Rockbites: Guard claims Roskilde deaths were avoidable

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July 2000 • Rockbites Alternative Daily

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Guard claims Roskilde deaths were avoidable
4 July 2000
The death toll from last Friday’s Pearl Jam concert at Denmark’s annual Roskilde festival has hit nine, as a 24 year old from Melbourne, Australia who had been on a respirator died this morning.
    Per Johansen, one of the sixty security personnel covering Roskilde’s several stages, spoke to the Ekstra Bladet newspaper about the tragedy. He said fifteen minutes elapsed from when he first alerted his security leader about people falling in the mud and getting trampled until the music was finally stopped. Apparently helpless against the festival’s chain of command security process, Johansen first yelled “If the music doesn’t stop they’ll die!” and then “[They] are dying now.”
    Johansen says he asked his security chief to stop the music three times before the unnamed official contacted the festival security office, who then contacted the band’s management before stopping the show.
    The nine deaths were the first significant safety incident at the annual charity benefit concert since its founding in 1971. An investigation is underway. | Associated Press story | | second story | | Roskilde Festival | | top of page |

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