NEW YORK, Sept 30 — Chris Martin, the front man for British band Coldplay, attempted to calm the crowd at the Global Citizen Festival after a fence collapse sparked panic yesterday, E! News reported.
In the interval between the performances of Cardi B and Janet Jackson, a fence barrier collapsed, causing the festival goers to rush for the exits.
An eyewitness told E! News, “It’s chaos.”
Chaos breaks out at Global Citizen Festival in Central Park in NYC. People sprint for Exits. #GlobalCitizenFestival pic.twitter.com/qlFB6OXcFj
— Allen Devlin (@allendevlin_) 29 September 2018
A tweet by festival goer Allen Devlin showed the crowd rushing for the exits.
In a clip posted by MSNBC, Martin hastened to reassure the crowd, saying, “What happened is a barrier fell down. Of course, it caused people to frightened, but nobody is trying to hurt anybody. You’re all safe.”
He continued, “And as far as I know, when you guys are all ready, we can watch Janet Jackson, which we all f***ing want to do.”
Martin then called on the NYPD Assistant Chief Kathleen O’Reilly to speak to the crowd. O’Reilly assured the audience that no shots were fired, which was also reflected by a tweet on the NYPD News Twitter page.
There were NO SHOTS FIRED at #GlobalCitizenFestival. The sound was a fallen barrier. @NYPDCentralPark @GlblCtzn
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) 29 September 2018
Other than Martin, the Global Citizen Festival also featured performances by various stars such as Janet Jackson, Cardi B, Shawn Mendes, Janelle Morae, among others.
Interestingly, Martin’s appearance at the Global Citizen event meant that he skipped his ex-wife actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s wedding to director Brad Falchuk, which took place in the Hamptons on the same day as the concert.
