Update 11:38 p.m. Ten people were transported to Mountainside Hospital in connection with tonight’s incident, all due to intoxication, according to hospital spokeswoman Natalie Thigpen. The patients, all between the ages of 18 and 24, included five males and five females, and none were in a life-threatening condition. The first patient arrived around 8:14 p.m.
Update 9:55 pm: The latest from BNN: “Bloomfield Ave & Seymour St at wellmont theater| A female with a human-bite will be transported from the scene.|
Update 9:47 pm:Â Sources have referred to this as a rave. We’re also hearing unconfirmed reports that some kids were taken to Mountainside Hospital for alcohol poisoning.
Downtown Montclair was mobbed with several thousand kids after police shut down a show at the Wellmont Theater. It took police about an hour to disperse the crowd, amid reports of drinking and even a human bite.
The scene erupted around 9 p.m. A tipster wrote to us at 9:03 pm: “There’s a lot of police activity, ambulances and big crowd outside the [Wellmont] theater shouting. Any idea what’s going on?”
At 9:02 p.m., Â BNN (breaking news network) referred to it as a “Mass Casualty Incident.”
NJ| Essex| Montclair| *Mass Casualty Incident*| Bloomfield Ave & Seymour St at wellmont theater| M/A EMS req’d to the staging area, and requesting fire official as well to the scene. Unk condition.| <C> BNN | BNNDESK/njeic | #472437
Debbie Galant reported from the scene:
100s of kids – scantily dressed – out on Seymour — some climbing up scaffolding and yelling . Concert was closed due to crowds is all I know. Lots of mutual aid
In addition to Montclair, police officers from Bloomfield, Nutley, Fairfield, Verona and Belleville were on the scene. But they wouldn’t give any more information other than it was too crowded and they had to close down. The Barstool Blackout Tour was happening tonight at the theater. It is called “The world’s largest blacklight party” and had sold out.
The Barstool Blackout Tour’s Facebook page describes the party as: “The worlds largest Blacklight Party. Touring the nation leaving nothing but a path of destruction in its wake. Lazers, Fog, Blacklights, Stroked and Everything that Glows right in your eyeball. An absolute orgy of sound and lights for all your senses.”
I drove past this a little after 8 and they already had ambulances there. Bloomfield was a disaster.
I had to detour off Ave. B to the south then down to Grove. A lot of kids running around in t-shirts, shorts, etc. Guess they didn’t check the weather before they left their parent’s basements tonight.
Jeez, in my day, all we had was “Laserium.” And that was in a planetarium, for god’s sake. And there was very little biting in those days.
There are a bunch of drunk kids on Willow St and 8 officers giving direction and keeping people moving, not to mention the patrol cars that are moving through the parking lot. Crazy. It’s like Diva never left.
Did the Wellmont bring in the Jersey Shore cast?
Do the venues not screen what sort of events they host? I mean seriously, let’s host a function that is going to target a bunch of drunk teenagers and then be surprised when a bunch of drunk teenagers show up and cause problems.
The town should sue the blackout tour for all the overtime in MPD/MFD, etc. that we’re all going to be paying for because of this.
Mass casualty = a human bite?
Also: Love the “shiny shorts with knee socks” photo…
Oops! Whoever is in charge of screening the acts ought to have been fired by 9:30.
Second picture: woman with a yellow top and pink shorts, caption underneath: “Debbie Galant is on the scene now and reports:” So yes, I thought that was Debbie Galant for a moment.
Hold on a second–a bite? Crap, damn kids have started the zombie apocalypse. As if NJ didn’t have a bad enough reputation already…
I went to get lottery tickets and saw the impending doom. I lot of d-bags, stoner frat boys, bros, guidettes, raver girls. The air was thick with Axe body spray. It’s basically a stupid rave for mall rats. Their parents must be really proud.
I’m a block away and hear the sirens. If I don’t live through the night, avenge my death.
Hope the Wellmont gets some angry neighbors pounding on their door about appropriate shows. We put up with enough irresponsible crap with Diva down here to let this kind of thing happen again.
My hat is off to the three officers who just moved a drunk guy arguing with them out of the way of an oncoming ambulance. Some jobs are truly thankless.
Is it April 1st already?
Looks like most of them are from Long Island.
Wait until Regina Spektor comes to town. They might need to call in the national guard.
From what I’m reading on the social media, the Barstool Blackout Tool is a college tour thing, so time to point some fingers at Montclair State.
As a side note, the similiar Electric Daisy Festival is coming to the Meadowlands May 19-20, Stay away from Rt. 3 that weekend.
