Officials at FedEx Field are still trying to get their arms around what happened at the stadium on Sunday night, when chaos broke out among large crowds at the Beyoncé concert during severe weather.
According to Jean Medina, a spokeswoman for FedEx Field, the stadium is re-evaluating its crowd control methods in order to get people moving in “one direction” next time, so it is “less chaotic” if a similar situation comes up in the future.
More than 50,000 fans were at the show and were told to take shelter for a couple of hours due to severe weather, which included lightning.
“There are times when things just need to stop,” Medina said in an interview with WTOP. “We know that this was not the experience fans wanted, but we did put the safety of the fans at the highest priority.”
Medina said improvement of crowd control will be an “ongoing process.”
Photos and video on social media showed huge crowds of people packed tightly together in covered ramps and concourse areas as they waited for the storms to pass. Things appeared to be out of control.
“It was a free-for-all,” said Kelly Bennett, who suffered a seizure during the incident. “I was being crushed up against a wall.”
Bennett said she has a condition that can trigger a seizure during times of severe stress.
“I just opened my eyes, and I was in this first aid room with EMTs,” Bennett said. “They said I had a seizure and my blood pressure had gotten elevated, and it was still elevated.”
Bennett said she called her husband at one point, and told him that she didn’t think she “was going to live through this.”
“The barricades were there, and people were crushed up against them,” Bennett said. “When I say crushed, I mean literally the barricades were in their stomachs and they were hanging over the front of it.”
Another person who was there, BJ McDuffie, said she saw several people who needed medical attention.
“People were passing out,” McDuffie said. “I saw people with bloodied faces, twisted ankles and some were sweating and overheating.”
According to Medina, one person had to be taken to the hospital.
An unknown number of people were treated on the scene for conditions that included heat exhaustion.
