Earlier this month The Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting, occurring approximately five months after the tragic bombing at an Ariana Grande show in Manchester, England is another example of a concert that was chosen as a target for a deadly attack. A gunman sat on the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas casino, shooting and targeting the concertgoers of The Route 91 Harvest Festival killed 58 people and injured 527 people, becoming the deadliest shooting in American history.
Within the last three years, more and more concerts and festivals have been targeted as soft targets. In 2015, three heavily armed men entered the Le Bataclan in Paris 30 to 45 minutes after the Eagles of Death Metal started their performance, shooting into the crowd and taking hostages. May 2016, Irving Plaza experienced a deadly shootout moments before rapper T.I. was scheduled to perform. This past May a deadly bombing outside the security barriers of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England killing 22 people and injuring 250 others. With recent attacks on shows, a total of 295 people were killed.
“I was originally going to buy a ticket, at the last minute because T.I. is like one of my favorite rappers, but I didn’t go because I had an appointment to go, but when I caught the news I was completely shocked. Because I was intentionally gonna go to that concert and I was thinking to myself had I gone it would’ve ended badly for me,” said a New York City resident, Jason Fagon.
At prominent venues, security and sometimes police presence have been increasing, particularly since the Manchester bombing of this year. Jennifer Brown, a part-time security guard at the annual Brooklyn arts festival Afropunk, said increasing security has been a challenge.
“As a security guard here at Webster Hall, we try to make sure that everyone is safe and has a good time, you know. Unfortunately, there’s so much that we can do, since a lot of us aren’t NYPD officers. We don’t have metal detectors like at the Barclays and we don’t have the manpower to get NYPD here every time there’s a concert. It’s been tough.”
Last month, New Orleans rapper Lil’ Wayne refused to go through security and skipped the 2nd Annual Fall Ball 2017 in Columbia, South Carolina. According to the Colonial Life Arena, it was reported that Lil’ Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., refused to perform as the headliner when security reinforced the venue’s security procedures and wasn’t willing to make an exception for Carter and chance a safety risk.
“It kind of bothers me when musical acts thinks that they can just get around security, especially with their entourage. As someone who does security, it’s my job to make sure that everyone is safe and I think that musical acts think that security is only to keep fans and or stalkers away. But it’s my job to keep all of the staff members, the fans and pretty much everyone safe, whenever there’s a concert, is taking place,” said Brown.
Concerts can be considered an easy target for people that plans these attacks on innocent bystanders that are in one space.Because concerts are becoming more and more of a soft target for attacks, people are told “be aware, don’t be afraid” being observant of one’s surrounding and alerting the proper authorities such as security and or present police officers of any suspicious behavior can lower the chances of tragedic incidents such as The Route 91 Harvest Festival from happening again in the future.