The Daily Swarm

(photo credit)

Hey, did ya hear about the huge riot at South By Southwest? You know, the one on the bridge Saturday morning, when Fucked Up was playing an unauthorized gig?? When the bridge was buckling and almost collapsed from the 1000 person moshpit?? When all those people had to jump into the river to save their lives as the police looked on helplessly??? Really, you didn’t read about that in the NME EXCLUSIVE????

A riot occurred in the early hours of this morning (March 15) on Lemar Pedestrian Bridge in the midst of the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, during an impromptu party gig by hardcore rockers Fucked Up.

Fucked Up were playing an unofficial gig at around 4AM (CMT), when fans who had attended SXSW gigs earlier in the night began congregating. Soon around 1,000 fans were on the bridge.

Fired up by the music, the fans began to mosh, creating a mosh-pit 30-people wide. The bridge began to buckle and bounce under the weight of the crowd, which prompted many fans to jump into the river to escape.

Police soon arrived at the scene, but realised that they were powerless to halt the riot and could do nothing but wait until it quelled.

Fucked Up’s guitarist, Mike Haliechuck told NME.COM that he thought the bridge was going to collapse, explaining why fans felt they had to jump into the water.

“I could feel the bridge going up and down – it was crazy,” he said. “The police couldn’t do anything, so they just had to wait.”

It is not thought that any fans were hurt in the incident.

Hmmmm, all the local newspapers and television stations must have overlooked this one. Or, maybe the great SXSW 2008 riot just didn’t happen. Daily Swarm reader AS was there, and wrote:

If by riot you mean a 1000 kids having a show on a bridge. They do this every year but it was big this year – no age and fucked up – a free show from 2am-5am. cops came but didn’t bust it. nothing newsworthy happened except that the best sxsw shows weren’t just corporate sponsored unofficial shows but renegade shows too. maybe someone jumped in the water – typical uk press exaggeration.

What, the NME make up something sensational to drive traffic to their website in order to stave off the inevitable, encroaching final emasculation of this once quasi-important bastion of British rock criticism? They’d never do something like that.