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‘It’s going to be a disaster’: Juanes fans say SummerStage ill-prepared for crowds
By
Michelle Bocanegra
Published Jul 13, 2023
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Michael TRAN / AFP) (Photo by MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images
By
Michelle Bocanegra
Published Jul 13, 2023
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Fans of the illustrious Colombian musician Juanes say organizers of his SummerStage concert failed to adequately prepare for the massive outpouring of attendees — creating dangerous conditions for concertgoers and employees.
Juanes' free show on Wednesday night attracted 5,000 people inside the official venue, and more than 12,000 people outside, according to organizers with SummerStage. The show was interrupted after two songs and the event was vacated for safety reasons.
But attendees say organizers and New York City officials missed the mark on preparations, resulting in potentially catastrophic crowd control hazards. The concert was widely anticipated to draw gargantuan crowds thanks to Juanes' prominence as a Latin American cultural icon.
“When I saw that they were having Juanes as a free concert at SummerStage, I thought to myself they must be out of their minds,” said Pamela Mazza, a licensed mental health counselor from the Bronx who started lining up at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
“Because people were climbing in through the bushes, going in over fences, pushing down the barricades … it’s lucky that it didn’t go worse than it did. Because if 12,000 people outside had managed to force their way in,” she said, “there would have been a tragedy.”
Gothamist spoke to the short-lived concert's attendees on Wednesday, as well as others who attempted to get in but were dissuaded by the long line, which extended from the east to the west side of Central Park.
Fans said they were shocked at the relatively small police presence — with descriptions ranging from just two to six officers — early Wednesday evening, despite the presence of dedicated attendees who lined up as early as noon. There was arguing, pushing, and in one description, fist fighting, which originated with fans trying to get into the event, according to people who spoke to Gothamist.
And fans who made it into the audience area said they felt unprotected from an increasingly erratic crowd still angling to get in, even after police attempted to clear an exit path for showgoers to leave.
Tensions had already been running high throughout the evening, particularly at the entrance to the event as showtime drew nearer, according to four people who saw the setup on Wednesday. Attendees deemed the barricades marking the entrance to the venue, where people jumped and pushed their way through, inadequate for the crowd.
“At first people around us thought somebody had a gun or something,” said Julisa Fernandez, a Queens resident who was at the show with a friend.
“People were just jumping the barricades,” she said, adding that her friend had a panic attack. “And there were so many people pushing and shoving and kids got hurt too in front of us. … They got pushed around, and they also got scared.”
Juanes sings "Mala Gente" for a large crowd at Central Park on Wednesday night.
Pamela Mazza
A spokesperson for the mayor directed a request for comment to the City Parks Foundation, which organized the event.
“For the first time in 30 years SummerStage was required to stop a concert in progress for a non-weather related issue,” said Heather Lubov, executive director at the City Parks Foundation, in a statement posted on its Instagram account and provided to Gothamist. “SummerStage, LAMC and Juanes all agreed that the safety of fans and concertgoers was of paramount concern and at the request of the NYPD, made the decision to cancel the show.”
The NYPD said it “does not provide security for private events.”
Maria Gonzalez-Hanchi, sponsorship production manager at New York Public Radio — the organization to which WNYC and Gothamist belong — said she attempted to see the show on Wednesday night, but decided against it after visiting the venue's entrance and taking half an hour to find the end of the line.
“How could there be security throughout that entire line, you know?” she said.
Gonzalez-Hanchi said it reminded her of when Calle 13, a Puerto Rican hip-hop duo that is on professional hiatus from playing as a group, played a free show in Ecuador.
“People got trampled. People can die in these things. And people have died. I feel like I’ve seen this a million times in Latin America,” she said.
“I’m shocked no one got hurt,” Gonzalez-Hanchi said, referring to the Juanes show on Wednesday.
Mazza said she was also frustrated that organizers were slow to tell people to leave in Spanish, despite being addressed in Spanish by Juanes himself, which she chalked up to organizers’ “cultural ignorance and incompetence.”
“I spoke to a lot of people about it after the event: people who were going to go, people who tried to go, people who said, ‘oh, there’s no way I’m going to try to go to that, because it’s going to be a disaster’,” Mazza said. “Anybody who is familiar with Latin American culture could have told you that this might happen.”
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