Chaos at Kailash Kher’s concert in Madhya Pradesh as singer halts show over unruly crowd
During singer Kailash Kher's live concert in Madhya Pradesh, chaos erupted when an unruly crowd broke through the security arrangements and the veteran artist was forced to stop his performance halfway. The incident happened on December 25 at Mela Maidan in Gwalior, where Kher was performing as part of the Gwalior Gaurav Diwas and Tabla Diwas celebrations, organised to mark the 101st birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. What started as a nice evening quickly turned into a safety issue due to the disorderly behaviour of the crowd.
Kailash Kher calls out crowd behaviour, concert stopped midway
Despite the disturbance in the audience, Kailash Kher continued to play his most loved songs, including Teri Deewani, Saiyyan and Piya Ghar Aavenge, at the concert, which was initially successful. As a result of the growing crowd, some members of the audience started to climb over the barricades and push towards the stage, thus security personnel were overpowered. Large parts of the crowd had surrounded the stage area, thus creating panic among the event staff and increasing the risk to the safety of the singer, his musicians and the attendees.
Kailash Kher was visibly upset when he stopped the show and directly talked to the audience. Through a microphone, he told those who had attended to be calm and warned them that they could be hurt if the crowding continued to spread so far forward. At one point, he said that the crowd was "acting like animals" and asked people to stop pushing forward ("janwargiri mat kariye"). He also warned that if anyone got too close to his instruments or any of the equipment on stage, he would completely stop the show there and then.
Even with the multiple warnings, requests, and pleas for calm, the crowd did not quiet down and continued to remain out of control. Policemen positioned near the stage attempted to control the crowd, but it was impossible to regain control of the situation because of a lack of adequate crowd control measures. With barricades already broken and people pushing towards the stage, the only option left for Kailash Kher was to stop the concert early and leave to avoid further incidents.
Later, officials confirmed that no severe injuries were reported from the event. However, they acknowledged the problems revealed by the incident as a significant gap in planning for security at events. This incident has raised concerns about how crowds are typically managed at large public concerts.
