“There are more issues involving arrests and calls for ambulances at an average country show then I've seen at all the EDM shows we do in any given year, and we do about seven of those," said Kim Bedier, director of Public Assembly Facilities, Tacoma, Wash.
Country music concerts are making headlines of a negative sort more frequently than in the past. Mass arrests, fighting, calls for medics, rowdy underage teen-drinkers and fans leaving massive amounts of trash behind apparently plague some venues that hold country music events, despite concerted efforts by venue managers and law enforcement to address the problem.
"Country shows tend to be our highest per caps in alcohol sales," said Bedier, "and I think a lot of the country artists and their songs encourage that sort of behavior; which is fine because we want people to come and have a good time. But we have to balance that with their safety."
In July at a Kenny Chesney concert at Heinz Field, Pittsburgh, numerous arrests were made for trespassing, ticket robbery, simple assault and public intoxication. Dozens of kids were arrested for underage drinking. Over two-dozen people were taken to hospitals, mostly for intoxication or intoxication-related injuries.
"Fifty-seven people required medical treatment by Saturday night at 9 p.m.," said Pittsburgh public safety officer Sonya Toler. "On top of the alcohol-induced incidents there were numerous fights, ticket stealing, property damage, and a lot of underage drinking. One officer injured his thumb while breaking up a fight."
This wasn't Chesney's first headline-making incident. At a 2013 concert, also in Pittsburgh, 73 people were arrested at a Chesney concert and 30 tons of trash was left behind.
Addressing his client Kenny Chesney's Pittsburgh shows, legendary concert promoter Louis Messina, CEO, Messina Touring Group, is a little dismayed by the stories in the press and insisted the headlines were misleading. "The press is out of control," said Messina. "Kenny may never play Pittsburgh again because of the stories. They need to write about what really goes on; they'd take a different light on it if they did. A local reporter writes about how crazy it was and I'm going, 'what show were you at?' It's one guy's opinion and it gets picked up nationally. The Pittsburgh press seems to have it out for Kenny Chesney. I'm in total disagreement with the statement that there is more violence at country shows than there has ever been."
"Kenny takes total offense to this reporting," said Messina. "He tries so hard to do the right thing. Is there drinking involved? Absolutely. But with no disrespect to my partners in the buildings, we don't pour the beer.
“People are there for eight hours; they've been drinking for a long time. Kenny's being treated unfairly. Out of 50,000 people, 20 to 40 run into trouble. Is this an artist’s responsibility? I don't think so. We don't just roll into town; the venues need a security plan.
"Sure there is trash at a Kenny show; but not much violence," said Messina. "Not compared to football games; it's not out of control. I've gone to Black Sabbath shows where we had motorcycle people as security; it's not like that anymore. Most of the arrests take place in privately-owned parking lots. We're not responsible for what goes on in the lots. We can't control what happens in a private parking lot two blocks away. We're not responsible for trash. We have no control over when trash is scheduled to be picked up."
Messina places the responsibility squarely with the venues and venue managers. "I'm not trying to throw anyone under the bus, but I throw it back on the building side," he said. "We pay a lot of money to the facilities. They tell us how many security people they need; how many cleanup people they need; how many everything we need to have. That is their jurisdiction. We're responsible for what we do on stage; the venue is responsible for the rest."
"Venues need to cut off alcohol earlier if they think there's going to be issue with an unruly crowd,” said Messina. "Any issue with underage drinking has to be put on the facility side, not the artist side. We don't card the people who buy the beer to see if they are old enough to drink; that's the venue's job. The venues are also on the hook for how many beers they let a single customer buy. A lot of venues have a two beers at-a-time limit. Does any one guy need 10 beers?
"This whole thing is overblown," Messina said. "And they always invite us back."
Bedier said Tacoma Dome has dealt with the problem by issuing drink limits. "We work with really great security people, and we have alcohol enforcement officers and strict cut off times for purchasing alcohol," she said. "We work with our food and beverage provider closely, and if we feel things are getting out of hand we'll shut things down early, if necessary."
The decision on when it's time to stop selling alcohol is a joint decision between the event staff and the food and beverage staff. "We do it together. We all have the same goal; to get the people home safely," said Bedier. "Once the artist goes on stage we get a rough idea of how things will progress for the rest of the night. If there are multiple artists, with multiple intermissions, we can adjust the call based on what we see."
"Everything depends on the artist and the kind of party atmosphere they encourage," said Bedier. "Some male solo artists tend to generate a frenzy kind of vibe in the building. If we have Miranda Lambert, granted the ladies are a little into their wine, but it's nothing like a Toby Keith or some of the younger country artists who are all about rocking and having a good time. Our eyes light up because we know our per caps will be so high, but we also have additional security challenges."
All staff, especially the bar staff, are trained in alcohol awareness.
"Everyone who serves alcohol is alcohol-certified," said Bedier. "They go through server training which includes long sessions on how to spot people who have had too much to drink and when to cut them off. We will do individual cut-offs and if we need to elevate to an ejection, we will, without hesitation. It's all about making sure your enjoyment doesn't impact someone else's enjoyment."
Bedier also said she works closely with the Techniques for Effective Alcohol Management (TEAM) coalition, an organization made up of a unique alliance of professional and collegiate sports, entertainment facilities, concessionaires, stadium service providers, the beer industry, broadcasters, government traffic safety experts and others working together to promote responsible drinking and positive fan behavior at sports and entertainment facilities. "TEAM does a lot of great work and works hard to promote designated drivers and when too much is too much," said Bedier.
