Last night's Beyoncé concert was a "logistical nightmare" amid horrible weather
A shelter-in-place order due to lightning caused chaos at the Renaissance World Tour on Sunday
Beyoncé’s Maryland tour stop at FedEx Field was a true test of devotion for the Beyhive on Sunday night. While a little rain has never stopped a true pop icon from taking the stage (Taylor Swift and her fans have even made it into one of their cherished traditions), not even Queen Bey can exert control over dangerous weather patterns. The latest show on the Renaissance Tour was plagued by delays due to lightning, which actually forced fans already in the stadium to shelter in place.
“Due to lightning in the area, we are currently under a shelter-in-place order,” FedEx Field officials posted to Twitter at 6:40 PM, about an hour and a half before the show was supposed to start. “Fans outside of gates and in the parking lots are asked to return to their cars. All fans inside of the stadium are asked to shelter in place under covered concourse areas and ramps until further notice. Thank you for your patience.”
The stadium posted an “all clear” for fans to return to their seats at 8:25 PM, but doing so turned out to be a “logistical nightmare,” as one fan in attendance, Troy McConnell, told The A.V. Club. According to McConnell, “no one was allowed inside the actual stadium for about two hours. We were packed into the concourse, no one could move, someone yelled ‘Astroworld vibes.’” There were “lots of sirens and red lights, piles of puke, people falling down,” he said, “it really was a mess.”
It paid off to be up in the nosebleeds, according to Daniel Trebejo-Ariza and Vernon Wells, who remained on the higher level during the shelter-in-place order. They shared with The A.V. Club that they waited for around an hour and a half on the ramps in the upper level, noting that the ramps themselves were flooding and forcing people to retreat further down the stadium. And while they felt the venue could have hired more hands to assist, the staff “did their job pretty effectively in my perspective,” said Wells. “I think moreso, most of the issues came down to the infrastructure of the stadium.”
Down in the concourse was a different story, according to another attendee named Elizabeth. “It was truly insane. Literally thought I was gonna die. People were passing out around me and having panic attacks,” she shared with The A.V. Club. “People were yelling at FedEx security and pushing past trying to get to the escalators so they could get to the upper level. The whole time we could see the upper level and there were just FedEx employees standing there laughing and pointing at us. I saw one filming from the balcony thing.” In fairness, “some were helpful,” and one woman on staff was even “telling people to breathe and miming deep breaths [because] people were panicking [as] the crowd was getting more and more agitated.”