Top 10 Worst Music Festivals of All Time

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top ten truly disastrous music festivals that left their mark on history in the worst possible way.

#10: “Time Warp Argentina” (2016)

What was billed as one of the highlights of the dance music festival calendar in 2016 sadly descended into a real tragedy. Time Warp Argentina in Buenos Aires had its first night utterly ruined by six deaths and several hospitalisations due to overdoses. This, along with incredibly poor infrastructure, overheating and overcrowding, led to the second night being cancelled. The festival's complete failure was highlighted as a clear example of the need for increased safety measures and venue regulation. Dance music culture, in particular, was forced to take a long and hard look at its general practices moving forward.

#9: “Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival” (1972)

In 1972, when technical advancements weren’t anything close to what they are today, predicting attendance figures was a hell of a lot harder. For the Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival, better known as the Bull Island Rock Festival, the organizers had absolutely no idea how out of hand things would get. For them, 100,000 people would’ve been much more than expected. The eventual figure rose to somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000. Heavy rain and a lack of infrastructure led many of the scheduled artists to cancel, leading to major public unrest. When food and water shortages became an issue, many attendees rioted, setting fire to the main stage. They even killed a local farmer’s cow for meat. An infamous weekend in music history.

#8: “151st Indiana State Fair” (2011)

Prior to a show by the country music duo Sugarland at the Indiana State Fair, word began to spread of a severe thunderstorm approaching. Though poor weather conditions are nothing new to organizers of festivals like these ones, poor communication and protocols left them far more vulnerable than expected. The winds became so great that the temporary roof structure of the stage at this Indianapolis festival was entirely ripped off, causing the whole thing to collapse. It fell on a group of people standing directly below, killing seven while injuring dozens. The stage itself was found to have been structurally unsound, leading to a number of huge lawsuits and payouts for the victims and their families.

#7: “10th BPM Festival” (2017)

When the worlds of organized crime and music mix, it’s generally not a good outcome. At the BPM Festival in Playa del Carmen, Mexico in 2017, what should have been a joyous event ended in tragedy. A lone gunman infiltrated the event, opening fire on the crowd, killing four people and injuring fifteen. Another woman died as a result of a stampede that broke out. A drug cartel, Los Zetas, took credit for the attack, stating that the organizers ‘didn’t get in line’ with some unknown requests that were made. The people behind BPM festival were forced out of Mexico and denied any links to the cartel, calling it ‘misinformation’.

#6: “30th Roskilde Festival” (2000)

Cramming thousands of people into a tightly packed area is part of the concert experience. However, there will always be an element of risk and unpredictability when that many people are involved. At Pearl Jam’s performance at Roskilde Festival in 2000, there were no warning signs of how badly things would turn out. A crowd crush would cause several people to fall, eventually leading to massive pileups and a scene of total chaos. Nine people were killed and a further twenty-six were injured. This led to major safety reforms on the part of Roskilde, despite it already having a reputation as a safe festival. It proved that you can truly never be too careful.

#5: “Altamont Free Concert” (1969)

The original mission statement of the Altamont Free Concert was to put on a festival that would serve as a celebratory event. To say that they failed would be an understatement. The decision to employ the infamously volatile Hells Angels gang in a security capacity was the first red flag. The crowd were already restless during the early stages of the Rolling Stones’ set, and when 18-year-old attendee Meredith Hunter got into a fight with one of the Hells Angels, things spiralled. The enraged Hunter, who was reportedly heavily intoxicated, pulled a gun out and was immediately set upon by another nearby Angel, Alan Passaro, who stabbed him to death. A further three people died in accidental deaths over the course of the night.

#4: “Woodstock '99” (1999)

All attempts to recapture the peace and love of the original Woodstock in 1969 utterly failed with its third iteration, Woodstock ‘99. The twenty-five-year anniversary version in 1994 was by no means a perfect festival either, but it was its sequel five years later that truly killed the brand. Woodstock ‘99 could not have been further from the cultural landmark it attempted to emulate. Overpriced food and water and poor infrastructure were one thing, but rioting, violence, looting, and several instances of serious harassment and assault left this weekend in ruin. By the end, three people had died and people seemed completely turned off the idea of putting on a fourth Woodstock.

#3: “Fyre Festival” (2017)

The truly baffling saga that saw Fyre Festival descend from a hot-topic luxury getaway to a complete trainwreck became one of the biggest cultural talking points of the 2010s. Billy McFarland’s attempts to defraud thousands of people led to the creation of two separate documentaries that chronicled the festival’s rise and fall. Instead of the luxury experience they had been promised, Fyre Festival delivered cheap packaged sandwiches and poorly furnished tents. Some people found the experience of watching all of these high-profile attendees vlogging their confusion and disgust hilarious. However, there’s no denying that this was truly one of the most poorly executed festivals in history.

#2: “3rd Astroworld Festival” (2021)

Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival had been taking place for several years before it came to an end in 2021 after what can only be described as a ‘worst case scenario’ situation. A crowd crush during Scott’s set saw what should have been the highlight of the event descend into a scene of total horror. Ten people were killed due to the crush, with a further twenty-five hospitalized. All in all, over three hundred people received some form of injury. Scott himself came under some huge criticism for not noticing what was going on, as well as an apology he released shortly after that was deemed insincere. In reality, no one person can shoulder the blame for what seemed like a perfect storm of errors.

#1: “10th Love Parade” (2010)

For years prior to its eventual end, Love Parade was a festival that truly lived up to its name, spreading love and positivity through a shared enjoyment of dance music. However, in 2010, the overcrowding of a narrow tunnel leading to the festival area left a shadow on the brand that was impossible to overlook. Due to suffocation as a result of the sheer number of people crammed into this tight space, twenty-one people died and hundreds more were injured. The Love Parade was understandably cancelled for good, and the organizers came under fire for the negligence and oversights that led to this horrific day in music history.

But what infamously terrible music festival sticks out in your memory? Let us know in the comments below.