff that melts in pockets, like lip balm or a tube of sunscreen,
• For women, bringing a purse and holding up the line while security inspects it (and then getting the evil eye from people like me who are like "COME ON - I WANNA GET A GOOD SPOT!!!!")

I have found what I think is a good solution: Velcro makes brightly colored One-Wrap strips that you can use to make bracelets and stick your stuff to them.  They come in 5-packs and you can use them, along with adhesive Velcro squares, to make ridiculous-looking but functional gear holders.

Below is a sample of things you can use, like sunscreen, eye drops, gum, small packs of tissues, hand sanitizer, witch hazel cleaning wipes (for your sweaty self or that front rail that's had thousands of other people's germs all over it), electrolyte tablets for your bottled water (for proper hydration, of course), and anything that could comfortably fit.  The travel section at your local drug store is a great place to find stuff.  Obviously, the Wet Ones wipes and hand sanitizer are too big for a wrist, but they are super handy if you have a pocket.

First, stick the scratchy Sticky-Back squares to your stuff (the soft side doesn't work with the wraps):

Then, wrap the One-Wrap around your wrist, like so:

Then stick the stuff to your bracelet (below left), and you are stylin' and ready for anything!  The wrap and sticky squares are really strong and surprisingly comfortable.  I had no skin irritation when I tried them on.  I didn't test the wrap when I was really sweaty, but it is easily adjustable, or you can attach it to a belt loop (below right) or key ring.

The only problem I had is that they aren't super long, so I wasn't able to wrap one around my upper arm, but I'm sure you could attach a few together if you really wanted to.  A bonus is that security can spend less time searching you because everything is out in the open. 

Of course, you may think that this is totally silly, but you'll be everyone's best friend when they really need something that you just happen to have with you.  And even if you make fun of me, I'll still let you borrow my sunscreen.

Happy concert-going!