Lil Wayne’s 5th annual festival Lil Weezyana Fest took place at the UNO Lakefront Arena in New Orleans on Sept. 7. The 2019 lineup included Meek Mill, Travis Scott, Trey Songz, Kash Doll, Megan Thee Stallion, Saweetie, Melii, Leven Kali and Akbar V.
The festival drew in about 15,000 attendees. Everything appeared to be fine until an incident occurred around 7:00 PM in which a group of individuals began acting frantically and started running in the crowd. Many assumed it was gunfire and followed suit. The crowd stampeded over barricades and the concession booths. Some of the attendees even looted while the chaos ensued. Meek Mill had just finished his set when the stampede began. He tried to control the situation, “I need everybody to be cool. No pushing or we’re gonna shut this shit down.”
Later, the police determined that the shooting scare was a false alarm. People went on social media to vent about the scare, “I’m so pissed at this Lil Weezyana Fest!!!!! They f*cked us over didn’t provide shade, $4 for water that later ran completely out , and everyone running out of no where people getting trampled on,” one person ranted. A news reporter that attended the fest tweeted, “During stampede at Lil Weezyana Fest, crowd crashed through concessions area, destroying barricade, knocking over liquor & cash register.”
People in large crowds have reason to be paranoid. In 2019 alone, the U.S. has had almost 300 mass shootings. Out of those mass shootings, about 335 people have died and 1,200 injured.
With that said, it’s unfathomable for large venues to not have the appropriate security in place to ensure the safety of festival goers. If security was in place at Lil Weezyana, then that means no weapons should’ve been on the premises. We question if the group of individuals that started the frenzy should be held accountable for their contribution to the scare?
