The Reading and Leeds Festival is something that I've always wanted to go to. It's an opportunity for people who have a love for music to get together and enjoy many different artists. The atmosphere seemed like something amazing. Even if you don't know most of the people there, you all came together for the same kind of reason. The energy is high, and somehow everyone vibes together because the lyrics of different songs speak to them. At the end of the day, you could possibly come away from the festival with new friends.
Not only does it seem to be a great experience for those in attendance, but I can only imagine the feeling that the artists get. To see that so many people appreciate their music, must be indescribable. Good vibes all around, the crowd and artist are pumped, what could go wrong right? That's what I thought too. I never realized how much danger artists put themselves in until I heard about what happened in England.
For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, you can read the story in full detail here, and I'll give a brief summary. If you have ever been to a Twenty One Pilots concerts, or even seen them on YouTube you know Twenty One Pilots loves to interact with their fans. So much so that both Josh Dun and Tyler Joseph (members of the band) take turns going into the audience. Josh goes in the audience with his drum set (a very complicated process), and Tyler is normally escorted into the audience by security so he can climb up on a higher stage.
At the festival in England, this was not the case. The security was allegedly very poor, and refused to escort Tyler through the crowd. Being the type of artist that he is, he did not let the lack of security and safety stop him from putting on the show for his audience. He took a risk and decided to crowd surf to get to his platform. In the midst of attempting to get to his platform, he was dropped on the floor, only to have his shirt ripped up, and shoes and mask taken off.
My purpose for writing this article is to express my anger and frustration. Yes it's a festival, and people get drunk/high or whatever but in my opinion, that should not be an excuse to treat someone like that. Yes he's a celebrity, but he's a person first. I can only imagine how scared he must have been. I can't even begin to think how helpless Josh was feeling behind the drums as he saw his friend on the top of the platform shirt ripped off and all.
What's supposed to be an awesome event, got turned into someone almost getting badly hurt. After this occurred, #RespectTylerJoseph began to trend on twitter:
You can see a video that was captured at the concert of what happened below:
