Ninth Person Dies From Roskilde Injuries; Pete Townshend Reacts

July 5, 2000 03:00 PM
update: A 24-year-old Australian man died on Wednesday (7/5) of injuries suffered during a crowd crush last Friday (6/30) at Denmark’s Roskilde festival.

To date, nine people have succumbed to injuries suffered when a crowd of fans attending a Pearl Jam performance pressed forward while several people near the stage reportedly lost their footing on muddy ground amid the crush.

The band, who reportedly called for the crowd to step back early in their set, aborted the show when they were told that the situation near the stage had become grave.

The victim who died on Wednesday had been breathing with the assistance of a respirator since the incident, according to an Associated Press report.

Over the weekend, Pearl Jam issued a statement calling the situation a “horrible nightmare.” The band later cancelled the remaining two shows of its European tour.

Oasis and the Pet Shop Boys jointly cancelled their performances on Saturday in honor of the victims and in criticism of the festival's security measures. Roskilde officials in turn issued a statement criticizing the bands for not performing.

On Sunday (7/2), Pete Townshend posted a message to his official website saying that he spoke to Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder after the incident. The Who endured a similar situation in 1979, when 11 fans were trampled to death as a crowd surged onto the grounds of a general admission concert.

“I spoke yesterday to Eddie Vedder,” Townshend wrote. “I don’t want to say anymore than that. I passed on what I knew The Who had done wrong after the Cincinnati disaster--in a nutshell, I think we left too soon, and I spoke too angrily to the press and without proper consideration of the fact that the people who deserved respect were the dead and their families.

“Luckily Pearl Jam and their management have stayed in Denmark, and cancelled subsequent shows. Other bands have also marked some respect by refusing to play."

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