The Twilight Concert Series ends its nine week line-up of concerts in the park with a finale by MGMT. The concerts are fun, there is alcohol available, and the headliners are exciting. It’s also really nice to be packed into Pioneer Park with 20,000 or more strangers that like to share their body heat and sweat with fellow concert-goers.
Good thing the concerts aren’t free anymore, because there is no way to pack another 50,000 people into a park that is inhabited by drug users and homeless people.
The Kid Cudi concert was nothing short of crazy and the people who attended were quite a piece of work. Salt Lake City’s “finest” all crowded together to get high and push each other around as rain poured and Kid Cudi rapped/sang/lip synched. Half-way through the concert, he stopped his song and yelled at the crowd for moshing and throwing things on stage.
The other concerts were the same – just not as insane as the more popular artists.
The scent of marijuana permeates the air like bread cooking in an oven. Second-hand smoke was indeed present at every concert, and there was literally nowhere for people to breathe. Oxygen tanks should have been available for those about to faint from lack of air.
Several years ago, when the concert series started getting more popular, the Salt Lake City Arts Council made the decision to move it from the Gallivan Center to Pioneer Park. Beginning in 2010, the free Pioneer Park concert kicked off with band, Modest Mouse. The crowd was large and crazy then, but nothing compared to what it is now. At least there was room to breathe, and people could sit on blankets and enjoy the show.
Now, sitting on blankets in the park is out of the picture.
If there’s no room to breathe, there is certainly nowhere to sit on a blanket.
Concerts are a way for friends to get together and see their favorite music artists perform. However, when the enjoyment is taken away by those who think they can start fights or hurt people, concerts aren’t so fun.
Bottom line: don’t go to $5 concerts. There is a reason why good concerts are expensive.
