Draft Article

MASS BREAKOUT AT CRYSTAL FIGHTERS
17th February 2014

Last Thursday night (15th February 2014) a large amount of fans at the Crystal Fighters gig, at the NEC Birmingham, lashed out it a mass destructive fight injuring hundreds and the cause of four deaths. Tens of ambulances, fire engines and hundreds on police officers had to rush to the scene after numerous calls to emergency services during and after what had happened.


It was a normal night gig starting at 7pm with the band Crystal Fighters headlining and other band Foals supporting. It all started off at 7pm with the opening act of Foals where two people were kicked out for having a small fight that consisted of a 21 year old woman and man and a 40 year old father who was protecting his 15 year old son of the drunken couple when they lashed out at the man and his son because of being bumped into. The drunken couple were escorted out by security about half way through the Foals set. The rest of the set continued as normal as the drunken couple were standing right outside being watched by security.


When Crystal Fighters entered onto the stage for their set a lot of the crowd had been drinking and many were drunk. After playing their first song lead singer Sebastian Pringle shouted to the crowd "I want to see all my drunk friends do mental!". This was the cause of the drunken couple to then try and return into the stage room by using force and barging through security and pushing and shoving their way to the front of the stage area with security flooding after them. After reaching the front many of the crowd were outraged at them and some, drunken, started lashing out and swinging for people. A security guard was the first one to be hit by one of the angry people and was knocked out. We asked him what we could remember and he replied.
'All I remember was that I was running behind two other men running after this drunken couple and as I approached the front of the standing area all I could hear was people shouting and swearing at the couple to go away and I heard some one shout so i turned around to a fist. All i remember after that is waking up in the emergency room of the NEC an hour later'
After he was taken out two of the five security guards had to get him out of there so there were only two left trying to get the couple out of the room when it all started as the man from the couple started an argument with a bunch of teenage lads, who were also under the influence of alcohol, and he started swinging for them and ended up hitting various other people

That is when it all broke loose with hundreds of fans running and swinging around with people on top of others and other people helpless on the floor being trampled. The trampling caused three deaths of a 16 year old girl, a 20 year old boy and 1 38 year old mother of two who was at the gig with her teenage children. As people were being pushed about and on top of each other they ended up destroying the front barrier that led onto the stage and caused numerous fans to climb up onto the stage and tear it apart. This caused the band to flee the stage, only on their third song that they had been playing, and leave the NEC as quick as they could along with the members of Foals.

This was the point when the emergency services were being called by many people in the seating area and standing area. They received calls of people crying for help and saying that 'It was like hell'. Before the services could get there the fight continued on with stewards being ganged up on and having no control of the sea of angry, drunk and destructive Crystal Fighters fans. The fourth death was caused by people picking up equipment, such as guitars and amps and throwing them onto the crowd. Many people got stuck under large heavy amps and came out with serious injuries. One man is now paralysed from the waist down and many have broken bones. One man, 28, was trapped and rushed to hospital when the services got there and later died the next morning.

After emergency services arrived riot teams entered the NEC with batons and riot shields to fight off the fans. Many people were arrested at the scene, including the woman from the drunken couple, and police are still looking for people involved and the man that was in the couple. They are using security camera footage and witnesses to try and identify the main people who were involved and the man who threw the amp killing the 28 year old man.

The gig has been rescheduled for next month (20th March 2014) with people who had their tickets are still valid. But, anyone who was arrested or is still wanted do not have a valid ticked anymore and the free spaces are now being sold for different people to take their place.