Avril Lavigne Goes Nuts with Crowd
Avril Lavigne was singing at a concert after a Tampa Bay Rays game. However, she was upset with the fans who booed after some technical malfunctions during her first song. She used a number of choice obscenities to respond to the fans and the team had to apologize for her outburst. An artist can turn a crowd against police, a facility, or a team. An artist can also gain control of a rough crowd through requesting positive conduct by the crowd. A facility need to know how cooperative a performer is in case of an emergency. I handled a case several years ago involving Eminem and he did a great job of getting the crowd to back-up by turning his request into a game. He basically asked the fans to take steps backwards similar to a dance. It worked well and allowed the staff to attend to some injured fans.