Crowd surfing: Encyclopedia - Crowd surfing

Crowd surfing

Crowd surfing describes the process whereby a person is passed from person to person, transferring the person from one part of the concert venue to another, above everyone's heads, with everyone's hands supporting the person's weight.

At most concerts and festivals the crowd surfer will be passed towards a barrier in front of the stage by the crowd, where they will be pulled off and put onto their feet by the security stewards. Following this they will be sent back to the side or rear of the crowd at the end of the barrier or they may be ejected from the venue (depending on the policy enforced). Some venues operate a zero tolerance policy towards surfing where any surfer will be automatically thrown out, but most operate a "two / three strikes and out" policy where only persistent offenders are punished.

Crowd surfing generally occurs only towards the front of an audience where the crowd is dense enough to support a person's body. It is most popular at metal, punk, rock and indie gigs. At some genre concerts, such as folk and classical music, crowdsurfing is unheard of because the audience will not generate enough energy to be able to hold up an audience member, and also because these concerts are more usually seated. In addition, it could be said that audiences of folk and similar musical genres are less susceptible to such behaviour because of common social values against such activities.

In order to get above everyone's heads, a person can be given a boost, in which one person picks up another to launch them over the peoples' heads. The practice was said to have been invented by Peter Gabriel who first indulged in the act during performances of "The Knife".

The musical group They Might Be Giants, who strongly discourage crowd surfing, often refer to the practice as "passing the dude".

Crowd surfing - Dangers of crowd surfing

In 2000, at the Roskilde Festival festival, nine people died and several were wounded because they were trampled during a Pearl Jam concert (also see CNN). Since then, crowd surfing has been made illegal at most festivals and concerts in Europe, and patrons can often expect to be ejected from the venue for partaking in the act. Critics of crowdsurfing argue that injuries can frequently occur not only when a surfer is accidentally dropped by the crowd from a height of some feet onto the floor (sometimes head first, to be trampled below) but also to innocent concert goers below who can sometimes be injured when a surfer lands on top of them, occasionally with some force. Sometimes audience members are accidentally kicked in the face and upper body by crowd surfers. Scratches are sometimes caused by zips or studs on clothing. Some audience members can be knocked over by crowd surfers causing them to be trampled by the dancing crowd. They will say that this makes crowd surfing both anti-social and dangerous.

Supporters of crowd surfing say that by standing in the mosh pit patrons should expect such behaviour as part of a rock show and by standing more towards the side or rear of the venue they can easily avoid such behaviour. Such people also state that serious injuries caused by crowd surfing are extremely rare. It is true that the majority of injuries caused by crowd surfing is only mild bruising, which occurs in any mosh pit without crowd surfing. Supporters will also argue that most crowd surfers are considerate and will wear soft shoes such as trainers, and refrain from wearing jackets in order to minimize injuries, and that it is common mosh pit etiquette to pick up anyone who has fallen over.

Crowd surfers also risk having personal items such as wallets or mobile phones stolen, or their shoes or clothes removed and thrown into an inconvenient location. This is known as "mosh-lobbing".

It seems that the two schools of thought are not compatible, and most larger venues have now taken steps to prevent the activity.

Within the rock concert community some individuals consider crowd surfing and stage diving to be a fine art and will often boast about any injuries they have sustained in the act.

Crowd surfing - Famous occurrences

Real life: Little Spike Dudley being thrown out of the ring by Bam Bam Bigelow and caught by the ECW fans in the ECW Arena.

Dana Carvey and Mike Myers in Wayne's World 2 as Garth Algar and Wayne Campbell at an Aerosmith concert.

Flake of Rammstein uses an inflatable rubber boat when crowd surfing. Fictional:

Jack Black landing on his face in School of Rock.

See also

• stage diving
• moshing
• headbanging
• air guitar
• list of dances
• R.T. Rybak

Categories: Dance behavior | Syllabus-free dance

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Crowd surfing", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki