Making sense of the Phoenix Park debacle

Dave!

Hey folks,

Thought it might be interesting to get a thread going in this forum on the Swedish House Mafia gig. I've been listening to the radio and reading the newspapers since the trouble in the Phoenix Park, and I've been blown away by the analysis and the variety of different interpretations that have been applied. Different commentators have to varying degrees put emphasis on the following:

• Alcohol
• Drug use
• Socio-economic factors
• Dance music and the crowds it attracts
• Inappropriate venue
• etc

The media have been having all sorts of existential crises as a result of this! Some cannot help but lament the decline of civilisation as we know it...

You would think that many of the factors above contributed in some way. So what's the best way to interpret this?

-A freak and random blip that occurs every so often? There were after all riots at the Bob Dylan concert in Slane in the 80s. I believe there were rapes at Woodstock 99 (?)
-Media-fuelled hysteria over a relatively minor incident/s? Drug overdoses can happen anywhere. The stabbings were bad, but it's pretty rare that something that bad would happen at a concert. Hardly worth panicking over.
-Is this just a bad generation? Less respect for society and others than previous generations, more reckless behaviour
-Is there some kind of sub-culture that just latches onto any opportunity to cause trouble, and they happened to all turn up at the Phoenix Park for that gig?

FWIW I'd be inclined to go along with the last one there. I remember the Love Ulster parade in Dublin a few years ago. It was primarily a bunch of apolitical scumbags who saw an opportunity to smash things up. It was probably the same people or those of a similar mindset who caused trouble at the gig.

Any thoughts?

Dave

edit

Just seeing that 3 people were stabbed at another SHM gig in the UK!
http://www.thejournal.ie/three-stabbed-at-swedish-house-mafia-concert-in-southern-england-521777-Jul2012/

Does this change anything? Does this group attract a particular group?

mike65

I think the Swedish House Mafia concert (needless to say I had never heard of them until the reports of trouble hit the media) just happened to see a confluence of factors that equalled cluster ****. Overwhelmingly young crowd of 45,000 (the number I've seen most) off the leash away from home, a large % drinking themselves to a degree of stupid. A minority carrying a blade of some sort cos that's a what some people do routinely. Throw in some dance scene drug use which accounts for those who died there that night rather than somewhere else on a different day.

The other factors - dubious choice of venue, security failures and so on are pretty much irrelevant. As for the act on stage, only relevant in terms of the age group they attract.

Kids + freedom + alcohol + drugs + weapons (in whatever amounts) = mayhem.

christmas2012

Kids + freedom + alcohol + drugs + weapons (in whatever amounts) = mayhem.

I think that sums it up in a nutshell,kids are not mature enough to handle booze and drugs,i dont mean to come off judging or anything like that.But i notice with dance music their is a culture of using cheap accelarant drugs,such as cheap syntheisized amphetamines,and cocaine,it seems to be the thing to use when at house and dance parties..
Before that,in the early noughties and nineties,it was MDMA,not all the synthesized stuff there is now,and it was about being happy out with a bit of hash a beer and some e..
I think the drugs and the diversity of drugs that is out there now has changed the scene completely,im not saying this to let anybody off the hook for violent public order,but it explains some of it(not letting donna off the hook either,there really is no excuse..)..

RDM_83 again

Agree with the previous two posters above.
I work at a section of an event before that attracted a similar crowd and I have to say it was an eye opener having been to a fair few events as a punter and consider myself fairly 'worldly' and 'open minded' but I was actually quite shocked and depressed by it.

What depressed me a bit is that the crowd was properly young (i'm late twenties) and I'd guess the most and the most messy were all under 20 (a lot looking 17) (also seemed to be more messed up girls), people can talk about everybody being happy out and 'drugs are safer than alcohol' and this might be true, but when they're talking about it, their not talking about the people literally taking 5+ pills in one go (of i'm sure the most dubious provenance) at a time when already off their face, and when people talk about young people ''just having a good time' theyre probably not thinking of the girl 'going to the loos' with 5 different fellas in the space of a few hours.
What I found really interesting was chatting to an older guy that had been into the initially phase of rave culture in the UK who was also shocked by the crowd and its behavior (in particular the girls).
Personally I'd blame the crowd attracted by (bad commercial) dance music, teenagers are always going to get fcked up and messy, but that fcked combined with a certain proportion of total NED's* (feel this term describes the type better) means messyness of a nasty sort.
In relation to the event I've actually swung to thinking these sorts of events should be a 19 or older at minimum rather than the 17 thats allowed presently. Also I'd wonder how much drugs squad there was there if only to prevent violence between dealers etc.


*Non Educated Delinquents

Sleepy

I think it's far more to do with a subsection of society being raised to have no fear of, or respect for, the Gardaí or authority in general and an overly lenient judicial and prison system that results in young men with 20+ convictions being free to attend gigs like this whilst armed.

Zoria

Sleepy wrote: »

I think it's far more to do with a subsection of society being raised to have no fear of, or respect for, the Gardaí or authority in general and an overly lenient judicial and prison system that results in young men with 20+ convictions being free to attend gigs like this whilst armed.

I think you're right, it's scary how fearless they are. I never heard of SHM before what happened in the Phoenix park. You have to wonder about the mentality of a person that takes weapons with them to gigs.