8 Unbreakable Rules To Ensure You’re Not A Jerk At Concerts
Catherine Garcia presents yet another list of what not to do at concerts (more around the web to be sure) as the summer season heats up. Here is Garcia’s list (emphasis mine):
- Put your phone away
- Be nice to the people around you
- Don’t touch people you don’t know
- Practice good hygiene
- Don’t expect to get the perfect spot when you show up late
- Don’t let your voice drown out the singer
- Take a few sips of your drink right after you buy it
- Don’t pretend you’re too cool to care
While all of these items are somewhat important, I emphasize being nice should be numero uno. It’d be great if more concertgoers didn’t grab their smartphones to take a photo or shoot a quick video but the reality is these actions help promote whatever musical act they are seeing. It’s a win-win if the concertgoer has a memento and the music act gets some love on social media.
But being nice is the ultimate goal. Or at least try to be nice. My last night at SXSW was slightly marred by a drunken man who kept bumping into me and everyone around me because he was trying to find his phone that dropped out of the heavens. As soon as he was pushing us around, we all got mad until he confessed his actions.
Why he didn’t bother mentioning that us before we yelled at him? I have no idea, but it pissed everyone off because we just thought this guy was being a jerk. Had he initially asked for help, we all could’ve helped illuminate the dark ground for him but instead everyone left him to fend for himself. I’m not too proud of not helping him but he didn’t ask for it nor did he seem to want it.