A Earth, Wind & Fire Concert Turns Ugly
A concert over the weekend in Colorado turned ugly when fans began rioting, burning down vendor tents and throwing people through windows. This might sound like a Juggalo event, but no... it was a Earth, Wind & Fire concert.
The night started out well enough — the band tore through some old hits and the mellow crowd loved it. After all, it was Earth, Wind & Fire playing the Bohemian Nights at NewWestFest. What could possibly go wrong? But shortly after the band was done for the night, at least three fights broke out in the crowd. And then all hell broke loose. Details from the police, via Coloradoan:
As police tried to break up the fights, a crowd of about 400 coalesced at the intersection of Mountain and College avenues, Davis said. Some people in the crowd threw beer bottles, patio furniture and other objects at police; they also damaged cars, stole items from festival vendor tents and set trash cans on fire.
Several people were injured during the fights, including two people who were thrown through the window of Santa Fe Craftsman..."
The owner of Santa Fe Craftsman, Bob Criswell was pretty bummed on the several thousand dollars-worth of damage his store suffered, but said, "Part of the sizzle of being downtown is the unexpected. That's what makes it exciting." Indeed! With people being thrown through windows and fires raging, there was only one call left to make... the SWAT team. After firing some tear gas and arresting people, the melee died down and Fort Collins returned to normal.
Here's amateur video from the riot. "What are we doing wrong? Fuck you!":
Mace hurts:
No wonder the crowd became aggressive: