I'll never forget being at ACL a few years ago with a former girlfriend that wanted to get as close as possible to the stage for Eminem. We were probably 10 people off the stage and I just remember the crowd swaying and not being able to control your own body. I tried to keep her in front of me, seeing as I'm a pretty big guy and tried to keep the crowd movements from slamming against her. I'll never forget being in the middle of a wide open field and feeling like I was suffocating, just looking up to the sky to try and get a breath. Looking behind me and just seeing a mass of people as far as my eyes could go, it was surreal.
The next night was Pearl Jam (the band I was really there for) and she wanted to get super close again but I wasn't going to go through the same experience. I was perfectly fine being back a ways and not dealing with the mass of people again.
I know a few people that knew one of the kids that died this weekend. I covered him when he was a basketball/football player at one of our local high schools, just a tragic event!