Some attendants were pushed, shoved and stepped on during this year’s AMS Block Party.
On Friday, April 8, the AMS held its annual end-of-year concert, Block Party, in the plaza outside the Nest. Over 6,000 students gathered in a tightly-knit crowd.
This year’s Block Party also faced controversy after pieces of trash were left behind, littering the plaza between the Nest and the Hebb Building.
Luke Forrester, a second-year student, told The Ubyssey that the crowd near the front of the stage looked extremely condensed. The shoving and pushing escalated to a point where Loud Luxury and bbno$ had to stop their sets — but the shoving still continued.
“God it was insane. Not safe in any way of crowd spacing,” he said.
Forrester also said his friend was pushed over and stepped on at one point during the event.
He said he has been in crowded groups before and understands that there is a certain expectation of physical contact at any concert, but that stepping on people was extreme.
“If you can't be aware of your surroundings at all, to the point where you're stepping on people, then you shouldn't be there. You should be pulled out,” he said.
Khushi Almoula, a third-year student who also attended the Block Party, said she thinks the pushing and shoving was standard for Block Party, but that the space was too small for the amount of people in attendance.
“Normally at a concert, even if there’s no space at the front, you can sit down in the back. But because there are so many food trucks and washrooms, towards the end people were just standing on the hill, and it got a little unsafe in that sense,” she described.
Though Almoula witnessed no injuries or accidents herself, she said she would not be confident going into the crowd without a friend.
In a written statement to The Ubyssey, AMS Senior Communications and Marketing Manager Eric Lowe said attendees were well-behaved for the most part, but that the AMS has a zero-tolerance policy for inappropriate behaviour[.] He said[ ]it is difficult to monitor everything that might take place at a large event, but that security would act immediately if anything inappropriate is spotted.
“In total, our security team evicted 49 students for various infractions including intoxication, drugs and inappropriate/unsafe behaviour; the RCMP attended to about half a dozen of those incidents as well,” said Lowe.
Share this article
