Since pandemic-era restrictions lifted in 2021, live performance etiquette has been a sizzling subject amongst reside music followers.
The complaints vary far and broad: Fixed cellphone use. Throwing “items” on the stage, generally even hitting the artist. And most lately, in response to musicians Olivia Rodrigo and Noah Kahan, sporting diapers to keep away from going to the lavatory and dropping a spot.
However whereas sporting diapers (for non-medical causes) is slightly disagreeable — do you wish to upset your fellow followers and Rodrigo personally? — a regarding factor many concertgoers have began discussing extra is folks passing out within the crowd to the purpose of halting the live performance — generally as a result of dehydration and exhaustion after in a single day tenting to get to the entrance of a barricade, like Phoebe Bridgers followers in 2022.
“One thing is going on on this tour that now we have by no means, ever skilled earlier than, which is that we’re seeing extra folks than ever both go out or have panic assaults within the viewers,” singer Maggie Rogers stated in 2023.
This reporter watched Lorde cease her 2025 Berkeley present a number of instances to permit medical workers to assist somebody out of the crowded normal admission part on the entrance — the singer patiently ready for the viewers member to be escorted safely out.
In a day and age the place tickets price an arm and a leg, this reporter can considerably perceive the need to take advantage of out of an expertise. And to place the blame completely on fan conduct can be unfair. For instance, water bottles in stadiums will be expensive (though many provide refill stations now), and excessive climate circumstances, particularly warmth, have additionally led to folks fainting.
However whereas it could appear to followers like there’s been a post-pandemic improve in questionable live performance conduct, all the things — diapers, speeding the barricade, avoiding consuming to save lots of a spot — has truly been a part of fan conduct for generations, in response to Gordon Oldham, managing director of Rock Medication (a program of Well being Proper 360), which has labored festivals like San Francisco’s Outdoors Lands.
The truth is, he stated, the concept of Rock Medication began in 1972, a number of years after the Summer time of Love, when founder Skip Homosexual and the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic had been requested to assist out with two large out of doors concert events that includes the Grateful Lifeless and Led Zeppelin.
“The town of San Francisco was type of going, ‘Holy crap.’ As a result of what most individuals don’t understand is that solely roughly 20% of the live performance goers — and that’s nonetheless most likely just a little excessive — reside within the native space,” he stated. “Seventy to 80% come from exterior the world. Our infrastructure is constructed to deal with the those who reside within the metropolis.
If you’re going to a present any time quickly — be it a significant stadium present or out of doors music pageant like Outdoors Lands or Daisy Chain Fields down in Southern California — and also you are usually the accountable member of the pal group, right here’s what you must take note for you and your family members when attending.
This information is primarily for many who don’t have a historical past of fainting. Remember to try KQED’s information on Outdoors Lands to be taught extra in regards to the pageant’s choices for accessibility.
First off: What’s occasion medication?
The oldsters on the first support or medical tents are generally volunteer or staffed docs, nurses and EMTs with a company devoted to occasion medication — also called crowd medication.
“We work as a medical clinic on website, an pressing care clinic,” Oldham stated. “We’re capable of sew folks up, repair them up, get them higher, hydrate them if we have to and get them again out to the present.”
Oldham emphasised that over Rock Medication’s 50-plus years of expertise, solely a small proportion of the viewers finally ends up on the medical tent or sales space. However they’ve seen all of it — impacts from warmth, alcohol, the widespread chilly.
“We’re used to plenty of vomit,” he stated. “We’re used to folks not blissful and unhappy and crying. However all people tries to be very cheerful, blissful and provides them one of the best expertise attainable with medication.”
“The issues we see essentially the most are low-acuity widespread issues like bronchial asthma exacerbations, journeys and falls, abrasions and lacerations and cuts, stomach ache,” stated Matt Friedman, an emergency medication doctor and nationwide medical director for CrowdRx, which gives medical assist to venues like Chase Middle, SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and Madison Sq. Backyard in New York.
“The adrenaline surges and emotional highs — and persons are simply so excited that they neglect to eat and drink,” he stated. “However at some factors, regardless of how younger and vivacious you might be, sooner or later that surge is gonna dampen just a little bit.”
What occurs while you do go out?
Age-wise, visits to the medical tent range, however Oldham stated “the bulk” are usually youthful followers.
“Youthful followers that haven’t been there, haven’t achieved that earlier than,” he stated. “It’s all new to them, and so they spent a bazillion {dollars} to go see this artist, and so they wish to be as shut as they’ll.
“However in case you don’t deal with your self, you find yourself with us, and then you definately don’t see them in any respect,” he stated.
“We see it amongst youthful followers, however we additionally see it amongst the aged as effectively, who kind of undergo as effectively from standing in positions ready for the present to open and from the solar publicity,” Friedman stated.
By the point the headliner comes up — “whether or not it’s Lorde or Billie Eilish or ACDC, I don’t care who it’s” — no less than six to seven followers who’ve been standing in entrance of the barricade all day lengthy are going to expertise a “sinkable episode,” Oldham stated.
“Individuals assume they’ve a seizure,” Oldham stated. “They only have a fast go out as a result of their physique’s had sufficient, and that’s telling you, ‘Hey, you gotta deal with your self.’”
