It’s hard out here for a Juggalo. Just ask Sarah Hastings, devoted Insane Clown Posse fan who took to the stage at a concert in St. Petersburg, then took a dive after slipping in the band’s boisson de guerre, Faygo soda. While Faygo showers are a normal element of ICP’s live shows, Hastings claims the venue’s staff should have done better to ensure the floor “was not left in a slippery and dangerous condition.”
Hastings slipped and fell off the stage, according to her lawsuit against concert hall Jannus Live and Signature Security Services who were hired to provide security for the show. Notably absent from the list of defendants? Insane Clown Posse.
ICP Slip and Fall
Also missing from the suit, according to the Tampa Bay Times? Specifics regarding Hastings’ injuries. The Times reports Hastings was at the concert when ICP members started spraying crowd members with the soda, then invited fans on stage. According to the suit, however, venue and security staff failed to “correct the dangerous condition of an overcrowded stage by helping and assisting concertgoers over the barricades and onto the stage.” Yet Hastings doesn’t seem to blame the band, as ICP itself, and front men Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, aren’t named in the lawsuit.
The conflict of the band’s culpability echoes litigation from last year, when a woman, struck in the eye by an errant two-liter Faygo bottle at a Dallas concert, sued the band while maintaining her fandom. “Although Plaintiff found out that she may get Faygo soda sprayed on her,” D. Darling’s lawsuit alleged, “Plaintiff had no way of knowing that she would be assaulted by being struck in the eye with a filled 2-liter bottle projected from the stage by ICP … Prior to the concert, Plaintiff was a fan of ICP’s recorded music (and remains a fan as of today).”
Juggalos and Judges
Legally speaking, ICP is best known for its ongoing battle with the FBI, whose 2011 National Gang Intelligence Center Report designated Juggalos a “loosely-organized hybrid gang” and that “although recognized as a gang in only four states, many Juggalos subsets exhibit gang-like behavior and engage in criminal activity and violence.” Just last month, a federal court tossed the band’s legal challenge to the designation, on the grounds that it wasn’t a “final agency action,” leaving the gang member label intact.
Related Resources:
- Juggalo Sues Insane Clown Posse Concert Venue After Slipping On Faygo (International Business Times)
- Juggalos v. G-Men: Insane Clown Posse Lawsuit Against FBI Reinstated (FindLaw’s Celebrity Justice)
- Insane Clown Posse Sued Over Alleged Harassment (FindLaw’s Celebrity Justice)
- Insane Clown Posse Sues FBI: ‘Juggalo’ Fans Not a Gang (FindLaw’s Courtside)