MEGADETH's Concert In Israel Cut Short Due To Crowd's 'Rowdy Behavior'

Erez Erlichman and Ronen Tzomer of Ynetnews.com have issued the following report:

Police stopped a MEGADETH rock concert [in Israel] Wednesday night [June 22] after only four songs, due to the crowd's rowdy behavior which resulted in stage barricades falling into the audience.

Police instructed the crowd to exit the grounds and ended the annual "Metalist Festival" — where MEGADETH had been invited to perform — earlier than scheduled.

Police officials said the band performed at about 2 a.m. (6 p.m. EST) as the festival was coming to an end, and so they did not see any reason to fix the railings and continue the show.

Rotem, one of the thousands of youngsters at the festival, told Ynet he believes the premises were not suited for such a large concert. He said the railings along the edge of the stage collapsed pushing people to the ground.

"Someone could have died," he said. "It was really frightening."

Another fan, 30-year-old Inbar from Tel Aviv, said she especially had waited until 2 a.m. to see MEGADETH perform.

"Police told us to exit the area and that we would be able to return once everything was reorganized," she said. "Police know what a heavy metal concert is and that most of the crowd is not usually violent, but the railings they bought were not solid enough and were placed too close to the stage."

Police commander Chen Soria said in response that the concert was cut short due to the late hour. He said police officers did not see the no point fixing the railings with only ten more minutes left of the show.

"The event started at 2 p.m. (6 a.m.) and there was a delay in the (band) schedules," he said. "Kibbutz Palmachim and the festival organizers promised to end the show by 2 a.m. due to the noise and past events."

Soria said no injuries were reported.