Gunshot causes stampede at US music festival
Reported gunfire sent festivalgoers into a stampede at Musikfest in Pennsylvania on Saturday night (13 August), prompting police to temporarily shut down the area.
The annual 10-day music festival in the Leigh Valley town of Bethlehem was wrapping up its penultimate night when a gunshot was heard near Main and Lehigh Streets.
Alarmed by the shooting, attendees were reportedly sent into a panic that led to several being injured in a crowdsurge.
One attendee told local newspaper The Morning Call that “no one knew” what was happening and in the midst of the stampede she saw people fall and get stepped on.
“I tried helping [someone] up. He couldn’t catch his breath. He was bleeding profusely on his hands”
She continued: “I tried helping [someone] up. He couldn’t catch his breath. He was bleeding profusely on his hands, so I tried to help them as much as I could. I thought maybe he was in a fight. The bleeding was coming a lot from his knuckles but it turned out it was because they stepped on his hands.”
It’s unclear how many people were involved in the shooting but Bethlehem police chief Michelle Kott said “law enforcement [was] on site and in control of the situation”, and that there was “no known continuing threat to the public”.
Kott described the shooting as an “isolated incident” and said that an investigation had been launched.
The festival was shut down Saturday night as a precaution but was authorised to reopen on Sunday.
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AEG acquires leading US indie PromoWest
AEG Presents has acquired leading US independent promoter PromoWest Productions.
Columbus, Ohio-based PromoWest, founded by Scott Stienecker in 1983, is the largest independent concert business in the American Midwest, and formerly one of the US’s most prominent remaining indie promoters.
PromoWest runs Express Live! (2,300-cap. indoor/5,200-cap. outdoor) in Columbus and Stage AE (2,400-cap. indoor/5,500-cap. outdoor) in Pittsburgh, and books and operates Columbus’s Newport Music Hall, the Basement and A&R Music and owns Bunbury Music Festival in Cincinnati.
The acquisition comes a year after AEG’s buy-out of the Agora Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio, and five months after rival Live Nation bought an independent regional promoter of its own, Texas’s ScoreMore Shows.
“After getting to know AEG Presents and their senior management, it became more and more clear to me that both of our organisations were built from a common entrepreneurial spirit and culture. I am certain this partnership is right for PromoWest and AEG Presents is truly the right fit for us,” comments Stienecker, who will run PromoWest as a division of AEG.
“Scott and his team have built an incredibly respected organisation with a proven track record of success”
“I believe our partnership with AEG Presents will provide us an additional collection of resources and assets that will allow us to continue to build on our achievements and take our company to an even higher level.”
Shawn Trell, executive vice-president and COO of AEG Presents, adds: “PromoWest and AEG Presents share a passion and commitment to delivering the best music experiences to fans. Scott and his team have built an incredibly respected organisation with a proven track record of success and we are pleased that they chose to partner with us.
“We look forward to working closely with them to continue to deliver first class concert experiences and further grow the PromoWest brand.”
Upcoming PromoWest shows include Parliament-Funkadelic (Stage AE), St Lucia (Newport Music Hall), Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats (Express Live!), Django Django (Newport Music Hall), Years and Years (Stage AE) and Owl City (Express Live!).
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