Survival of a Punk Rock Festival

4. Be careful in Mosh Pits

            A mosh is a giant circle of people bumping into each other with crazy dancing in the middle of the crowd. This is one of the most fun and a little bit dangerous things to be a part of. Some people will try to fight you if you bump into them the wrong way, for example, below the belt. A lot of this can be avoided, and you can still jam out during your festival with these tips.

            During a Punk Rock Festival, the music is loud and the fans of the bands that are playing are going crazy. Next, you know you feel you’re getting pushed back a little bit but this means a mosh pit is being formed. How to mosh is pretty easy to do. All you do is jump in and run into another person with the side of your body with your arm and bounce of them and go to the next person and do the same thing. It’s like a chest bump but you don’t use your chest. During a mosh pit, you can get hurt if you’re not being careful.  If you bump into a person the wrong way you could come out with a bloody nose. Personally, I have come out with bruises and even one time I got slapped in the face because somebody was doing what looked like a windmill dance (I know weird right.) Just pay attention to what you’re doing and your surroundings and you’ll be good.

            Mosh Pits are usually the number one place at a festival for a fight to break out. Festival goers sometimes are drunk and don’t know what they are doing.  Some people are their just looking for a fight to get a so called badass festival experience. This is never the right thing to do at a festival because once you throw down with somebody beware ton of security personnel will throw you out of the venue. You do not want to this to happen because you’re missing out on your festival and you’re wasting your money by not staying the whole time. If you see a fight break, just move back and security will take care of it. They always come out of nowhere during a show. Once I saw a guy who swung at a security guard who was twice his size. Let’s just say that was a huge mistake on his part.

            Now if you don’t want to mosh, that’s ok too, it’s not for everybody. If you are close to a mosh pit and don’t want to jump in pay attention to what is going on. Usually a guy or girl will fly at you without you knowing. If this happens, all you doing have your hands up for example like someone is holding a gun on you and brace yourself then push them back in the pit.
          Check out my podcast interview with fellow festival goer Callie Carrell.