Attendees Slam Yung Gravy Concert as "Dangerous" and "Scary"

Words by Zoë Mills (they/she) 

CW: Assault

Attendees of the Yung Gravy concert on the fourth night of VUWSA O-week have taken to social media, saying the event was “unorganised”, “unsafe”, and “dangerous”.

Summer Jade described the event as “downright dangerous”. Sharing her experience on Vic Deals, Jade said that she was placing a complaint in with the university about the poor management. Jade claimed concert goers were allegedly urinating in the crowd due to a lack of bathroom facilities, and “people were getting assaulted by others taking advantage of the density of the crowd”. These claims have not yet been confirmed.                               

*Lucy, a first year student and attendee of the concert, said that she found the concert unsafe due to the crushing crowd. “I haven't talked to a single person who had a good experience.”

“There were moments where the crowd would totally fall over, like, the middle would just collapse,” Lucy said. 

Concertgoers Grace and Keely shared a similar experience, describing the security hired by the university as “terrible”, and claiming security staff were vaping during sets on the smoke-free campus. Red Badge security was hired for external security outside the venue. General university security were also there, as well as an unnamed specialist security company for bar, barrier, and crowd control. VUWSA has confirmed that at least 24 security guards were hired for this event.

Grace and Keely bought tickets for the concert and were both able to get into the venue “without any security checks”, which Grace alleged led to overcrowding. “There was nobody at the entrance [checking tickets] [...] people were just walking in, walking out, doing whatever.” 

Concert goers became increasingly frustrated at the lack of communication about set times for Gravy’s performance. People were unable to remove themselves from the crowd due to constant pushing and shoving. “Everyone got super aggressive […] almost immediately, it was like, ‘Oh, we're getting crushed.’,” they said. 

In one incident, Grace was elbowed in the eye by a girl trying to push her way to the front of the crowd. “I flagged down security. He just looked at me and said, ‘I don't know what you expect me to do,’” Grace said.

Although security was allegedly little to no help, Grace and Keely described the VUWSA staff as “really helpful”. Moving forward, Grace implored the organisers of the event to “organise better”, and for the promoters to communicate with concertgoers. “From the get go, they weren't clear, [about] when Gravy was coming on, how many people were going to perform before him, and how long those performances were going to be.”

A spokesperson from VUWSA defends their decision to host the venue at The Hub, and says that although they did not receive any complaints or issues in the designated safe room during the evening, they understand that “incidents can still occur, no matter how much safety is in place.” Salient understands that VUWSA had coordinated a staff and volunteer presence larger than any other of the O-Week nights for the concert.

VUWSA told Salient that a total of 16 people were assisted over the barrier throughout the night, none of whom required medical treatment and were “happy to rejoin the crowd”. No persons were evicted from this area, and people were mostly compliant, but the area required “constant management”, VUWSA stated.

“We encourage anyone who felt unsafe during Yung Gravy's concert to contact us. At VUWSA, we thoroughly review all events and are always looking to make improvements.”

*Names have been changed.