Entertainment

The Photos Of Kanye's Cancelled Concert Are CRAZY

Sometimes in the world, there are things that seem like really good ideas, right up until the very moment you do them. That, I assume, is how we ended up with these photos of Kanye West's secret concert and the riot it caused. Although, to be fair, if anyone had asked me whether it would be prudent to stuff the entire audience of Kanye's cancelled Governors Ball show into a much-smaller venue, I would have told you "no no definitely not, please don't do this." But nobody looks to me for advice on their major, city-affecting decisions anymore, so this one went on as scheduled, without my input. Let me explain.

The Governors Ball was originally supposed to take place on New York's Governors Island from Jun. 3-5, before its final day was cancelled due to "severe weather and a high likelihood of lightning in the area." And, since music festivals typically save their headliners 'til the last, that meant that Kanye didn't get an opportunity to perform, and a bunch of people were really bummed out to miss him. Until a beacon of hope appeared. A light through the clouds. In the form of an immediately-rescheduled concert, which I feel like never happens. Normally you have to wait for all the red tape of a cancellation to go through before the rescheduling ever happens, but, on Jun. 5, the pieces kept falling into place, and suddenly there was a concert on the books for 2:00am on Jun. 6 at New York City's Webster Hall, which Kanye announced via his Instagram.

It quickly sold out, as you might expect from a stage that isn't a literal island, but instead a 1,500-person capacity venue. But people didn't let that stop them, instead flooding the streets around Webster Hall in the early hours of Jun. 6 and causing a near-riot. I wasn't there, but, let me tell you, these photos of the amount of people packed into the East Village are giving me enough anxiety to feel like I was! Take a look.

Good luck moving that mail truck, my friend.

I'm honestly having trouble breathing just looking at this amount of people.

I'm obsessed with this shot of Kanye West; it feels like his inner monologue is, "Whoopsie daisies."

And here's a zoomed out version, just to give scale.

Dave Itzkoff gets it.

Bustle editors Samantha Rullo and Tanya Ghahremani were also on site, and neither one of them seemed as overwhelmed as any of us by the crush of people. Which might be because they're not Nervous Nellies like me and had a great time. Here are some their shots from the ground.

Law enforcement was on-site to help keep things under control, thankfully.

Literal piles of humans.

And a sea of smart phones.

And I hope you didn't leave anything lying around in the area that you wanted back in its original condition. Because as I mentioned earlier, WHOOPSIE DAISIES.

Ultimately, the rescheduled show itself was cancelled, because hello did you just see all those photos. But I hope we all had a great time while I was snug in my bed and far far away from this claustrophobia-inducing scene.

Additional Reporting By Samantha Rullo and Tanya Ghahremani