Bedier said getting people home safely was her number one priority and that Tacoma Dome has been actively working with and promoting rideshare options so fans don't have to make decisions about driving home impaired. "We have a designated rideshare pick-up zone and signs around the arena that point to them; we try to provide as many avenues to get the fans home safely as we can."
Another best practice for Bedier is finding out ahead of time the history of an event or artist and speaking with other venues where the artist or group has already played to be as ready as possible.
"In my experience, the best way to combat any potential issues is to advance the show," she said. "I call previously-played venues and ask, 'How was the crowd? What should we expect?' We'll find out how intermissions have gone, how many there are, and what we can anticipate. That's the benefit and value of being part of a larger industry and having relationships and association with other venue managers. Speaking to the other venue managers is by far the best way to prepare; we don't always get the best information advancement from the shows themselves."
PITTSBURGH PERSPECTIVE
Tim McNulty is a spokesman for the Mayor of Pittsburgh. "Kenny Chesney had a Saturday night show in 2014 and everyone woke up and saw a mountain of garbage left all over the area," said McNulty. "There were numerous calls for medics; alcohol and sunstroke are a bad mix; a lot of people had to be transported to local hospitals.
“It was shocking to everyone. Then we started seeing all the reports of arrests and it really woke the city up to having to make some changes."
Solutions included handing out garbage bags and bringing in dumpsters, and most importantly, pointing out that people were drinking too much. "We started working with the country music radio stations, and the parking lot owners, to stop some of the bad behavior," said McNulty. "We wanted to raise awareness that this sort of behavior was unacceptable. We found that a lot of the people would just come to the show and not even go into the stadium. So we started requiring everyone in the parking lot to have a ticket to the show and once the show starts the tailgate parties are shut down. The shows should be fun, but people need to act responsibly."
A new policy was put in place that mandated police officers be in every parking lot where there was tailgating and Pittsburgh police also started bringing in buses to take under-age drinkers to jail. Once in jail the fine can be steep — loss of their driving privileges for a year.
McNulty said the situation with the messy cleanup improved, but not the drinking.
"Bad behavior and alcohol problems have continued," he said. "The levels of under-age drinking are still unacceptable. The kids get rowdy, into fights, it's no good."
Guy Costa is the City of Pittsburgh's chief operations officer. "No matter who the performer is, if it's a country music show it's definitely an issue in Pittsburgh," said Costa. "When we have country music concerts it's generally more than one act. There are usually four or five different groups and they can go on for up to eight hours. The fans like to come early, park in the parking lot, tailgate, drink and get drunk. A lot of them never make it to the concert because they are inebriated."
Costa said the result is that they "just trash the area. They like to throw bottles and cans, break glass, and they like to get into fights. No matter who the country act is it's been happening for the last four to five years in Pittsburgh."
Costa said he believes this problem is particular to country music fans because county music shows tend to be "a party" and the artists encourage "a handful of jerks with their music and lyrics that cheer-on drinking and fighting."
"When you start drinking alcohol at 10 a.m., and continue drinking all day, there's going to be a problem by 4 p.m.," he said. "It's one big tailgate and one big party and this problem occurs with every country and western show we have. The men like to fight and the women pass out and have to be taken to the hospital. The songs encourage the drinking; the genre seems to be the problem."
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
Don Cusic, a country music historian and professor at Belmont University, Nashville, draws the line at singling-out country music as the instigator of bad behavior. He blames the booze. "When you've got young people and alcohol you are going to run into problems. That's the problem, not a particular kind of music.
"Sure, a lot of country music is about partying and having a good time," explained Cusic. "It's about forgetting your troubles for the time being. A lot of people feel helpless, feel stuck and feel like they don't have any hope. They want to go out to a concert to feel better about their lives, even if it's just for a few hours."
"In sociological terms country music is the music of the white working-class," Cusic teaches his students. "So you are dealing with a strata that's more likely to get rowdy."
Cusic argued that other music genres have been blamed in the past for all sorts of societal woes. "When rock and roll started out, it was the source of all evil. Then heavy metal got blamed for rowdy crowds in the 80's. Indie-rock was the next culprit; then hip-hop came along and got the bad rap. Blaming country music is a false answer to the problem. Blaming alcohol is probably more on track."
Cusic does draw a distinction between the country stars of by-gone days and the current crop of hit makers. "The new batch come from cities, not farms, and they're millionaires with education. They know exactly what they are doing. When they write a song about drinking all night, fighting and trashing properties it's to excite the crowd and make it seem like it's the cool thing to do. It's very calculated."
Cusic said a case could be made either way for blaming country music artists for instigating the fans to drink more than they should. "If you try to make the artists responsible for other people's behaviors, you get in a quagmire pretty quickly," said Cusic. "But it's hard to deny that it doesn't have an effect. Fans are going to do what they do; egging them on doesn't help. You can look at it either way."
"At the end of the day I think country music is a reflection of the culture," said Cusic, "I'm not denying the connection to songs emphasizing the fun of drinking; but I can't pinpoint it as the reason for the increase of it, either. If we shut down all the country music shows tomorrow there would still be arrests for drinking, fighting and people would still be calling for an ambulance to get them to the hospital."
Interviewed for this story: Kim Bedier, (425) 322-2611; Louis Messina, (512) 721-2462; Sonya Toler, (412) 627-3552; Tim McNulty, (412) 660-1999; Guy Costa, (615) 460-5438, Don Cusic, (615) 460-5438