The Country Music Festival That Continues To Draw Crowds Despite Dangers

Publish date: 2024-05-07

In Rolling Stone's report on the patterns of death and abuse at "Faster Horses," Cambridge Police chief Jeff Paterson — who has worked security at the event — said compared to other large events he experienced, statistics show "Faster Horses" isn't as dangerous as some claim. "Recently, I was involved in a Rolling Stones concert in Detroit, and they were there for basically four hours, and I know how many complaints they took. Hundreds of complaints, assaults, you name it," he said. That's opposed to the Michigan country music festival, which lasts several days.

Paterson said event planners may have at first been ill-prepared for the crowds, as well as incidents of physical and sexual assault and alcohol and drug abuse, but things have improved since then. Speaking with MLive, "Faster Horses" fan Willie Burns, who had a friend die at the event in 2018, said most people are there to listen to music, drink beer, and have a good time. "Then you have the 5% of the people that aren't good, and those are the other stories you hear about," he said. Still, rates of sexual assault at "Faster Horses" are more than five times higher than elsewhere in Michigan. 

At the 2017 event, alone, a 16-year-old girl reported she was sexually assaulted twice. Speaking with Rolling Stone, MLive editor Danielle Salisbury said at "Faster Horses," "There is a chance, and it's a greater chance there than elsewhere, that something bad will happen to you."

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