Toro Y Moi plays a sold out show at the Bluebird Theater in Denver on Feb 23, 2013. Walk-through metal detectors will be present at all AEG Live venues like the Bluebird Theater by the end of the year. Photos by Nic Turiciano, heyreverb.com.
In the coming months, music promoter AEG Live Rocky Mountains will roll out walk-through magnetometers at all of their leased venues.
Tonight’s Lyle Lovett and Emmylous Harris show at the 18,000 Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, which AEG has controlled since 2013, will be the first event to feature the new security measure. Walk-through metal detectors will be used at every concert the venue hosts thereafter.
The metal detectors will come to all other AEG venues by the end of the year according to Brent Fedrizzi, co-president and COO of AEG Live Rocky Mountains. AEG books and promotes the majority of concerts at major Denver venues like the Bluebird Theater, Ogden Theatre, Gothic Theatre and 1stBank Center.
“It’s going to take a couple of months to get everything dialed in, but the units are here,” Fedrizzi said.
Walk-through metal detectors are already used for venues like the Pepsi Center and Coors Field, which primarily host sporting events, but the decision is a first for Denver’s concert venues.
Though AEG Live Rocky Mountains is on the forefront for walk-through metal detectors at their venues, Fedrizzi said he thinks the use of metal detectors will be a nationwide company mandate soon. “Like any big project, it will take some time to implement.”
Fedrizzi said the metal detectors are a matter of AEG Live doing its “due diligence” to protect its patrons. Concerns over safety at concerts has risen since 130 people were slain at an Eagles of Death Metal concert at the Bataclan, a Parisian music venue, in December 2015 by armed assailants. Eagles of Death Metal will play the Ogden Theatre on July 19.
Fedrizzi called the band’s show in Denver and the timing of the new security measurements a coincidence, but said the incident at the Bataclan spurred conversation in the industry about concert safety. “I don’t know if that was the main reason, but it was one of many,” he said.
Once in place, everyone inside of an AEG-leased venue in Denver would be required to pass through a metal detector, artists included. Concert-goers who leave the venue for any reason will be re-screened. Fredrizzi admits this will likely result in longer lines, but said he thinks fans’ peace of mind will be worth the wait.
“The same rules are in place (for prohibited items), but we now have technology on our side to enforce them,” he added.
Though AEG are the first promoter to permanently implement metal detectors, Fedrizzi thinks other venues around Denver should and will follow suit. “The venues that have the wherewithal to (install walk-through metal detectors) should do it,” he said.
Red Rocks Amphitheatre, which unlike most major Denver venues is not booked exclusively by any one promotional company, is not affected by the decision, but has discussed implementing walk-through metal detectors.
“The challenge for us is where you’d put them,” said Red Rocks Amphitheatre venue director Tad Bowman.
As an intermediary step, Red Rocks has begun using metal detector wands at all of their shows in the last couple of weeks. In the past, the venue would only wand patrons at certain concerts, “depending on the nature of the show.” Bowman said that the decision of whether or not to use the wands at a given show was based on genres that “might have more of that activity.” He did not expand on the genres in question.
LiveNation, which also books Red Rocks Amphitheatre in addition to the majority of concerts at Denver’s Fillmore Auditorium, could not be reached for comment.
AEG Live did not make any official announcement to the public ahead of tonight’s new security policy at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre. “From our perspective, it’s an internal operational decision,” Fedrizzi said. “Rather than make an announcement, we’re just implementing it and letting people with questions come to us.”
Madden took a different tack. “I don’t think they wanted people to get nervous.”
By Dylan Owens
[Thank you to Alex Teitz, http://www.femmusic.com, for contributing this article.]