CROWD SURFING
You never quite know when or where it is going to happen but at COPENHELL, crowd surfing is a sacred tradition – whether you are listening to cowboy rock or death metal.
Crowd surfing is a collective act of trust: People are lifted up – usually voluntarily and consensually, unless they are standing in the wrong spot and looking too enthusiastic –somewhere in the crowd and carried forward on hundreds, sometimes thousands, of outstretched hands. This can also happen in connection with circle pits or mosh pits, where people are lifted up on the surrounding audience.
If you want to crowd surf, please do it with consideration – here is how:
1. Stay as flat and stiff as possible, like you are in the Olympics for bobsledding but with less speed and more beer. Keep your legs together so people can lift you easily, and let our Crowd Safety team grab you safely at the front. Your arms are less important, so feel free to throw horns, play the air guitar or pretend that you are Superman – style points count!
2. Don’t curl up like a cooked noodle, flail around, twerk, stomp your feet or do anything else that makes carrying you difficult for people underneath you. You will be approaching people from behind fast, and they will often not realize that you are there until you are right above them, so it us super important that you can be carried smoothly over everyone and that they will not be hit by your big battle boots.
3. Our Crowd Safety crew are pros, and they excel at bringing people safely down from surfs – especially if you remember to make eye contact with them and follow their lead when they either pull you down or push you out again if too many surfers are coming in simultaneously. Remember that you really want to avoid hitting the stage barrier in front of the audience, and these good people are here to help you do so.
4. When you are down, move away quickly. The Crowd Safety people But busy enough trying to not stand in the way of cranky photographers, and they will have about three seconds before the next sweaty Viking missile comes flying in right after you. Skip the selfie, thank the crew mentally, and get out of the landing zone ASAP – that will make their job much easier.
5. Read the room. If everyone is jumping up and down or fistpumping, or they are running madly around, maybe wait for a calmer part or a breakdown before you try to crowd surf. Not every crowd is in the mood to carry you – please always respect that.
6. Reality check: If you are built like a freight train, make sure that your take-off team is up to the task. Find someone of your own size or, even better, a team to help you up instead of the skinny little punker in front of you..
And remember: Aside from carrying people, keep your bloody hands to yourself. Absolutely no grabbing or groping is allowed. We don’t accept this behaviour at COPENHELL, and the rest of the audience will not view such behaviour kindly, either.
