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Pearl Jam Responds To Roskilde Report
“It is our feeling that what happened at the Roskilde Festival cannot be written off entirely as a ‘freak accident’ or ‘bad luck,’ as some have called it,” the band said in a lengthy statement issued July 26.
“We will do everything possible to make sure that during this next phase of the investigation, every possible factor that might have contributed to the deaths and injuries at the festival is uncovered and scrutinized.”
More specifically, Pearl Jam cited its own concerns and called for further investigation in several areas.
The band complained that it took 15 minutes for a festival security team to inform it that there was a potential problem in the crowd. The show was stopped immediately once Pearl Jam was notified, despite being asked “to wait until the nature of the problem could be determined,” according to the band.
Pearl Jam questioned whether there was adequate medical staff, equipment and ambulances available to handle emergencies quickly, and whether the medical tent was large enough to accommodate all emergencies and was accessible from the front of the crowd.
The band addressed what it called “poor visibility” from the stage, which made it hard to see the audience and identify problems from the stage. And finally, Pearl Jam asked for further investigation into the alcohol policies in place at the festival, and the amount of alcohol that was being served to concert-goers.
Expressing further grief over the nine dead, the statement read, “There are absolutely no words to express our anguish in regard to the parents and loved ones of the nine precious lives that were lost during our performance at Roskilde. We owe it to everyone that has been impacted – all of those we lost, all of those who loved them, all of those were who injured and all of the fans who attend our performances – to identify every possible factor that might have contributed to these tragedies.
“If we learn about any contributing factors that could have been handled differently, we will address them and take the appropriate steps to help ensure that what happened at Roskilde does not happen again.”