‘Getting barricade’ is the death of live music
Most people would see the process of going to a gig as getting ready, meeting up with your mates, going for a few drinks at the pub, and only really thinking about getting to the venue once the support act’s on stage.
Unfortunately, that’s becoming a bit of an old hack way of doing things. As the scale of shows in the current landscape keeps getting larger, and audiences are subsequently turning out in their droves upon droves, that’s started causing a sense of anxiety in certain fans that should never have come to be.
In some cases, the preparation involved in going to a show, which would ordinarily only take up no more than a few hours for most, is now starting days in advance. Camping outside, not washing, trying to get by on limited food and water…it sounds more like an episode of Survivor than it does a bunch of people sitting outside the O2 Arena. To be clear, this is absolutely not an invitation to start a pile-on towards any particular demographic of people or artist fanbase.
From my own perspective, I have long considered my own consumption of music to veer into the territory of being a fangirl, and even written at length in defence of it. I truly understand the hype and excitement that exists with seeing your favourite acts in the flesh. What is going much too far, however, is fans taking their commitment to a show from the disgusting to the downright dangerous. At the end of the day, if you’re at the front of a crowd and you stink, have wet yourself, and then end up passing out, therefore disrupting the actual show at hand, can you really say this was a worthwhile experience?
It might seem an absurd concept to some, but the social media-coined fight to the death of ‘getting barricade’ is truly causing a spiral towards the death of live music as we know it. It might come across like there’s no overt harm in it, given that hardcore fans are hardly a new phenomenon, but there is a far more serious point beneath this that we are reaching a place of no return.
There is an odd sense of competition among fandoms that is increasingly permeating the space nowadays, where only those who have been to the most shows, camped out the longest, and got to the front of the barricade most often are seen as the most devoted. Not only is this creating an unhealthy imbalance and, on occasion, parasocial behaviour that borders on stalking, but it’s also creating an entirely unrealistic illusion.
For younger or more impressionable gig-goers, it is the start of a slippery slope. Take, for example, someone for whom dedicating that much time and energy to a show would be physically impossible, like a person with a health condition or disability. The fact that they are made to feel like a lesser fan because they can’t camp, or their only option is to purchase seated tickets rather than the standing area, is entirely wrong.
This is also not to mention the countless health and safety hazards that the culture has given rise to. Forgive me for being uncouth here, but it bears explicitly saying, when we’ve reached a point where Noah Kahan is having to plead with his fans on stage not to shit themselves in the crowd, something has gone seriously wayward.
It’s a horrendously grim example, but sadly, it’s not the only one of its kind. Olivia Rodrigo recently admitted to frequently smelling the contents of nappies while she’s performing, owing to the fact that fans are so desperate not to lose their spot at the front of the crowd that they’ll refuse to use the venue’s toilet facilities or, even worse, let it all go in the open.
Some might say that artists addressing this is only going to make it run riot even more, but to be entirely fair, whether it’s to save their nostrils or their sanity, something has to be done. After all, while the whole toileting debacle might be a bizarrely humorous, if also downright disgusting, situation, it’s masking something far darker at hand. It’s a horrendous thing to have to contemplate, but with a combination of fans putting themselves in unsafe positions by camping outside, not eating and drinking, and with toxic bodily fluids circulating in busy spaces, it feels like only a matter of time before something truly unthinkable is going to happen.
Ultimately, no one should return from a gig with a serious illness, or not come home at all. But with the way that certain groups of fans handle the issue of getting to the front of a gig, you would think there genuinely was a life or death issue on the cards. Between elaborate systems and self-made queues that are impossible to police, they can make a real rod for their own back.
But the people you really have to feel sorry for here are the venue staff. They are the ones forced to disperse early queues, deal with belligerent fans, clean up their messes, and, at the end of it all, frequently haul them over the barricade they fought tooth and nail for after they’ve collapsed.
Once again, I will repeat a similar point: no one should have to put themselves at risk while doing their job, particularly when that’s working at a music venue. It all really boils down to one thing, though, which is that fans don’t see anyone as human at a gig anymore, whether that’s the artist, the venue workers, or even themselves. Wanting to get to the front of a gig is one thing, but risking your own safety, as well as that of everyone around you, while encouraging others to do the same, is entirely another.
There’s a reason that certain shows have been forced to seemingly extreme measures, like most venues banning queuing before the morning of the day of the concert, or Louis Tomlinson introducing a numbered lottery system, so that fans will be allocated a random order to be admitted to the venue, no matter how early they try to show up. While it’s obviously positive that steps are being taken, it should never have had to happen in the first place; people only need be logical and sensible.
On one hand, it’s the sign of the world going insane and the enjoyment being sucked out of the most wholesome things. But above all else, it’s about some music fans thinking they are better or more entitled than others, and it has to stop.
