From the Chicago Tribune
Only one hospital transport was required during Pitchfork, which featured relatively mellow tunes as well as mild temperatures. But medical needs can be quite different at festivals like the heavy metal-oriented Ozzfest, a one-day traveling concert that features bands such as Black Sabbath, Slipknot and Slayer.
Dr. Jeff Grange, professor of emergency medicine at Loma Linda University in Southern California, said most of the medical situations seen at an Ozzfest concert in mid-July were related to violent dancing.
“We saw a lot of trauma, two people with stab wounds, numerous people with dislocated shoulders, facial trauma, sutured up a lot of faces, that kind of stuff, especially from mosh pits,” he said.
Grange has studied medical care at mass gatherings like concerts and NASCAR races for 16 years and says the style of music played is a major predictor of the frequency and type of injuries medical tents receive.
According to a 1999 study by Grange and colleagues, concert attendees are 2.5 times more likely to visit the medical tent at a rock concert than at other types of shows. Some trends were a little more surprising, however.
“Interestingly enough, the highest mortality was with classical music concerts because of cardiac arrests or heart attacks” among the older population in attendance, Grange said. And the highest rate of medical tent visits was seen not at hard-rock concerts but at gospel/Christian events.
I’m so happy they prepared this study; just one more thing I won’t have to worry about! As long as I don’t dance violently at the next “Mozart in the Park” featuring the ghost of Mahalia Jackson as the opening act, I should freakin’ live forever!! I think I can handle that.
Wow, concert injuries? Who knew? I wonder what the stats are for smaller venue, say…like bars?
I’m not surprised. I went to a Southern Baptist high school because my parents didn’t want me to associate with the riff-raff that attended public school.
Good ‘ol CBHS is where I learned to drink Boons Farm Strawberry Fields, smoke pot and swim in the baptistery dunking pool on those hot, humid days in the south. I was born again a lot when I was in High School.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to have this study done for 1960s & 1970s rock concerts? I was in DC for one of the Nam Protests in 1970 or so. I’ll never forget walking towards the stage where one of the bands was playing and hearing someone on a bullhorn telling everyone to keep the aisles to the tent open. I later heard that several babies were born there. The only thing I saw that resembled violence was when the police on horseback hauled some protesters into the paddy wagon for…..I don’t know what. I did notice the media cameras around so it probably made for a good story and photo op for the journalists.
A few years later in Florida, I attended the Sunfest at the Lakeland Speedway where everyone was frying in the sun with very irritating soot all over them. Seems they had burned off the field at the raceway to make way for the crowd. We all had black soot in places where black soot should never be! Again, I saw no problems there. In fact, it was very mellow which was possibly due to the cloud of smoke that permeated the entire area
There were tents there also but I never saw anyone succumb to the heat (or the drugs). I recall that they announced some bad drugs that had been sold and asked that no one take them.
This leads me to this conclusion from my own personal study: Sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll is primarily responsible for the lives of multitudes of baby boomers. Without all three, we would’ve never survived that sad era of unrest and uncertainty at such a young age.
GGGF, maybe if there were more Boone’s Farm, Annie Green Springs, and weed available in this world, we wouldn’t live every day with a Terror Alert!
It must be all that rapturous flailing about. When the spirit moves you, it’s not your fault if someone’s face was in the way. His will be done.