Rolling Loud Germany debut marred by crowd trouble

Rolling Loud’s debut in Germany was marred by a spate of incidents, with police describing a “remarkably aggressive” mood among the festival audience.

Live Nation and Austrian promoter Leutgeb Entertainment Group teamed up to bring the hip-hop brand to Germany for the first time last weekend.

Wizkid, Kendrick Lamar and Travis Scott headlined the event at the Munich Exhibition Center from 7-9 July. However, police say nine stewards were injured on the first day after being pelted by bottles and stones by festivalgoers, leading one security firm to withdraw from the site. The scenes led performances on the festival’s second stage having to be brought to a premature end.

There were also reports of overcrowding during the event, resulting in “isolated cases of panic attacks and crush injuries”.

“As a result, the police forces deployed had to support the tasks of the security service in front of the stage area on the premises,” says Munich police. “After a brief interruption of the concert for security reasons, stones and bottles were thrown at the police. There were no injured officers since the forces wore helmets and protective equipment.”

“While the event went largely smoothly, individual aggressive visitors triggered unprovoked incidents”

The situation is said to have calmed by the evening on day two, with the last day of the event, which was attended by around 45,000 people, passing off as planned. Organisers blamed “individual aggressive visitors” for the trouble.

“While the event went largely smoothly, individual aggressive visitors triggered unprovoked incidents,” says a statement by Live Nation GSA MD Andre Lieberberg, as per Rolling Stone Germany.

“At the festival we responded to the problems as directly and professionally as possible. Our efforts have always been to comply with all official requirements and we were in constant contact with the police, fire brigade and [district administration department] the KVR.

“The event concept has proven to be coherent, including intensive security precautions. The individual incidents were quickly remedied through increased security measures.”

Launched in 2015, Rolling Loud has grown from a one-day event in Miami into the world’s largest hip-hop festival franchise, with a presence in the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Portugal.

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