This is awesome.
Whatever you do, don’t go twitter and search barstool or montclair, you will loose your faith in humanity.
In truth (though some ight find this relatively shocking), this doenn’t sound much different than your average summertime Saturday night in Seaside Heights. It’s perhaps just that they probably handle this sort of thing much more often down in Ocean County. (And what, nobody above has ever been to Joey HArrison’s Surf Club in Ortley Beach?)
So perhaps the ostensibly appalled posters above (and this incoudes thee, walleroo) simply never got out much themselves during their own “bright college years.”
As for the comment about most of the wild youth looking as if they all hail from LI, really, that’s both snobbish and astoundingly naive. There is as much tackiness in Wayne, Garfield, Belleville and even good old Baristaville as there is in Islip, Patchogue and Melville.
The downside of ending one of these events before it even begins: we now have more than 2000 teenagers in various stages of inebriation trying to navigate our streets while under the influence of booze, ecstasy and other mind altering substances. I think it is safe to say this is a night you probably want to stay indoors.
I guess Cathar is willing to tolerate this particular youthful disturbance because it’s a horse of a different color.
I blame Larry Hunt’s appearance tonight at Trumpets for this madness – everyone knows that it’s those crazy jazz-loving martini-drinking types who cause riots in the streets of Montclair. Our Jersey Shore wannabes were probably taking in modest quantities of grain alcohol and ecstasy before the notes of that rave-inducing trumpeter worked them into a frenzy.
There is as much tackiness in Wayne, Garfield, Belleville and even good old Baristaville as there is in Islip, Patchogue and Melville.
I grew up in Patchogue, but I never saw a press on fingernail or someone wearing high heels with sweatpants till i moved to Jersey. I did, however, see many more halter tops and cotton rib knit tube tops on Long Island. So I guess it’s a tomato/tomahto thing. At any rate, thank you for the defense of Long Island, Cathar, and for considerately not bringing up the spectacle of tack known as the Nassau Coliseum.
I’ve lived in NJ for most of my life, and have never seen high heels and sweatpants. Where is the native habitat of that particular style?
FREAKNIK COMES TO MONTCLAIR!!!
FINALLY, I now know what the oddly titled, “Baristanet SIRENS” is… For weeks I thought it was this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODlmEjZ8UFA
Still, the Wellmont needs to do a better job at anticipating who might be showing up.
Now if I can only figure out what BNN is…
My comment about LI still stands. I saw crowds of them stumbling over to the train station. Yes, we have our fair share of the tackiness here, but this seems more indigenous to the south shore.
BNN= breaking news network, ie EMS alerts.
CCC, I’m no big an of electronic music, but the Electric Daisy Carnival and the Wellmont thing are two very different animals. Electric Daisy is a music festival. They put a high importance on the line-up. Look at photos. People standing around looking at a stage.
This thing was billed as a party. Not a concert, not a well known DJ, just a party. These kids weren’t coming to see a favorite artist or enjoy the music. They were coming to party and get wasted.
OMG—the anorak and patchouli set arguing over sweatpants and tubetops… LOL!!!
Tha main point of this story here is missed–I LIVE on Walnut and there were HUNDREDS of kids running on the sidewalk and in the middle of the street, throwing things, banging on cars and bothering patrons of restaurants on my street. People here are trying to make money in a bad economy, not deal with stupid spoiled middle class WHITE brats who think they are above the law. AS far as I know, Ive never seen people from the Surf Club (I was more of a Loop Lounge, Aldos person, admittedly) running the streets like lunatics. I was secretly praying one would get hit by a car…then it would be a “tragedy”. Boo Hoo…
I really thought (when I ran to the phone and called the cops) that this was a senior prank. RAVERS??? We did that at Limelight in 1991. CANT these spoiled little brats find something ORIGINAL to do????
I loved Aldo’s!
OK- so I live on the same block as the Wellmont, on Bloomfield Ave. Up until around 10:30pm you could hear loud kids outside. (I thought they were in high school- I can’t tell the difference between h.s. and college age anymore.)
All in all, we were not really disturbed by all the yelling outside as it did stop about 10pm… with a few wanderers after that. What REALLY pissed me off was a few girls, “scantily” dressed, hanging out in our stairwell, calling their moms (loudly) about the whole thing and how they want a refund for their tickets. (Thanks to whomever in my building didn’t lock the front door!)
I went out into the hallway to kick them out. Sorry you’re cold, but maybe you shouldn’t dress in rags while it still feels like winter outside. I almost felt bad that I kicked them out, but really kids? Really?
