Per the recommendation of those on Reddit, I am sharing this here, with ya'll. I am a lurker, but have never posted before, but I did want to get this out there:
First, the show was AMAZING. It was my first time seeing them live (FINALLY!) and I could not have asked for a better show. Seriously. Hats off to Radiohead and all there for an amazing experience. I know the parking lot was buzzing with excitement after the show, but in the midst of it all, something terrible happened. I'll try to tell the story as clearly as possible, but let me know if you have any questions/need clarification.
Anyone who was at Riverbend on June 5th knows that the parking lot was jam packed after the show. My party spent a solid 15-20 minutes just sitting in our parking spot, unable to move or go anywhere (and none of the cars around us could move either). Eventually, a few lucky people squeaked out, opening a second "aisle" in our row, but it was an aisle that dead-ended into even more traffic. No one was going anywhere.
Amid all of this, a guy in a Silver Honda (SH) starts to pursue the new aisle. Mind you, people are still wandering around, trying to find their cars, and a pedestrian (P) crosses in front of his car, so SH maced the guy in the face. This is when my friends and I noticed P fall in front of the car, at which point, SH attempted to run him over. I jumped out of the car and tried to drag the maced man to safety, but the driver (SH) kept inching forward, hitting me and my legs a few times (but not too hard). All the while, he was yelling for us to get out of the way or he was going to run us over.
At some point, Silver Honda (SH) had collided with an SUV with two passengers. A girl (we'll call her CG), and her boyfriend (BF). Even after doing noticeable damage to their car, he proceeded to mace CG in the face, as she was in the passenger seat. Her BF, also in the car, was also in range of the mace. At this point, CG began bawling, her BF was yelling at SH, and I began taking pictures of the car/license plate/assailant, and called the cops.
Before the cops could arrive, and while CG was having what appeared to be a panic attack, the man in the Silver Honda got back into his car and tried to drive off. Long story short here: the police showed up, followed SH (he had made it 100ft away by this point...) and got the girl medical attention. She was incredibly distraught, and I can only imagine that this experience ruined an otherwise phenomenal experience for her.
I do want to give props to the surrounding Radiohead fans. When we were trying to flush the girl's (CG) eyes out, we ran out of water. When I yelled "Does anyone have any water?" I was immediately handed a Nalgene and other bottles of water were provided. Those in their surrounding cars were incredibly helpful and a true representation of how wonderful some Radiohead fans can be.
Now, while I by no means want to cast a shadow over the show, myself, my boyfriend, and the members of Reddit were all concerned for this girl. Not only did she suffer physical pain and emotional distress at the hand of a complete jerk, but as I said before, it likely cast a hurricane of horrible over her entire experience. I am not exaggerating when I say that the man (SH) literally sprayed mace directly into her face and eyes. To quote my boyfriend's original Reddit post:
"All I'm really hoping for is that, at the very least, Radiohead somehow gets wind of this and can contact the police to find the girl to send her something special. I truly felt so bad for her having to put up with this shit. She looked younger than myself (I'm 24) and I think it could have ruined what might have been one of the most memorable nights of her life with her boy."
As those who responded to the post agreed, someone suggested jumping over to WasteCentral, and thus, here I am. I have no idea who this girl was, as we stayed to file witness statements after the event, but she was just on her way back from medical as we were leaving, but it would be awesome if somehow we could restore the specialness of her evening. At the very least, I wanted to get word out there because this kind of behaviour is incredibly inappropriate.
In summary: A girl's (and two others') night was ruined after another 'fan' maced her in the parking lot after the show. Is there anything we can do to restore the specialness of her experience?
Thanks for reading!
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