Diving into the “why” of this concerning trend.
In recent months, musicians from all genres have had to deal with fans throwing things at them on stage — and unfortunately, the days of throwing soft, flimsy objects like bras seem to be behind us. Instead, fans are often throwing hard objects like phones, or large objects like flower wreaths, and as a result, the stakes are much higher.
Over the weekend, a fan-throwing incident occurred at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Someone threw what appeared to be a huge flower arrangement or decorative item onto the stage — and Swift took time out of her performance to address it.
“Communication means having gentle healthy boundaries,” Swift said, while playing the piano. “It really freaks me out when stuff gets thrown on the stage. Because if it’s on the stage then a dancer can trip on it and I love that you brought presents and that is so nice, but just can you please not throw them on the stage. I love you so much.”
Unfortunately, the incident with Swift is part of an ongoing trend at concerts. In June, singer Bebe Rexha was hit in the face with a phone during a concert; later, she shared a photo of the black eye she incurred from the hit to her Instagram page. The man who threw the phone at her, Nicolas Malvagna, has since been charged with harassment and assault. According to a witness at the concert, the man said, “I was trying to see if I could hit her with the phone at the end of the show because it would be funny.” (The fan’s attorney said in a statement, “As a fan, Mr. Malvagna’s sole intention was to have Ms. Rexha take photos with his phone, and return it as a keepsake. It was never his intention to injure Ms. Rehxa.”)
Other artists have had to deal with similar issues, including Cardi B, Kelsea Ballerini, Ava Max, Lil Nas X, Billie Eilish, Drake, Pink, and Harry Styles, to name a few. So what’s the deal with this new, concerning trend — and how can we make it stop?
Here’s a brief summary of some of the stranger fan-throwing incidents that have taken place recently, as well as some expert insight into the troubling new phenomenon.
Chicken nuggets, bracelets, and a loved one’s ashes: Behind the throwing trend at concerts
These days, fans are rowdier than ever. In early June, Kelsea Ballerini was struck in the face with a bracelet, which caused her to walk off stage. Eventually, she came back on stage and said to the crowd, “Someone threw a bracelet, it hit me in the eye, and it more so just scared me than hurt me.” Ballerini went on, “We all have triggers and layers of fears way deeper than what is shown, and that’s why I walked offstage: to calm down and make sure myself, my band, my crew, and the crowd all felt safe to continue.”
Other similar moments have been less violent in nature, but have been every bit as bizarre. For example, fans of Harry Styles threw chicken nuggets at him during a concert in New York. After it happened, Styles paused to say, “Interesting, very interesting approach. Who threw the chicken nugget? I don’t eat chicken.”
Another particularly notable fan-throwing event took place at a Pink concert in Australia when a fan tossed a bag containing their mother’s ashes on stage. Yes, you read that correctly. Pink was as surprised as anyone else when she picked up the bag — so surprised, in fact, that she actually paused the performance to clarify exactly what had happened. “This is your mom?” she asked the fan. “I don’t know how I feel about this.”
Why are fans throwing things on stage at performers during concerts?
Fans have been throwing things on stage for a half-century now. But concert security experts agree that the trend has gotten worse in recent years — and artists are clearly getting fed up. “This seems to be more prominent now than ever before,” William Van Orsdel, head of growth at the Breakaway music festival, tells Katie Couric Media. He adds that while Breakaway hasn’t had one of these incidents, “We’re unfortunately seeing it almost weekly on social media.”
But why is the problem getting worse?
There’s no hard and fast answer. Rather, experts point to a handful of contextual factors that are likely contributing to this alarming trend. First, there’s the pandemic-sized elephant in the room: People were cooped up in their homes for years thanks to the coronavirus, and the concert experience in general basically shut down during that time period. Now, they’re back in full force — and it seems people have forgotten how to act.
“After two and a half years of lockdown and social distance, people changed their behavior,” Carla Penna, a psychoanalyst and crowd researcher in Rio de Janeiro, explained to The Los Angeles Times. Penna noted that a number of unhealthy behaviors have increased in frequency in recent years, including intolerance to noise, feelings of disrespect, and invasive behavior, among others.
How parasocial relationships fuel fan behavior
In addition to the behavioral changes that came about from the pandemic, there’s also the fact that social media networks have enabled the emergence of parasocial relationships between performers and their fans, in a way that was previously unimaginable.
In the 1960s, for example, throngs of crowds would mob the Beatles, but those people didn’t have access to John Lennon’s inner life the way they would now. Fans also weren’t able to share information with each other like you can today. As a result, you have certain people feeling an unusual amount of intimacy and connection with a performer they’ve never actually met in real life. They also tend to know a huge amount of information about the artist, from what the inside of their house looks like to where they were seen eating lunch a week earlier. This unearned sense of intimacy, combined with unprecedented access to personal details, can lead to a breakdown of social norms.
“With the support of unbounded social media, the real or fantasized distance between the fan and the artist diminished,” Penna told the LA Times. “Thus, in a show, the audience might feel entitled to join the artist in person on the stage or join the artist in a symbolic way by throwing objects that represent or symbolize themselves.”
There’s also the simple fact that throwing something on stage increases the chance that an artist like Styles will acknowledge you, directly, among tens of thousands of others, and maybe even pause the concert to say something to you — even if that attention is negative. And with social media, that moment can become an opportunity to collect clout or brag online, which amplifies the reward. “People see it being done on social media and seem to be inspired by the nefarious acts of others,” Van Orsdel says.
So far, this ongoing trend hasn’t led to any major policy changes, but it’s entirely possible that certain venues or performers could enact stricter rules for concert attendance in order to keep everyone safe. For example, they could ban phones or create nets to separate the stage from the audience. Van Orsdel says, especially if an artist gets injured, “You could see tours getting canceled or postponed,” and adds, “It will further change restrictions at live venues and concerts if it continues.”
It probably goes without saying that in an ideal world, you wouldn’t spend obscene amounts of money to see your favorite artist in person only to get there and have your phone taken away, then struggle to see the artist through a literal net — which is why, at the risk of entering kindergarten-teacher-territory, people should take the issue seriously and refrain from making a mistake that could cost everyone a good time.
“The negative act of one person could impact thousands of fans & more importantly hurt someone,” Van Orsdel says. “People feel like they’re invisible in a crowd, so it’s also on the concertgoer to look out for the artist, call out if they see someone do it, and help stem the tide of this abhorrent behavior.”
