lil wayne
[Photo via Republic Records]

Lil Wayne’s festival set ends after gunfire rumor, crowd stampede

Fresh off the recent release of his latest LP The Carter V, Lil Wayne hit the stage at Atlanta’s A3C Festival & Conference Sunday night. The rapper’s set was cut short after panic erupted over the false belief shots had been fired in what the festival is calling an “altercation.”

According to one Instagram user in attendance, panic broke out nine minutes into Lil Wayne’s set. It caused a stampede, and gates fell as the crowd tried to evacuate the area.

Read more: Post Malone debuts new look, asks “plz don’t stop listening to my music”


“Y’all, so we are leaving the #a3c festival in #Atlanta due to a crazy stampede during #lilwayne’s set!” the user writes. “He was literally on stage for 9 minutes, ugh! It was so crazy! A lot of people got hurt, man. People got tossed in the air n’shit and trampled.”

According to Pitchfork, an Atlanta police representative stated that a dozen people suffered minor injuries including to the ankles and lacerations from attempting to jump fences. The police also relayed that attempts to flee began when someone in the crowd “yelled that they heard gunshots.”

The representative also states, “At this time we have been unable to locate any evidence to support claims that shots were fired” and an investigation is underway.

Following the events, the A3C Festival released a statement relaying that they are still collecting information, but no weapons were involved in the altercation.

“Sadly, there was an altercation tonight that ended Lil Wayne’s performance. We are still collecting information to determine exactly what happened and will provide follow up information as soon as we know more details. Please be assured that the law enforcement officers present have confirmed that there were no weapons involved. This was a very unfortunate way to end what had been an otherwise amazing week of music, friendships and connections. Thank you to everyone for your amazing support and positive energy all week. We love ya’ll.”

A post shared by #A3C18 (@a3cfestival) on

Lil Wayne also took to social media following the incident. “Hope everyone at A3C is safe!” he tweeted.

 

Read more: False gunfire alarm at festival, Chris Martin calms crowd


This is the second time within the past two weeks that false gunfire caused panic at a festival. Coldplay’s Chris Martin helped to calm an alarmed crowd at the Global Citizen Festival Sept. 29 following a loud sound that mimicked gunfire.

Attendees at the NYC event began to panic when a barrier fell down and made a very loud noise. Expecting the worst, the crowd believed the sound to be a gunfire attack.

Martin and NYPD Assistant Chief Kathleen O’Reilly quickly took to the stage to assure everyone that they were safe, and no shots were fired.

“There’s no need to push people out of the way. What happened was that a barrier fell down,” Martin told the crowd, in a video shared by MSNBC.

“Of course it caused people to be a little bit frightened. But nobody is trying to hurt anybody and you’re all safe. I just want to tell you that. As far as I know, when you guys are ready, we can watch Janet Jackson.”

The Global Citizen Festival was able to continue following the false alarm, and Janet Jackson took to the stage.

If you ever do find yourself in a crisis situation at a live event, here’s some advice on what to do from artist security managers.