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Durst Rapped in Concert Death
An Australian court has ruled that promoters--not the rockers--were liable in the death of 15-year-old Jessica Michalik, who died of a heart attack after being crushed in a stampede at the Big Day Out Festival in Sydney.
But Senior New South Wales Deputy Coroner Jacqueline Milledge took testosterone-fueled frontman Fred Durst to task for not stopping his band's set as concert organizers tried to aid victims.
"He should have acted more responsibly," she told the Glebe Coroners Court in Sydney, as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald. "I accept that it may have been difficult for him to stop because of the intensity of his performing.
"However, it is very clear that his words were inflammatory and indeed insulting to the security staff, who were engaged in their best efforts to extricate crucially injured patrons from the crowd collapse."
Band members did quit playing their instruments when the stampede began. DJ Lethal put on a computer-generated loop meant to calm the crowd and Durst kept performing, though it's unclear how much good that did.
While Bizkit was cleared of any criminal liability, Durst released a statement saying, "No one is a winner in a court case where a young girl has lost her life. This has been a terrible tragedy."
The best-selling rap-metal act--whose last two albums, Chocalte Starfish and the Hot Dog-Flavored Water and Significant Other, topped the charts and went multiplatinum--was so shaken by the incident that they pulled out of the remaining festival dates.
As part of the coroner's probe, Milledge reviewed concert footage and heard witness testimony, including statements from Durst, who said he was haunted by the tragedy and put the blame squarely on the promoters for failing to provide enough security.
Ultimately Milledge agreed, citing Big Day Out organizers Vivian Lees and Ken West for failing to anticipate the rowdy atmosphere in the mosh pit and take appropriate crowd-control measures.
"For promoters to be taken by surprise because their headline act causes excitement and reckless behavior shows they did not turn their mind to the crowd reaction," Milledge told the Glebe Court, adding that the situation that day was "completely unacceptable."
The coroner also said, "It is obvious to everyone who views the videotape that people are being squashed and jostled and at times are fighting for survival--a fight Jessica Michalik lost."
Milledge suggested stepping up efforts to teach kids about the dangers of mosh pits and crowd surfing.
To that end, Big Day Out promoters implemented new guidelines for the 2002 festival, introducing an integrated 12-point safety plan that included "revisions to barrier structures, age restrictions and music policy," according to the Festival Website.They also hoped to increase "audience awareness of the danger caused by mosh dancing, crowd surfing and other antisocial crowd behavior."
For their part, Lees and West accepted culpability. "I think we do have to a bit of responsibility for this," Lees told the Morning Herald. "Everyone's had a major wake-up call from this."
The embittered promoters also added that they will never again ask Limp Bizkit to perform at future Big Day Out events. "I think Limp Bizkit are past their use-by date."
Durst said he and his band won't head back Down Under until the whole concert industry was better regulated.
The 2003 edition of the Big Day Out Festival, meanwhile, is scheduled to go on as planned with Jane's Addiction headlining and Underworld, Foo Fighters, Kraftwerk, Wilco, Queens of the Stone Age and Jimmy Eat World among those also on the bill.
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