CINCINATTI, OH (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — The Cincinnati City Council has lifted a 25 year ban on festival seating at large venues in hopes of booking more large shows and increasing revenue.
The city did away with festival seating when 11 people were trampled to death outside the former Riverfront Coliseum at a Who concert on December 3, 1979. Since the barring of general admission seating in Cincinnati there has only been one concert, a Bruce Springsteen show in 2002. The Boss insisted on the availability of festival seating for all his shows in order to be able to interact with his audience.
Due in large part to the lack of violence at the Springsteen concert, increased security, safety and crowd control measures and the fact that Cincinnati was the only city in the U.S. to ban festival seating, the city has finally realized that with the proper precautions festival seating and concertgoer safety can be achieved simultaneously.
The first concert with festival seating since the ban was lifted came and went without injury or incident on October 23rd. Performing were mosh-inspiring acts Green Day, New Found Glory and Sugarcult. According to Rick Bird of the Cincinnati Post, concertgoers enjoyed the seatless floor of the U.S. Bank Arena, dancing, moshing and even crowd surfing.
Local promoters told the Cincinnati Post that the Green Day show would not have happened without festival seating and it would have been nearly impossible to book Avril Levigne (playing on 11/06/04) and Velvet Revolver (playing on 11/07/04). Cincinnati music lovers are excited for the opportunity to see these acts that a year ago would have passed by the city and do not expect anything remotely similar to the Who concert tragedy. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
