A man died at Slipknot's concert in the Chicago area this past weekend, according to Patch.com. Richard Valadez, 62, was pronounced dead at 11:34pm on Sunday night, August 11th.
Other attendees commented that Richard was seen having a great time, and talking up other concertgoers. Valadez was seen moshing at the beginning of Slipknot's set and one fan said he noticed that Valadez was knocked down at least once.
About an hour into Slipknot's set, during their performance of "Sulfur," Valadez was allegedly hit too hard and fell out of the pit. One fan told Patch "He seized as people were trying to help him up, so we start calling for help." It took from 15 to 25 minutes for staff or emergency personnel to even get to Valadez.
Some concertgoers began forming a circle around Valadez so that other attendees didn't accidentally stomp on him.
Two men performed CPR on him. It was not clear Wednesday who those men were. Other people, witnesses said, shined flashlights from their phones and waved their arms to get guards' attention, and several people jumped fences to alert ticket-takers on the other side about the emergency. Witnesses also described seeing men carrying a stretcher toward Valadez. The men reportedly were not wearing emergency uniforms and were dressed as if they were heavy-metal fans attending the concert. It also was not clear who those men were.
Several people who saw what happened said that while they understood it must be difficult for the amphitheater's staff to manage an emergency during a loud concert with thick crowds, they were nevertheless disturbed by what seemed like an unacceptably long amount of time it took to not only reach Valadez, but to get him out of the concert area and to the parking lot.
Accidents happen in the mosh pit, but it seems unfathomable not to have any sort of security or some sort of venue staff present on the lawn area at all times to make sure stuff like this doesn't happen. It's not clear if Valadez was knocked over, or perhaps just happened to suffer a heart attack and then got knocked over. No cause of death has been announced yet.
Our thoughts go out to Valadez's family.