“I was secretly praying one would get hit by a car…then it would be a “tragedy”. Boo Hoo…”. Old Bag is just mad that her raving days at the Limelight are now just a fading memory. “I RAN to the phone to call the cops.” That you didn’t have a heart attack on your race to the phone is the “tragedy”.
OLD BAG…LOL. A moron little brat wishing he experienced as much REAL music and scene as I did..instead of being a wanna-be.
People are trying to MAKE MONEY in this town (im sure your mommy and daddy bankroll you-so you have no concept-get your head out of your ass) ADULTS are trying to make money and dont need selfish brats running and screaming affecting it in any way. PEOPLE that worked hard have NICE CARS they struggled to get dont want ingrates touching it.
Work a day in your life then open your trap. GROW UP.
This must have been really annoying for the people who live near the Welmont. I would have been annoyed too. That said, do any of you remember what it was like to be young and a little wild? Or have you always been a bunch of squares? Kids will be kids and they will continue to exercise questionable judgment and fashion choices. We did too and it wasn’t that long ago. Breathe, everyone. BREATHE.
Well…Like I said-I hung out at ALL the places…Alcatrazz, The Limelight, The Loop, Club USA, Save the robots…All kinds of clubs. I dont recall anyone running thru the streets hitting peoples cars and knocking people over. I used to be out from Tues-Sunday every week. Not the point. Wellmont should have researched better…if you look at the FB page you can see what morons they are. Where I live and pay LOTS of money for car, parking, rent (yes rent close to 2K a month) I dont need to deal with this crap. WE are aeveral blocks from the Wellmont too…so this is totally out of control. IF we lived next door…well, I wouldnt live next door to a live music venue….
Anything called – “The world’s largest blacklight party” is indeed a rave. If the Welmont or promoter didn’t know that then stupid just found a new level.
WOW! This is amazing! We had our fun back in the day but never like this…usually it involved pallets and bonfires at the beach, along with lots of plastic cups. Maybe someone would back up the car, open the hatch and crank up the tunes. Occasionally there’d be a wanderer or two roaming away in the dark, but we certainly didn’t get loaded and then run amok in the streets.
Kids *did* descend on Tijuana to party, but even then everyone was very, very cautious, due to advice like “Don’t even step off the curb on a red light because they will put you in jail and you will have to give them all your money and jewelry to get out”.
HEY! I got it! Everyone who had to be herded away last night who is a non-resident of Montclair gets a $100 invoice for Crisis-Response Fees! Our budget problems are solved!!
Hrh They are not that stupid. They just want to make money any way they can. Maybe if They had to post a bond to cover police ot, damages, street cleanup etc. They would think twice before booking this kind of event.
What am I missing? If you schedule and publicize a “rave,” there’s a pretty good chance that you’re going to get exactly that. As I understand it, these events are basically opportunities for large groups to gather in a venue and take ecstasy. Why else would someone want to stand in a blacklit room and listen to techno music for hours? Simply put, ecstasy is to a rave as beer is to a frat party. The stuff is ubiquitous, but it doesn’t incite violence in the user. This is also a great example of an unintended consequence of the legal drinking age being 21. Since probably a majority of the attendees were over 18, but under 21, they couldn’t get served beer at the event, so they got completely wasted beforehand in their dorm, or worse, in their cars.
And cyndella, do you suppose that the people that lived near the Limelight, which is the only club you mentioned that I’m remotely familiar with, didn’t pay rent or need to go to work in the morning? How quickly we forget…
Wasn’t there a similar episode of pandemonium when one of the Jersey Shore luminaries was scheduled to appear a few months ago at some other club nearby, and the kids were running through traffic all over Bloomfield Ave.?
I do want to say, that despite all the chaos outside my apartment last night, I think the Montclair police (and other towns’ police) did a great job. I wasn’t outside during all this, but it seems that they were able to disperse the crowds without violence, etc. (Of course, if they weren’t MSU kids maybe that would have been different?)… I’m just glad it didn’t last till after 10:30pm…
“What am I missing? If you schedule and publicize a ‘rave,’ there’s a pretty good chance that you’re going to get exactly that.”
Stop being logical, deadeye: this is Baristanet and we must all respond according to our socioeconopolitical profiles! Down with the punky ravers! Up with the patchouli sniffing old bags!
What’s on the Wellmont schedule for Saurday? We have reservations at Acappello and don’t want to be disturbed during our soup course!
Aldo’s, I lived in that place, Sunday night ‘depression Night “. Loop Lounge and the old Hits ville….great times.
