It’s a combination of many different things.
The concerts where the there is footage of people fainting are mostly standing concerts.
This means that all the concert tickets were the same price, and to get to the front row / section you had to be at the top of the queue. Fans would often sleep on the street overnight, outside the venue, in order to be at the top of queue.
When you sleep out, in a queue, you really don’t get much sleep, and it can be very uncomfortable as you are sitting /lying on the ground in just a sleeping bag, leaning against a metal barrier and surrounded by people talking.
This means that by the time it’s the day of the concert, you are already tired, and you still have many hours before you enter the arena.
On the day of the concert, many people don’t eat or drink normally because they don’t want to leave the queue in case they lose their place.
When you are queuing, you try to sit down as much as possible, but as the time gets closer to when the gates open, the queue gets tighter and tighter as people try to push forward and you have to stand.
By the time the gates open, you will most likely have been standing for many hours, being pushed and squashed in an excited atmosphere.
Once the gates open and you finally make your way into the stadium and find your “spot, you still have another 2 or 3 hours before Michael is actually onstage.
All of this plus the excitement of seeing Michael is why people faint. It’s because they are dehydrated, exhausted, being pushed and squashed and overcome with seeing Michael.
One of the reasons I always tried to be at the front is, despite what you might think, it’s actually the safest place. When you are are the front, security can see you easier and can help you quickly and when they hand out water you are more likely to get some if you at the front.
For the World Music Awards, in London in November 2006 I went to the venue at around 1am the night before, and was number 25 in the queue. Me and my friend had sleeping bags with us and we sat on the ground, leaning against the metal barriers to try to get as much sleep as possible.
At about 7am, my friend stayed in the queue and I took our sleeping bags back to our hotel and got some food etc. When I got back to the queue, my friend went and did the same.
We queued up all day outside and then inside the venue, and at about 5pm they let us into the arena and I managed to get at the front barrier. You can see me in the crowd footage, at the very end as Michael leaves the stage.
That particular time was very hard and you had to be strong to survive all the pushing and shoving and the heat of everyone being packed soo tightly. Just after Michael left the stage after getting the award and as Rihanna started singing, it got really crazy around me. You can see it if you look very closely at the front of the crowd. People started fainting all around me and security and paramedics gathered really quickly and started pulling people out of the crowd. About 10 people got pulled out; cos it was very very hot and people were really pushing a lot and Michael had just been onstage.
When you are still queuing outside the venue, you start talking to people near you. It’s better if you are with friends but even if you are on your own, it’s very acceptable to say to the either the person in front or behind you “do you mind if I go to the toilet and can you keep my place for me”. After queuing for hours and hours, most people have no problem with this, as more than likely they will want to do the same.
There comes a point in the day, when you know that you can’t leave your place in the queue. By talking to security you will find out when they will let you into the venue and you know you have to take one last pee break. After the last pee break, we normally decide not to eat or drink anymore. Once the venue is open and you have your spot, you won’t be able to pee for many hours, most likely until after the concert.
As for leaving venues after concerts, its doesn’t take that much time to leave. Concert venues are very organised venues and have many exits out of the building. The stewards at the venue will assign a particular entrance to each section and it’s a one way system.
After the World Music Awards, some of my friends made it back to Michael’s hotel at the same time as he did and saw him go into the hotel. I took a little bit longer but still managed to see him again that night as he came out onto the balcony