A strange — and dangerous — trend is taking over concerts.
On Wednesday, American country-pop singer Kelsea Ballerini was hit in the face during a performance in Boise, Idaho, when an object from the crowd was thrown at her onstage.
Before returning to her set, the “Love Me Like You Mean It” singer addressed the crowd, saying: “Can we just talk about what happened? All I care about is keeping everyone safe. If you ever don’t feel safe, please let someone around you know. If anyone’s pushing too much or you just have that gut feeling, just always flag it. Don’t throw things. You know?”
This is just one of many recent incidents in which concertgoers have been violent or otherwise crossed the line with performers.
At a New York concert in June, an audience member threw a cell phone at Bebe Rexha’s face, causing the artist to be rushed off stage and sent to the hospital. Rexha later posted photos and videos of herself to social media revealing a black eye and several stitches.
A week later, a fan appeared to throw a bag of their mother’s ashes onstage at a Pink concert in Hyde Park, to which the artist responded, “I don’t know how to feel about this,” before continuing singing. That same weekend, a front-row fan gifted Pink a giant wheel of brie cheese, an offering she seemed to appreciate more than the human remains.
Inappropriate behavior from concert audiences is not just a recent phenomenon, but there seems to have been an uptick after the COVID-19 lockdowns. In November 2022, a concertgoer appeared to throw candy at Harry Styles, hitting him in the face and eye during his “Love on Tour” show in Los Angeles. A few months earlier, at Rolling Loud Miami, Kid Cudi walked off stage during his headlining performance after water bottles were thrown at him by audience members.
“Yo, I will walk off this stage if y’all throw one more f—ing thing up here. I will leave. I will leave right now,” he said after the first bottle was thrown. “You will ruin it for everybody. I will f—ing leave if I get hit with one more f—ing thing.” Just after he gave the warning, another bottle was thrown onto the stage, and Cudi abruptly ended his set.
