This page was last updated:10/08/05
The Tour of Chaos!
In the beginning of June, 1999, I find out that my favourite group, Hole, is going to have a concert in Hultsfred.... and there is no doubt, I gotta be there! This is my one and only chance to see them. I might never get the chance again.
My husband and I buy tickets for one day at the Hultsfred festival…rent a car….and drive all the 1200 kilometres to southeast Sweden. We arrive at the festival's first day, 17th of June, about 4.30 pm. We wander around, listen to a couple of songs by Monster Magnet… just relaxing and waiting for the Hole show. Its a beautiful day, hot and sunny. The Cardigans played before Hole….when they were done, we tried to get a place in front, but we were not the only ones that tried that. A lot of people had been standing in the front during the Cardigan concert just to be sure to have a place in the fron during the Hole concert. Soon we were locked inside and couldn't move at all…when Hole finally arrived on the scene, way later than they were supposed to, many fans had fainted already. Hole started with playing Violet, I managed to shoot some pix of Cortney…. then Hell broke loose…we allmost died in the mosh-pit that night, as lot of other fans allmost did.
I was pushed away from my husband, and couldn't see him there anymore. I didn't have a chance to get further up front so the guards could pick me up. So I decided to try and go back and out that way. BAD decision! I was constantly pushed down on the ground by other people falling over me. I lost my shoes and people were not only stepping on my feet, but all over me. I didn't have a chance to use my arms to anything, I was trapped in something that felt like a can, and it was a storm in the can. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't see anything, and I was in desperate panic. I couldn't put my feet down without stepping on someone, and several times I could feel someones flesh or bones give in under my feet. I simply couldn't help it. Everytime I managed to get up, someone else dragged me down again. I was pushed down in teh sand, and when I tried to breathe I got my mouth full of sand. I got up, and someone else fell over me again, and I was lying on the back over someone else with three heavy people on top of me. I prayed that the person under me would survive. I saw a man standing on his knees looking at me, and I just said that I couldn't help him... and I felt so bad about that. I didn't have a clue what was going on on the stage, I couldn't hear anything because I was so afraid. My lungs hurt from my lack of oxygene, and I started to loose consciousness. Around the time I was about to give up, someone dragged me out of there, and I could finally breathe again. I had blue marks on my arm after the man who dragged me out for a long time afterwords, visible marks from four fingers. Those marks were my prove that I survived. I stumbled away from the crowd and found my husband on a meeting point we had decided in case we lost each other. We were both shoeless, shaky, and soking wet from our own and other peoples sweat. We sat in a safe distance from the crowd supporting each other, freezing and shocked. Several times we saw other people stumble out of the crowd, without shoes and with extreme fright in their eyes, but we weren't able to do anything, we were still paralyzed.
But we survived.
A girl from Sweden did not survive, Sara Odin. When we found out about that girl, we realized how lucky we had been.
I didn't blame
Courtney at all in the beginning. I blamed the audience that were pushing so
much. I blamed the guards for not helping enough, for not stopping the show, for
not being many enough. I blamed the festival for bad planning.
One year after that tragedy, we managed to get the bootleg video from the Hole
show at the Hultsfred festival…and I must say, my respect for Courtney
declined. I don't know if I will ever get it back to where it was again. It's
not that I think she is fully to blame for the girls death, but her behaviour
was immature and irresponsible. After seeing that video, I feel that Courtney
could have done a lot of things to prevent the death of that young girl, even
though she can't take all the blame for all that went wrong. The least she could
have done was apologizing afterwards, to her fans, to Sara's family.... but she
didn't apologize to anyone, she didn't mention the accident, and her behaviour
hasn't really improved after that either.
Courtney Love is rude
and offensive to her fans, she doesn't seem to care about the people in the
mosh-pit, she is vulgar, and she is arrogant.
SHAME ON YOU COURTNEY!!!
I still enjoy the music, I still trade bootlegs, I'm still interested in Courtney Love. I still think she has something to say, I just don't think she is saying it the right way. I'm not viewing her for anything but a spoiled rock star, but that wrap her words in childish anger to make an image that doesn't suit her. I think it is about time she grows up a bit, put her fame away and take care of her fans again.
On
Therese’s page you will find links to stories other people have told about
their experiences during Hole’s tour in 1999, + Therese's own story:
http://www.vintagestars.com/river/TheTourOfChaos.html
Links concerning the Tour of Chaos:
Sara
Odin died on the Hultsfred festival during a Hole show, I didn’t know her, but
I was at the same show and it was awful to be in that crowd. I am very sorry
that Sara died, and I am very sorry that Hole, in particular Courtney Love,
hasn’t showed her and her family the respect they should have got after the
accident. This is her homepage: