Riots at Iron Maiden concert in Bogotá

*rubbing my eyes*

WTF? I even saw Maiden on the public television this morning. On the news, playing in Bogota. Too bad the news is negative, but they'll survive that alright.
 
This is a perfect example of what happens when a venue sells completely over-priced "VIP" tickets. This needs to stop and all shows go back to General Admission. That way, the true, crazy fans that WANT to be close to the stage but maybe don't have the money have a chance to make their way up there without causing this kind of fuss. I'm sure 99% of the "fans" that could pay to get those VIP seats aren't hearty enough to hold their own up there without a fence anyway.
 
In 2008 Maiden played in the same park. Check out this segment of Rod's diary of that gig:

... Back to the show, where I was at the mixing desk when Rob our lighting operator called me over so say he had been told by the authorities that he had to put the house lights up as the crowd was too crazy. This seemed strange to me as they looked to be having a wild and exuberant time to me and it all had a sense of joy, no violence or intimidation at all. So I quickly made my way backstage to find what we really happening. At first we were told there were 5000 wild fans who could not get tickets had stormed the police and the barricades and fences around the ground causing so much trouble that the police had to bring in water cannons and gas. This was why the house lights were on and I could fully see why so didn't complain -- however there seemed to be no hint of a violent air or anything in the audience. But in a situation like this I would always take the precaution of getting our guests off the out front mixing desk and backstage so sent some security round to do so. The concert continued uninhibited and with a magnificent reaction by the now increased audience of some 46,000!!

There was however a problem getting out of the venue due to the gathering of ticketless fans outside still who would swamp the band vans -- no intention to do any harm but on the other hand we wanted to get to the bar. So we sent out 2 decoy vans on the usual route -- poor guys they were held up and couldn't move for hours. Soon after the decoy we went a longer route with an extended Police escort of 2 cars and 8 bikes whizzing through Bogota at great speed in convoy. Wow , this really was memorable. An exciting end to a really exciting show.

Ended up in the bar for a while and later found out that what happened was there were over 5000 ticketless fans outside trying to get in being very "troublesome", unlike our fans but l suppose they were desperate to see the show. To ease the pressure the military let in about 1500 -- they apparently didn't think there was room for more and there probably wasn't. There were some injuries but according to local papers the next day -- which carried us on the front pages across the board -- there was nothing serious and it all seemed to pass off without too much comment which is l think a good thing as Colombia does not need that right now. Everything I saw of crowd and security was cool, the fans having a great time -- and we could really see that with the surrounding lights on them -- and noone bothering them, and I walked around quite a bit.

As l said, magnificent crowd, beautiful country -- we will return one day!!!! ...
 
Wow! Well it is Columbia. I guess in the future (since the fan presence is so extreme), the boys should consider playing 2 or perhaps 3 nights there. As bad as situations like this are, they are a great enough band to command that kind of fan loyalty.... to a lesser extent mind you, it is kind of sad that they don't get similar reactions everywhere.
 
Forostar said:
Ended up in the bar for a while and later found out that what happened was there were over 5000 ticketless fans outside trying to get in being very "troublesome", unlike our fans but l suppose they were desperate to see the show. To ease the pressure the military let in about 1500 -- they apparently didn't think there was room for more and there probably wasn't. There were some injuries but according to local papers the next day -- which carried us on the front pages across the board -- there was nothing serious and it all seemed to pass off without too much comment which is l think a good thing as Colombia does not need that right now. Everything I saw of crowd and security was cool, the fans having a great time -- and we could really see that with the surrounding lights on them -- and noone bothering them, and I walked around quite a bit.

As l said, magnificent crowd, beautiful country -- we will return one day!!!! ... [/size]

They let in 1500 ticketless fans? Well, crowd control seems to be a bit of a headache in this part of the world, but similar situations have led to tragedy in Europe as well. I guess many on here remember (or have at least heard of) the Hillsborough disaster in which 96 football fans were crushed to death. All down to poor crowd control.

Good that nobody was seriously injured.
 
Here is the official band response:

The news from Bogota is wildly exaggerated. We are now in beautiful Quito for a show tomorrow.  Everyone is just fine. The "riots" were basically a lot of kids trying to break into the Simon Bolivar Park to see the show and the park has a big perimeter to protect. There is a large military presence for all concerts in Bogota as can be seen in our forthcoming movie Flight 666.  However in the last 13 months we have played 2 fantastic concerts there to over 75,000 passionate fans at this same venue, Simon Bolivar Park. Neither performance was at all affected by the incidents of people outside trying to break in.  None of the enjoyment of the show or safety of the band or our audiences was at all compromised.

We abhor the inane behaviour of a small minority of people outside. They do Iron Maiden, Metal and the real Colombian fans a disservice and sadly just provide a reason for the military to feel they need to be there.

Our fans are there for the MUSIC. We definitely intend to return to Colombia and trust the authorities will not be swayed to banning Maiden and Metal because of a minority of trouble makers spoiling it for the huge majority of true Iron Maiden fans.

ROD SMALLWOOD, MANAGER
 
Somehow, the term "rioting heavy metal fans" seems like it could get a lot of attention. Strange that it hasn't been in any European media.
 
Really?  I haven't seen it on CNN, or Finnish media, and neither on BBC; but I checked those again now and found it on BBC.  I must have missed it.
 
I saw it on CNN...

Just a fragment-type mentioning...

Guess it's because it's not one of the "important" country's...

"Riots down there happen daily... don't they..?"
 
Yeah, they eat people in Bogota. It's too close to Africa.
 
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