Crowd surfing

Crowd surfing, also known as body surfing, is the process in which a person is passed overhead from person to person (often during a concert), transferring the person from one part of the venue to another. The "crowd surfer" is passed above everyone's heads, with everyone's hands supporting the person's weight. At most concerts and festivals the crowd surfer will be passed towards a barrier in front of the stage by the crowd, where they will be pulled off and put on their feet by the security stewards. Then, they will be sent back to the side or rear of the crowd at the end of the barrier or they may be ejected from the venue (depending on the policy enforced).

Crowd surfing generally occurs only towards the front of an audience where the crowd is dense enough to support a person's body. It is most popular at metal, punk, rock, rave and indie concerts.

In order to get above everyone's heads, a person can be given a boost, in which one person picks up another to launch them over the people's heads, or they can stage dive.

This has been known to happen to unwilling participants who have been boosted up by others by surprise, in which case, those participants may also be ejected.

Iggy Pop may have invented crowd surfing during the Cincinnati Summer Pop Festival (Midsummer Rock Festival) of 1970. Joe "King" Carrasco appears in the first documented video of crowd surfing in the 1981 Rock Video "Party Weekend". Fans have reported that Peter Gabriel crowd surfed at concerts as early as 1982 during performances of "Lay Your Hands on Me". The first official media release that depicts Gabriel crowd surfing was POV, a live concert video released in 1990 and produced by Martin Scorsese. When Billy Joel crowdsurfed in a concert during his 1987 concert tour of the Soviet Union, bandmate Kevin Dukes described it as the "Peter Gabriel flop".

Crowd surfing is illegal in some countries and patrons can, in theory, be ejected from the venue for partaking in the act. This is usually written in the fine print of the concert or festival ticket.

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