1999: Woodstock
This ’99 iteration of the famous festival was held in Utica, New York, and was from the start bound to be more unhinged and aggressive than the previous 1969 and 1994 editions. Riding on the evolving hard rock trend, they headlined rock titans like Metallica, Korn, and Limp Bizkit, alongside politically charged band Rage Against the Machine. With people characterizing the new wave of “hippie” as allegedly violent, it seemed like the festival was bound to fail.
The list of things that went wrong over the three-day event is lengthy, but anything you could think of that could go wrong, went wrong: from high temperatures making water indispensable and the festival charging $4 a bottle to long toilet queues, from performers throwing money in the crowd and creating a stampede to overcrowding due to people entering with fake bracelets. There are reports of sexual assaults from the event as well, as some of the male attendees prayed on their female counterparts, alongside some starting fires because they thought performers encourage them to do so in their songs.
Needless to say, the whole festival was a bust and the saddest part is that people expected it to end up like this, but still pushed through with it.
2012: Bloc Festival
London’s Block Festival was meant to be a two-day extravaganza of some of the biggest hip-hop names to date, including the likes of Snoop Dogg, DOOM, and famous producers and DJs, like Ricardo Villalobos and Flying Lotus. However, the execution of the festival brought about disastrous results.
On the first day, people showed up early to the site only to have to wait in line for almost two hours, which frustrated some attendees and made them jump over the barriers. Once inside, the situation lacked control and it was obvious that the site was not properly prepared for the number of people attending: the bars ran out of drinks and the tents put up became impossibly crowded fast making it a horrible experience for the ones attending. The second day was canceled due to safety concerns, a very good choice on the part of the organizers.
Part of the reason for this disastrous organization was the venue, as the London Pleasure Gardens promised that they will have the site The Hub ready to host 2,800 people by the date, only for them to reverse this claim two weeks prior to the event. Coupled with the fact that part of the Gardens was closed due to pre-Olympics constructions, it created the “bound to fail” situation that became true in the end.
