After Springfest's sudden cancellation Saturday evening, USC officials said they significantly underestimated the crowd that would turn out on McCarthy Quad for headliners Migos and Rae Sremmurd, causing serious safety concerns.
According to Assistant Chief David Carlisle of DPS, previous Springfests have gathered crowds of about 5,000 people. This year, closer to 10,000 people from as far away as Arizona State University came to USC to watch the famous rap artists take the stage. Migos had only performed two songs when the Los Angeles Fire Department declared the concert over because the crowds had exceeded maximum capacity.
There were 15 medical calls, with one person transported to the hospital, Carlisle said. The Los Angeles Fire Department along with DPS, USC Fire Safety and Emergency Planning, and private security eventually decided the concert was unsafe.
"If you're gonna allot the same amount of space for twice the amount of people, it's not really a surprising outcome, in retrospect," political economy and aerospace engineering major Ara Mahseredjian said, referring to the ability of USC students to bring guests to the performance. According to Carlisle, about half of the 10,000 concertgoers were not USC students.
Freshman computer science major Rohan Shastri recalled the moment he knew the concert wouldn't go on for much longer.
"As soon as Migos started with their first song, I've never seen so many bodies hit the floor," Shastri said. "There were about 20 or so people right in front of me that just either panicked, or something happened, but they just completely fell over. After the first drop or two, people were just looking disoriented."
Carlisle said the fence around the quad was not enough to contain the massive crowd, and the crowd size would have made it difficult for emergency medical personnel to respond in the case of injuries.
"The fencing was inadequate this year. A lot of people breached the security by jumping over the fence. It was loosely put together so it was easier to breach," Carlisle said, "and then you have too many people per square foot of space, which leads to pushing and shoving. Although there were not really fights, it's just unsafe."
Sophomore cognitive science major Etienne Smith said that, especially closer to the stage, it was hard to give everyone enough personal space.
"Some girl next to me was on the ground, just laying there," Smith said. "She looked like she was passed out. I was trying to not step on her face, because people were falling on me, but I didn't want to crush this girl who was on the ground. It was absolutely horrible. My glasses flew off. I didn't care about anything at that point. I just wanted to get out."
Springfest has been pretty safe in the past, Carlisle said. But going forward, DPS is discussing the factors that led to the cancellation to ensure something like this doesn't happen again. Carlisle suggested moving Springfest to another venue that can handle larger crowds as a possible solution.
"Nobody wants to shut down Springfest," he said, "but we're thinking, is McCarthy Quad really the correct venue? Would it be better say, in the Galen Center, or maybe the Coliseum, if the group is big enough?"
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Staff Reporter Trevor Sochocki and Senior News Editor James Tyner contributed reporting.
Annenberg Media