Bad Bunny, mud and hail. No more concerts at La Maura

The Milan racecourse is the worst venue in Italy for concerts. Everyone’s always known that. And the hailstorm that struck during Bad Bunny’s second concert is just the latest in a series of incidents. Let’s hope it’s the last. As we know, the event on 18 July was cancelled half an hour into the concert due to torrential rain. Several people were injured by the hailstones because they were unable to either flee or take shelter. The images we saw were absurd. Eighty thousand people stranded in the mud, amidst lightning strikes, under giant hailstones. Without adequate security or emergency services. With no way of getting home. With no idea where to go, as their mobile phones had no signal. With insufficient escape routes. With communications that were not up to the task. Despite having paid between 100 and 500 euros for a ticket. For an event they’d been looking forward to for a year, part of a world stadium tour, which in Italy alone was held at a racecourse. It’s no coincidence that so many Italians chose to watch it abroad: at least 15,000 went to Madrid; the Turin–Stockholm flight was full of people heading to the Bad concert alone; we bought tickets for the final leg in Brussels. All things considered, you spend less, visit a new city, and get a much better view of the concert.

The downpour had been forecast since the afternoon, whilst the 80,000 people had been queuing for hours under a 40-degree sun (the heat in Milan is different from that in the rest of Italy) with no shelter, no water fountains and no facilities. This was very different from Ultimo’s major event in Rome, where he himself had ensured that fans who had been queuing for days had a marquee, water and food. And where, in any case, an event attracting 250,000 people was being held for the first time in Italy. Meanwhile, the racecourse is the most frequently used venue for major summer concerts in Milan, despite everyone always complaining. And this isn’t the first time it’s poured with rain; it had already happened to Cremonini in June (amidst fierce controversy); to Olly last year; and years ago to Metallica and Stray Kids. It’s well known that at that venue – a vast expanse of earth – if it rains, mud forms, and leaving, or even staying put, becomes difficult.

The error was undoubtedly due to the organisers, who had been aware of the weather warning since the afternoon. And who, after ten minutes of rain, suspended the concert, asking the audience not to leave and to wait for it to resume. Ten minutes later, hail began to fall, injuring several people. Meanwhile, everyone was fleeing via a single exit. This was a problem that had also been reported by those who’d attended the first date – which was rain-free but just as chaotic. Getting out was a struggle. It is absurd for events which, according to the Gabrielli circular, are supposed to have the highest security standards, starting with a ban on bringing in bottle caps and cans (which they then sell inside at exorbitant prices, with long queues), power banks and aerosol cans. Yet there were no safety measures in place in the event of an emergency. And if someone feels unwell in that throng, they could even die. You don’t need to be at Crans Montana to know that. Unfortunately, tragedies like this can happen even in the open air. But there’s no need to invoke disasters to say that that venue isn’t suitable for concerts. And not just because residents have been complaining about it for years, due to the chaos it causes. This includes cars left everywhere, ruined green spaces, and mobile networks that don’t work for hours. The problem is mainly for the audience. At the La Maura racecourse, the sound is terrible, you can’t see a thing, it’s far too hot, and there’s far too much dust. Despite the high ticket prices and the high prices at the bar. Yet the organisers, particularly Live Nation, insist on holding them there because it can accommodate up to 20,000 more people than the San Siro stadium. Which, by contrast, is far more suitable, both in terms of safety and quality. The day before, Bruno Mars’s concert at the stadium went off without a hitch. But what’s the point of selling more tickets if, as happened the other night with Bad Bunny, you end up refunding every single cent? And making the artist look bad in the process? “All ticket holders will receive a full refund, including the ticket price and 15 per cent of the booking fees,” Live Nation wrote in a statement: “The safety of everyone present has always been our top priority,” a claim one is entitled to doubt. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have held the event at the racecourse, and let’s hope this really is the last time.