A Central Park concert meant to raise global consciousness about poverty turned into a hellish stampede, a lawsuit charges.
Alison Goldberg, 47, says she was “trampled, pummeled, assaulted … due to stampede-like conditions” at the Global Citizen Festival on Sept. 29, 2018.
Janet Jackson, The Weeknd and Cardi B headlined the free concert on the Great Lawn. The melee began just after Cardi B finished her set, and Jackson was due to take the stage.
Hundreds of screaming audience members panicked after they mistook the sound of a barrier collapse for gunfire, according to published and NYPD reports.
Seven concert-goers suffered injuries from being shoved against a wall in the chaos, police said. Goldberg, who was visiting from Florida, suffered head injuries, memory loss and has “major psychological issues,” her attorney, Jennifer Snider, told The Post. “It was horrifying. Clearly there was not enough security to oversee this crowd.”
The Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit charges the city and concert organizers had “insufficient and inadequate manpower” and were “negligent” in allowing the Great Lawn to become a “dangerous” venue.
“People were convinced it was a shooting,” an attendee from the UK told The Post at the time. “It was really frightening.”
In the middle of the mayhem, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, who curated the event, told the crowd, “Nobody is trying to hurt anybody, and you’re all safe, OK?”
The suit names the city, Live Nation, and the Global Poverty Project as defendants.