After a fan struck Bebe Rexha in the face with a cellphone during a June 18 show in New York, should the music industry consider banning mobile devices at concerts? For years, touring stars such as Bob Dylan, Jack White and Dave Chappelle have said video-recording on phones have detracted from the live experience — and that was before the airborne cellphone assault went viral on social media. But, experts say, change won’t happen immediately.
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While celebrities and musicians including Demi Lovato, John Stamos, Hayley Kiyoko and Lauren Jauregui all expressed concern for Rexha after she was rushed to a hospital and shared a photo of a black eye after the incident, Steven Adelman, vice president of the Event Safety Alliance, says, “This is not going to change anything — yet.”
“But,” he adds, “it’s the first crack in a wall that eventually is going to fall.”
Whether cellphones take away from the concert-going experience is not a new debate — but Rexha’s attack is the first major case of the devices being used for a violent act. Just last year, Silk Sonic‘s Bruno Mars griped, “With the cameras, you’re like, ‘I don’t know if I want to try out this dance move tonight.’”
“I’ve always thought, at some point, there would be a ban on cellphones because it violates an important piece of intellectual property for the artist — their live performance,” Adelman says. The challenge, he continues, is fans carry mobile tickets on phones and pay for merch and concessions via online-billing apps such as Apple Pay: “There are obviously very strong competing interests here.”
The Rexha concert incident at The Rooftop at Pier 17 is unlikely to spread, though: The alleged assailant, Nicolas Malvagna, said in a criminal complaint that he thought “it would be funny” to throw the phone. He was arraigned June 19 on harassment and assault charges, both misdemeanors. “The key here is that person was arrested and will be prosecuted, and that sends a great message: ‘You can’t do this,’” says David Yorio, who co-owns Citadel Security Agency, which works with concerts and festivals in New York. “There’s no impunity from this.” (The man who slapped Ava Max during a concert Tuesday night in Los Angeles, in contrast, was hauled away but has not been criminally charged.)
Promoters can continue to ban phones at certain events, “just another layer” of security and logistics, Yorio adds, but for larger events, like festivals, “Logistically, it’s a nightmare.”
Certain artists’ anti-phone sentiment is so robust that a startup, Yondr, has spent the last nine years providing pouches for fans to store their phones before attending concerts. Adelman is sympathetic to this approach because artists make most of their money off touring these days, and exclusive concert footage shouldn’t have to turn into free social media content against their will. “People who can just raise their cellphone and hit record are essentially violating a contract with the artist, which is [to] be part of the show-going experience,” he says.
But he adds: “People should not throw phones. And you can quote me on that.”
