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Crowd Grows Violent After Marilyn Manson, Slipknot Concert Canceled

BURGETTSTOWN (KDKA) -- A thunderstorm turned fans violent Saturday night at the First Niagara Pavilion.

The storm knocked out the power, forcing the cancellation of the Marilyn Manson and Slipknot concert just moments after the show began.

A YouTube video shows Saturday's Marilyn Manson concert getting off to a good start. The singer was the opening act for the group Slipknot at the First Niagara Pavilion, near Burgettstown. But after the first few songs, a night of fun and music quickly became a night to forget. First, lightning flashed, then the rain came.

"He kept having to stop a couple times," Post-Gazette reporter Scott Mervis said. "The crowd was getting drenched. The water was coming into the Pavilion. Like, the rain was going sideways, so the water was just, like, raining on everybody in the entire venue."

That was the beginning of the end.

Mervis was there to do a music review.

"There was about an hour and a half delay, like you would get at a baseball game, which I have never experienced at a concert before," he said.

KDKA's Bob Allen was told that when the concert was officially canceled and fans learned they had to leave, things turned ugly.

"They were chanting that word that, you know when an umpire makes a bad call at a game? That's the word they were chanting on the way out the door," Mervis said.\

"They were really mad. I've never been at a show where people have been that mad," a former Pavilion employee, who resigned Sunday, said.

She says many in the angry crowd turned to violence.

"People were threatening to shoot up the place, there were fights, police were getting involved," she said. "They threw things everywhere. We have fences along the lawn, they took the fences along the lawn and threw them down the hill. They were taking anything they possibly could, bashing in windshields."

So far, there's no word from police on the number of people arrested. First Niagara Pavilion officials will only say that fans will be reimbursed for their tickets.

As for the show being rescheduled, Slipknot's lead singer, Corey Taylor, had some good news for fans.

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