FRESNO, CALIF (CelebrityAccess) An evening concert at the largest Hmong New Year’s celebration on the West Coast turned ugly Dec. 28 when dozens of audience members started fist-fighting and throwing chairs.
The concert, with an approximate 400 capacity, was held at the Big Fresno Fairgrounds in California as part of a multi-day Hmong festival. Billed as an evening with rising Hmong musical stars, the brawl was apparently fueled by alcohol consumption, police told KMPH-TV News.
“If you see the video, you see they got overwhelmed pretty quickly,” Fresno Police Captain Mike Reid told the TV station. “This thing turned into a party, it turned into alcohol not controlled and once people get intoxicated, bad things happen and that’s what you saw.”
The out-of-town promoter had the required amount of security on hand, police said. Two dozen police were called to the fairgrounds around 10:20 p.m. At least two people were arrested but more arrests are possible.
“If someone uses a chair in an offensive manner, that could be an assault with a deadly weapon, potentially. We want to make sure if we can identify those individuals involved in that and look at future prosecutions of those people,” Reid said.
Police met with organizers of the Hmong Cultural New Year Celebration as well as concert promoters and fairgrounds staff to outline new security measures, according to KMPH. Daytime events were reportedly peaceful.
“Up to that point, it was peaceful,” Reid said. “If you went out there today, you’d think nothing happened the night before.”