Anyway, I’m sympathetic to many of the Barstoolers. Kids come from all over to attend an event that was well publicized for weeks (one that Montclair officials and the Wellmont should have been well aware of what it’s about) ….then they get kicked out in the street in a strange place (for many of them) and left trying to figure out how to get home.
Bottom line this wasn’t handled well at all by the Wellmont or the MPD that closed it up. They all should have known what they were getting into long before the doors opened.
“Well…Like I said-I hung out at ALL the places…Alcatrazz, The Limelight, The Loop, Club USA, Save the robots…All kinds of clubs. I dont recall anyone running thru the streets hitting peoples cars and knocking people over.
Cyn…I lived down the block from Danceteria and around the corner from the Limelight. Trust me, I heard you and your friends screaming at that top of your lungs at 3am, breaking beer bottles on the curb, and purposely setting off car alarms. Maybe you were too high to remember that you were doing it?
I saw the Beastie Boys at Danceteria ..also Aztec Camera. I was under age with the worst 42nd St. bodega made ID you ever saw.
Old folks getting all wee-wee-up over kids having fun.
Take heart, in a few years these kids’ll be the same rowdy folks lining up outside of Raymond’s on a Saturday night.
Will the Wellmont be giving them their money back?
If you rent a place near a club you know what to expect. Inebriated people coming and going all night long. If it’s a concert venue like the Wellmont , it has an end time when the crowd leaves at the same time. Kick the crowd out before the expected time with no place to go and you are asking for an incident.
“Old folks getting all wee-wee-up over kids having fun.”
Not exactly, Prof. If this was a resort town at the shore, I might give it a pass but this is in a residential nabe on a Thursday night where people have to get up the next day and go to work. Not to mention the underage drinking and the resultant hospitalizations. And, as another poster pointed out, they get in their cars and drive in that condition. So yeah, it’s all fun and games until someone ends up in the hospital or gets hit by a car.
BTW, who owns the Wellmont? My advanced age has affected my memory.
Aztec Camera!!! I thought I was the only person on the planet that knows who they were!
A concert being cancelled early does not, and should not, equate to kids roaming the streets yelling and acting up. I understand if they were outside the Wellmont doing that, but they were walking all over downtown Montclair. It’s really not excusable.
Like I said, I wasn’t even too bothered by it… but please, don’t act like kids have a right to disturb all of downtown Montclair because they showed up drunk and high (and underage) and were pissed off, when they were the reason the show was shut down.
The kids were being kids. It’s the adults at the Wellmont up over whom we should get all wee-wee. (Sorry, I only paraphrase Churchill when it’s absolutely necessary.)
Aztec Camera, the pride of Scotland.
Once again, Barstool blackouts are posted all over the internet. They are well publicized. If I owned a concert hall or a club and someone wanted to be booked I’d certainly look into who and what they are and what to expect. This is 100% fault of the people that booked it.
Shpongle is coming on May 5.
While I am a frequent reader of both this site and Barstool Sports, the min I saw that their concert/rave/party was going on at the Wellmont I knew it couldnt end well. Most of Barstool’s events have been held relatively close to a college campus, within walking distance, or at a neutral site with busses to and from. Unfortunately last night both the blog and the wellmont learned that this was neither the case. While montclair is certainly an extremely eclectic town with a lot to offer, it has never been stress-tested when it comes to the 18-23 demographic. While one could argue enough children return home for breaks and so forth im referring more to a constant stream of events etc at/around most college campuses. Although I am young (in my early 20’s) i do understand the argument that “kids” should not be spilling into the street/causing a disturbance after an event gone awry. at the same time we must ask the Wellmont why did they not do their fair share of due-diligence in regards to this type of event, let alone schedule it for a thursday with the event curfew in place. All signs pointed to fail on this one. We can complain about overtime pay and all these other issues but at the same time at least the town will A) maybe have more of a role in checking out the talent that rolls through to preform as well as B) be able to proactively mitigate such similar risks in the future.
So, I’m walking south on Seymour Street with my friends Jason and Frank after having had a luscious dinner at Spice II Thai restaurant, and we encounter this mob of hundreds – maybe a thousand – of young 20-somethings outside the Wellmont Theater.
There were cops and fire trucks and EMS vehicles all over the place, and a few of the kids – many of whom bore marked resemblance to the cast of “Jersey Shore” – were sitting handcuffed on the ground outside the Wellmont.
