On This Day in 1979, a Grave Tragedy Occured at a Rock ‘n’ Roll Concert in Cincinnati, Ohio

Music concerts and festivals are designed to be places of escape through entertainment. However, every so often, the pre-show excitement matched with poor venue planning ends in tragedy. While it doesn’t happen often, it has happended one too many times, including at Woodstock 99, the 2021 Astroworld Festival, and the Altamont Free Concert in 1969. Amongst those concerts and festivals is another—The Who’s concert in Cincinnati, Ohio, which happened on this day, December 3, 1979.

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To this day, The Who’s concert in Cincinnati, Ohio, is often remembered as one of the most disatorously tragic in music history. A culmination of things led to the tragedy that took place at the Riverfront Coliseum. Regardless, on this day, December 3, 1979, 11 concert goers lost their lives while running to see Pete Townshend and the rest of The Who perform live.

What Exactly Happended on That Fateful Day

Prior to the concert’s start, thousands of fans waited outside the Riverfront Coliseum with first-come, first-served general admission tickets. Excited to see The Who play, the minute sound check started, the thousands of fans rushed through the doors, thinking it was the start of the concert. There were only two doors open for thousands of fans. Consequently, the massive stampede became incredibly congested, and the 11 people who died passed away from asphyxiation.

In addition to the deceased, dozens of other people were injured due to the stampede. The concert went on as planned, and The Who didn’t catch wind of the news until it was all said and done. Concerning the tragic event, Roger Daltrey stated, “It was like being just hit with a bat. We come off stage and we had done a wonderful show. It was a great show. One of the best we played on the tour. The crowd were incredible and then we were told what had happened before the show started. And that was like being whacked with a baseball bat around the head.”

“And I think we did the rest of the tour without talking to hardly anybody, in total silence. Hell, we hardly talked to each other. We didn’t talk on stage. We just played our music, ” added Daltrey via ABC.

Above all, this tragic event is a cautionary tale and a lesson in crowd management. Furthermore, it is also a remembrance of the 11 innocent rock ‘n’ roll fans who passed away on a night aimed to encourage joy, and not pain.

Photo by Tom Hill/WireImage