13 Comments

Not naming the people who died reduces them to meaningless statistics :(

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Thanks for this - was wavering over whether or not to watch it, but this made the decision easier. My partner and I will find better uses of our precious TV-watching time.

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Would it be appropriate to watch with a teenager the first time they ask if they can go to a music festival? Cautionary tale?

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author

I wouldn’t - simply because of the sexual assaults it shows. I also think most music festivals aren’t like this - many bands do care about the safety of the audiences now, especially these bands coming through... I have been to probably a thousand gigs, including dozens of festivals. Most are well organised and safe. I went to Soundwave pregnant with Eddie and saw Slipknot etc but obviously didn’t go in the mosh etc - I think the messages around festivals are so different now because of phones. Like it blows my mind that we went to festivals for years and just couldn’t call our friends or parents! Wild eh? Anyway this article is also a good read https://amp.theguardian.com/music/2022/aug/04/do-not-in-any-circumstances-incite-the-crowd-how-the-astroworld-tragedy-changed-gigs-for-ever

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founding

Thank you. Seriously! So crucial to have critical reviews like this. I’m so sorry about Jess too, I just can’t even imagine that tragedy and those circumstances, and so young. Lots of love, that must have been gruelling watching for you xxx

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Great review! I agree that the Woodstock 99 doco on Neon is far superior.

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founding

Beautifully written x

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The second half of your description of the event sounds eerily similar to a much more recent event that we had in our own backyard, earlier this year 😬 yikes!

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I agree. The whole time we watched it my husband and I kept asking, surely people died? What happened? Where is their voice?

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Thank you for this. Eloquent and fair and thoughtful as always.

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I’m home sick (night shifter) and my partner and daughter are at a rehearsal so I’m about to watch this trainwreck. So excited

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Being a teenager in that era, the sexual assaults and general attitude toward women bought up a lot of bitter memories for me.

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I reckon it should've been called TL;DR, rich guys be rich guying. The exposé of exploitative concert promoters and how they never change (look at the recent Astroworld disaster, nobody ever learns, Travis Sc*tt is still popular - so much for cancel culture) and that the whole doco romanticised Woodstock 69 when actually there were several sexual assaults there too.

Pissed off they brushed over the other Limp Bizkit deaths too. I remember those. There was a few in Aussie too. Sorry to hear about your mate Em x

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