Friedman stated that more often than not, “passing out is a fairly benign expertise” and there are “no long-term dangerous results.”
“It’s like an grownup Disneyland for a weekend the place there’s all these cool issues and various things that they’ll go do and see,” he stated. “And in case you don’t put together for the three days prematurely, it’s gonna meet up with you.”
He stated folks ought to attempt to hydrate with extra than simply water — something with electrolytes, similar to Gatorade or Liquid IV packs. If somebody goes to a number of days of a pageant, they need to return house that evening with the intention of hydrating themselves earlier than mattress and getting ready for the subsequent day.
Oldham stated most venues permit for a refillable water bottle and a few have water stations, the place followers can fill their containers free of charge. (Remember to verify what sort of bottles are allowed at a stadium or venue — for instance, some locations ban glass bottles.)
“We would like folks to eat like they usually would and drink like they usually would and actually put together for the present understanding that they’re gonna be standing for a number of hours on finish,” Friedman stated.
Know what to do within the warmth
Whereas San Francisco particularly isn’t recognized for having excessive warmth waves like some elements of the Bay Space, consultants say that even 85 levels will be harmful for folks.
Remember to loosen up within the shade, Oldham stated, keep out of the solar for some durations of time and put on sunscreen.
He additionally really useful reducing down alcohol and soda consumption throughout the hottest elements of the day. Oldham famous that youthful crowds aren’t massive drinkers, but when they had been to devour alcohol, they need to attempt to have water afterward.
Warmth exhaustion is what occurs when the physique loses an excessive amount of water and salt, and indicators of it embody cramps, headache, nausea, tiredness or dizziness.
To get fast aid, followers can cool their physique’s pulse factors, such because the again of their neck, the within of their elbows and behind their knees.
(Though bear in mind, if the pageant you might be heading to is Outdoors Lands, know that Golden Gate Park can get unpredictably chilly. Remember to have layers readily available.)
Don’t lock your knees
Go to the lavatory
As Oldham stated, “It’s not good to carry our physique fluids, so go to the restroom.”
In keeping with College of Michigan neuro-urologist Giulia Ippolito, “Normal steerage is that you must empty your bladder each three to 4 hours when you’re awake, assuming you’re consuming a standard quantity in an everyday day.”
There are eventualities the place folks attempt to keep away from that, like lengthy highway journeys, however Ippolito warned that holding your pee for lengthy durations of time may result in a urinary tract an infection.
Have a pal with you
Oldham stated having a delegated individual within the group to verify everybody will get house protected can also be important.
“I don’t assume anyone ought to go by themselves,” Oldham stated. “At a pageant particularly, you must have a bunch of associates that you simply’re with always.”
If you and your group stroll in, he stated to be sure to know the place the exits are and that you simply do have an exit technique or a gathering place in case of an emergency.
Be cautious about leisure medicine
Each medical professionals suggest avoiding leisure medicine — however each acknowledge the truth of their presence at music festivals and concert events and say that Narcan is obtainable at first support stations.
“I’m very sincere with my children,” Oldham stated. “Don’t let any individual offer you something. Should you don’t know them, and if it’s open, don’t drink out of that bottle.”
“In the event that they do partake in leisure substances — which we don’t suggest — you’ll want to do it with a bunch of others as a result of there’s security in numbers,” Friedman stated. “The benefit of that, clearly, is that if the leisure substance is laced with fentanyl; hopefully any individual can have Narcan or can alert any individual.”
However the issues aren’t simply fentanyl — stimulants like MDMA can deliver up folks’s physique temperatures extremely excessive and should require consideration, Friedman stated.
Know what to do in crowds
If you’re going to a pageant like Outdoors Lands, be ready for big — typically overwhelming — crowds, particularly on the headlining exhibits. Many might also worry crushes, by which a crowd turns into harmful and might result in deaths, like the Halloween celebration tragedy in South Korea in 2022.
“The extra limitations you might have and engineering controls to stop too many individuals from going into too crowded of an space, the higher,” Friedman stated. “At instances we bemoan safety measures, which takes a very long time to get into the venue. Nevertheless, it’s fairly essential to make sure crowd security.”
Whereas being in a seated space is safer than an open discipline or normal admission part, followers ought to all the time keep conscious of their environment and know the place safety is positioned, he stated.
“If the gang begins getting too rowdy or too tough, or there’s an excessive amount of pushing, and there’s not sufficient safety personnel or measures round, it’s very prudent to go away,” he stated. “Everybody ought to actually have a 1- to 2-foot perimeter on the minimal from different folks.”
As soon as that area is misplaced, followers ought to take into consideration transferring to get a greater view farther away to take care of their security.
If a crush had been to happen, you will need to keep in your ft and take a look at “placing your arms in your chest” so as “to present your chest wall some room to rise as a way to breathe.”
Mehdi Moussaïd, a analysis scientist who research crowd conduct, additionally spoke to NPR about crowds after the South Korea incident and stated that folks ought to attempt to keep away from pushing, since that might set off a sequence response.
“However hopefully it doesn’t come to that,” Friedman stated. “If it involves that, that kind of late stage, at that time, we actually need folks to begin transferring out of the world, contact safety professionals.”
