Man dies after New York concert backflip
A man has died after falling from a balcony at a Dead and Company concert in New York last Friday.
Drinks entrepreneur Ian Crystal, 46, fell up to 50’ (15m) onto concrete after allegedly attempting a backflip during an interval at the show, held at the 42,000-capacity Citi Field stadium on 20 August.
According to local media, Brooklyn resident Crystal was found unresponsive at the scene after hitting the ground headfirst.
Crystal (pictured) , who is thought to have jumped from a second-floor concourse, was pronounced dead at arrival at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Queens, the New York Post reports.
“Our deepest and heartfelt condolences go out to all the attendee’s loved ones”
A driver outside the stadium said he saw the man later identified as Crystal “flip” before falling and slamming into the ground below, the Post adds.
Harold Kaufman, a spokesperson for the New York Mets, who play at Citi Field, told CNN the following day: “We are aware of a tragic incident which sadly resulted in a fatality last night. Our deepest and heartfelt condolences go out to all the attendee’s loved ones.”
Crystal was the CEO of Evolution Spirits, which produces Monkey Spiced Rum, and formerly worked with brands including Abolsut Vodka, Malibu Rum, and Stoli Vodka, collaborating with artists including Jay-Z, Swedish House Mafia and Ne-Yo.
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BTS to make history with New York stadium show
K-pop stars BTS will make history this autumn as the first Korean artists to play a stadium show in the US. The highly anticipated stop on their Love Yourself world tour will see them play at the 40,000-capacity Citi Field in New York, home of the New York Mets baseball team, on 6 October.
The announcement of an American stadium show is the latest piece of history made by Korean seven-piece. In May, BTS became the first K-pop act to top the US album charts – Love Yourself, the fifth release from the band, sold a total of 135,000 copies in the US in its first week.
Top tier tickets are expected to fetch $250.00 each.
The Love Yourself world tour, which kicks off on 25 August in Seoul’s Olympic stadium, will see the boy-band make 33 stops across 16 cities in Asia, Europe and North America. All of the currently-released stops on the tour are sold out, including a four-night stint at Los Angeles’ Staples Center and two shows at the O2 in London.
BTS’s RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook are not the only Korean performers enjoying success outside of their native South Korea. For some years now, K-pop has enjoyed a seemingly exponential growth in fans from all over Europe, Australasia and the Americas. Acts such as Big Bang, Girls’ Generation and Exo have been the driving force behind the ‘Korean wave’.
Tickets for the historic New York stadium show will go on sale on 17 August at 16.00 EDT (21.00 BST). Top tier tickets are expected to fetch US$250 each.
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Founders festival The Meadows off to rocky start
The Meadows, the latest contribution to New York’s increasingly crowded festival scene from Governors Ball promoter Founders Entertainment, has come under fire from local politicians for falsely claiming the endorsement the city’s parks department.
In its launch press release, the festival, which will take place in the car park of the Citi Field stadium, said it had the backing of the Flushing Meadows Corona Park Alliance – a parks department initiative, launched by New York mayor Bill de Blasio in November, to support and promote the upkeep of the Queens park of the same name – something it’s emerged isn’t the case.
Councillor Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, whose district includes the park, said in a statement: “I met with Founders Entertainment to hear their proposals and tell them they must engage more stakeholders to build support for this festival. I was troubled to see them then claim the Flushing Meadows Corona Park Alliance as a partner when the alliance is not a partner and was never consulted about this event.”
The claim has since been removed from The Meadows website.
“We are just starting to engage with local stakeholders and apologise if we misrepresented the status of those conversations previously”
Ferreras-Copeland also said there are “serious concerns about the impact of a music festival on our community, including how this would impact Maker Faire, an existing and popular event in the same park on the same days. Founders must engage around issues like traffic, safety and economic impact before it earns our community’s support.”
Dan Wempa, vice-president of the New York Hall of Science, which hosts Maker Faire, also criticised Founders, telling the Queens Times Ledger his event will now be unable to use the Citi Field car park for overflow parking.
In a statement, Founders said “We are just starting to engage with local stakeholders, look forward to announcing these plans shortly and apologise if we misrepresented the status of those conversations previously.”
The New York festival market is a key battleground between ‘big two’ promoters Live Nation and AEG Live this year: Live Nation acquired Founders in early April, not long after AEG-owned Goldenvoice announced plans for its own New York festival, Panorama, set for 22 to 24 July.
Kanye West, Chance the Rapper, The Weeknd and Kygo will headline The Meadows, on 1 and 2 October. Here’s the line-up so far:
