Snoop's Stabbing and Stampede

I was jamming to my ipod today, zoning out the endless commotion of the city around me - when none other than snoop d o double g came on. You know those particular songs or artists that so vividly bring you back to one memory or point in time? Well Snoop does that for me. A couple of years ago I went to a music festival in Buenos Aires where the headliner was Snoop. My friends and I were so pumped, rapping lyrics to each other for weeks beforehand - Laaaaid back, got my mind on my money and my money on my mind. We got to the concert, SHOCKED that they didn't sell alcohol. How could that be at a festival of 55,000 people? They seemed to have the security down pat in that respect. We quickly left the concert premises, sprinted to a nearby pizza joint, chugged a couple of litros of quilmes (mmhm quilmes), and headed back in. We heard some good music, but mostly we were just waiting for Snoop.

And waited we did! Our initial excitement turned into annoyance and then exhaustion. After a while we had lost most of our steam and were sitting on the ground. 

People were continually shouting Snoop, Snoop! but he was still nowhere to be found. All of a sudden we heard footsteps, thousands of footsteps! We looked up to see the entire audience racing away from the stage and toward us. We jumped up as fast as humanly (tipsily) possible and joined the stampede so as not to be trampled to death. It felt remarkably like the scene from The Lion King when Mufasa dies *tear*. I didn't want that to be my fate. 

I practically had a heart attack. Once the crowd slowed, I noticed that my wallet miraculously went missing (the first of MANY pickpocketing incidents, 6 but who's counting?). My friend lost her cell phone and a sandal in the commotion, but picked up a stray converse sneaker, wrong foot, no problem.

Turns out the cause for the commotion was actually a gunshot and a STABBING. We decided not to risk it by staying for Snoop's performance but apparently he came out minutes later, and put on quite a show, not phased in the slightest, in true gangsta' fashion. I'm sooo glad that they were cautious enough to monitor drinking, but allowed guns and knives into the concert no problem. This incident was not reported in the media, part of a publicity cover-up which was perhaps the most disturbing part of the whole thing. It is with regret and nostalgia that I now listen to Snoop, bringing me back to my first South American brush with death. I kid...sort of....