When the ‘Lovers and Friends Festival’ was announced back in the Spring of 2020, many speculated that the star-studded bill (which featured some of the hottest R&B and Hip Hop acts from the 90s and 00s) was too good to be true.
Many began calling foul on the first-annual event, but it turned out the event indeed was legit with performances scheduled from Usher, TLC, Ja Rule & Ashanti, Ciara, Nelly, Ludacris, Lauryn Hill, Brandy, Monica, Lil Kim, Foxy Brown just to name a few.
Lovers & Friends was initially supposed to take place in Los Angeles in May 2020, and was then delayed until August when all springtime events were canceled debut to the pandemic. It was then ultimately pushed back indefinitely as most events were. In 2021 it was announced that the show was back on and set for May 2022, now with promoter Livenation to take place in Las Vegas.
The two-day Live Nation event was finally held this weekend at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds on Saturday, May 14, and Sunday, May 15. Despite the intense heat, the crowds came out in full force, but it appears that things were quite chaotic and even traumatizing for concert-goers as the day went on.
Attendees took to social media early in the day to vent their initial frustrations over confusing stage locations, performance times, restroom availability, conflicting information from the event organizers, and of course the sweltering heat. Many vented about the “free water” stations that attendees were told they could go to to stay hydrated but ultimately were forced to wait in extremely long lines just to receive warm and hot water.
Additionally, several artists ultimately had to pull out including Brandy, Eve, Foxy Brown but this was announced early in the day to notify fans. Later, more artists were reportedly complete no-shows at all with no advance notice.
Things apparently got worse as the night went on with a huge security incident taking place which caused a stampede and chaotic scene after reports of reported gunshots.
Concert-goers described a rush of people around 10:30 p.m. as thousands ran for the exits and some were trampled. Several attendees reported hearing a gunshots but this was later confirmed by local authorities to be false.
Get into just some of the comments from concertgoers in the L&F posts below from their social media.
Something happened at the Lovers & Friends festival. Sounds like it may have been a false alarm. pic.twitter.com/2SFIGr1kw0
— Las Vegas Locally 🌴 (@LasVegasLocally) May 15, 2022
Day 2 is currently underway and organizers are making sure to correct the mistakes of yesterday.