Everybody was chanting something, a word that I thought initially was “Barsoom” (the name for the planet “Mars” in the Martian language from Edgard Rice Burroughs’ “John Carter on Mars” novels.) But the word they were chanting was in fact “Barstool,” apparently the name of the musical act they were hoping to hear. Seems as though there are a number of bands with the name: “Barstool Prophets” and “Barstool Saints” among them. Not quite sure which group our young friends were waiting on!
Anyhow, another fun night in downtown Montclair! Haven’t seen this much going-on since last year’s “Snookie Riot”
I’m sure to run into a buzz saw with this comment, but drinking was legal in NJ when I was 18. By raising the drinking age, the now illicit practice has spawned an arguably more reckless behavior than it was meant to eliminate in many cases. Kids will now tend to drink as much as they can, as fast as possible, prior to an event at which they probably would have behaved much more responsibly if allowed to drink legally. Bartenders tend not to serve someone who is visibly stupefied. Being carted off to the hospital for alchohol poisoning at eight o’clock in the evening would support this premise.
Ahh, It’s so nice to be retired. I remember going to parties and clubs. Drinking and smoking way too much. I also remember promising myself that I would NEVER become that Old Bag that has to race to the phone to call the cops because some one else may be having too much fun. If you live next to a club deal with it or move. I hope you realize that this WILL happen again, I guarantee it. Enjoy!
Barstool? Oh Bill…………….
Anyway, Deadeye you are 100% correct. Having been a college student that never made the drinking age and now having one that is not of age we both have talked about “pre-gaming” . It may be a bit over 20 yrs since I graced the college campuses but the strategy is still the same. The only difference is that in my day you just weren’t allowed in a club if you weren’t of age. Now clubs have bands for o/u 21 to tap into both markets. I don’t recall that being the case back then ( I could be wrong). Also as my college ager tells me that even if you are of age pre-gaming is more popular than ever because the price of drinks are to high when they get inside.
I’m for a 19 year old drinking age personally.
You may be onto something there, deadeye. To get around 11 pm pub closings, young Brits used to order several pints at last call and down them before taking to the streets, where many of them would promptly, uh, well… it wasn’t pretty.
I think Deadeye is right. I remember going to clubs in the city when I was even younger than 18. There was no pre gaming.
You gotta Fight for your Right to Party!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evA-R9OS-Vo
We were drinking in bars at 16 ( 18 was legal, although I always missed it when they moved to 19 then 21) and it was always under the watchful eye of the staff and you watched yourself. If someone was drunk or misbehaved they had to leave and were banned. I think that taught us not to get blacked out drunk because establishments wouldn’t tolerate that. Now unfortunately its how blasted you can get before you go out. Its same for sporting events. I go to alot of Yankee games and there is no shortage of 15+ yr olds showing up blasted from drinking on the train or lot.
“Bottom line this wasn’t handled well at all by the Wellmont or the MPD that closed it up. They all should have known what they were getting into long before the doors opened.”
Agreed, their should be some NYPD style intel gathering on groups, websites and locations that could cause us issues. Fore warned is fore armed and all that.
Sounds like a lot of us had similar experiences. Fond memories of long ago that oddly don’t seem like that long ago. The “gaming” phenomenon is scary, as Herb says. I saw it last up in VT at a ski lodge where a kid came down into the common area/bar clearly smashed from drinking in his room looking to pick a fight because he thought people were looking at him funny for being drunk….
Dane…sorry to burst your bubble, but im a tad “straight edge”—im sure youve done WAYYYYY more drugs than me. IM 43 and have yet to smoke POT.
ASIDE from that—I dont think many here saw what I saw–there were HUNDREDS of kids running-RUNNING from the Walnut train station down toward Eagans literally knocking people over and throwing sh*t at cars–IN THE STREET and on the SIDEWALK. THATS “just being a kid”????? And for the record I was too busy looking fashionable to be running in the streets screaming. The kids should take the aditude to NYC and let those cops crack some skulls, because I am sure they would not hesitate. Permissive parents, this is what its come to. NO ONES business or private property off limits. WALNUT is three LONG blocks from the Wellmont–soo……
Deadeye, I grew up in NY where the age was also 18, which meant on my 18th birthday I celebrated at the bar where I had already been a regular for close to three years. When I went to Boston to college, the drinking age there was 21, but the only places thar checked IDs were the bars that advertised they were college places. The gin joints in Scollay Square and the Combat Zone cared only about the veracity of your money.
It just isn’t mayhem on Bloomfield Ave without Snookie.
Is there any way we can get this conversation back to Aztec Camera? Knife is one of my favorite songs of all time.