Friday, July 23 Unruly behavior from those in attendance at the festival was present as early as the second day. Numerous male concertgoers began chanting "show your tits" at actress
Rosie Perez as she introduced
DMX alongside actor
Stephen Baldwin. Annoyed by their chanting, she retorted, "I ain't showing y'all shit!" DMX later performed the song "
My Niggas" and had the crowd chant along with him; media outlets later reacted to this in confusion and outrage, as the overwhelmingly white audience chanted the word "
nigga" along with him. The "show your tits" chant returned during
Sheryl Crow's set, with Crow responding, "You'd have to pay a whole lot more than you paid to get in to see my tits." Crow reported that one audience member had thrown feces at her during her performance of "
My Favorite Mistake". She would later criticize the performance and the festival due to the behavior of the crowd, and stated that she had considered ending her set early out of disgust. She recalled the performance as the "single worst gig I have ever had" in 2019. A fan threw a soda bottle at
the Offspring singer
Dexter Holland during the band's performance of "Have You Ever", but he continued performing unfazed. Toward the end, before their performance of "
Self Esteem", Holland condemned sexual misconduct in the crowd after witnessing numerous women being groped: "Just because a girl wants to go crowd surfing, it doesn't give the guys the right to molest 'em, you know what I'm saying?". Holland later told victims of sexual assault in the crowd to confront the perpetrators and "grab [their] fucking balls!" Halfway in their set, the Offspring lined up five dummies with the faces of each member of the
Backstreet Boys in front of their drum riser during a break in between songs. Holland then began hitting the dummies with a plastic baseball bat, and the crowd joined in by throwing water bottles at them. Some commentators have highlighted this incident as part of a pattern of sometimes violent
rockist sentiment and
machismo expressed by the festival's male performers and attendees, while others felt that it was hypocritical for MTV to promote the festival's heavier rock acts while featuring
boy bands such as the Backstreet Boys on its television and radio programming. To protest the exorbitant price of onsite concessions,
Insane Clown Posse taped $100 bills to several beach balls and kicked them into the crowd during their performance. Members of the audience then fought over the money.
Korn's performance on Friday night considerably riled up the crowd.
Bush frontman
Gavin Rossdale had reportedly expressed anxiety about performing immediately after Korn due to fears that the crowd's energy could turn violent. This sentiment was shared by Korn's
Jonathan Davis, who later admitted that his band's scheduling was mismatched with Bush's and felt he had inadvertently placed Rossdale in a dangerous position. Bush's performance ultimately proceeded without incident and marginally calmed the crowd.
Ryan Miller of
Guster recalled performing in front of a hostile crowd displeased with the band's set. Drummer
Brian Rosenworcel felt they were unfit for the lineup, as most in attendance were impatiently waiting for nu metal or hip-hop acts such as Limp Bizkit or
Ice Cube: "There was this aggressive culture to both the artists that they chose and the audience that they drew, and that is not Guster's bread and butter.... We were a melodic band and [the others were] Limp Bizkit and Korn and even like DMX [and] I was like, What did we get ourselves into?"
Alanis Morissette noted the apathy of the crowd during her set, as a large majority of fans in attendance were waiting for Limp Bizkit's performance; some began booing and chanting "Limp Bizkit" near the end of her set as they grew impatient. Appalled by the prices of concessions, Kid Rock and
Wyclef Jean asked the audience to throw their empty water bottles onstage in between songs.
Limp Bizkit Violence and vandalism would considerably escalate during the evening's performance by Limp Bizkit. Concertgoers also began
moshing violently, visibly destroying nearby structures, and crowd-surfing by utilizing the plywood barriers. Frontman
Fred Durst addressed the crowd following the song "
9 Teen 90 Nine" after being approached by festival staff: "They wanna ask us to ask you to mellow out a little bit. They say too many people are getting hurt. Don't let anybody get hurt, but I don't think you should mellow out. Mellowing out? That's what
Alanis Morissette had you motherfuckers do. If someone falls, pick 'em up." During the song's breakdown, Durst addressed the crowd: ''"Time to reach deep down inside, and take all that negative energy, all that negative energy, and let that shit out of your fucking system. You got girl problems? You got boy problems? You got parent problems? You got boss problems? You got job problems? You got a problem with me? You got a problem with yourself? It's time to take all that negative energy, and put it the fuck out!"'' Once the breakdown ended, concertgoers immediately began destroying smaller buildings adjacent to the stage and aggressively moshing or punching each other. A large number of attendees also began ripping plywood off the perimeter fence as they attempted to surf on the broken panels; this resulted in several pieces collapsing, dropping crowd surfers onto other fans and possibly crushing them. Terrified of the hostile crowd, several stage technicians assigned to cover the central sound tower placed a sign reading "
The Alamo" below the cameras. Following the conclusion of the song, the broadcast team muted Durst's microphone while medical staff took in numerous injured concertgoers. Durst addressed the crowd again during a performance of "
Nookie", telling the audience: ''"We already let all the negative energy out, it's time to reach down and bring that positive energy to this motherfucker. It's time to let yourself go right now, 'cause there are no motherfuckin' rules out there."'' Following "Nookie", Durst walked to the edge of the stage and asked the crowd to assist him as he attempted to crowd-surf on the broken plywood. Security implored Durst not to crowd-surf, but he was undeterred as he asked the crowd to pass him a panel of plywood, on which he later sang "
Faith", closing the band's set. Durst later explained that he had wanted to demonstrate himself enjoying the performance with his audience. Following the set, he was approached by Limp Bizkit manager Peter Katsis and several police officers who informed him that the plywood was ripped off buildings after fans had destroyed multiple structures during his band's performance. John Scher would later vilify Durst for his actions on numerous occasions, noting that numerous staff members had approached Durst between songs, asking him to calm the crowd. Widely blamed for the violence, Durst later stated in an interview, "I didn't see anybody getting hurt. You don't see that. When you're looking out on a sea of people and the stage is twenty feet in the air and you're performing, and you're feeling your music, how do they expect us to see something bad going on?" Jonathan Davis was present for Limp Bizkit's performance along with Korn bassist
Fieldy; Davis initially condemned Durst's conduct, though he would later opine that Durst's actions were not the primary catalyst for the violence.
Nine Inch Nails frontman
Trent Reznor later mocked Durst's actions during the festival in an October 1999 interview with
Rolling Stone, telling interviewers that "Fred Durst can surf a piece of plywood up my ass". Numerous fans reported witnessing further incidents of sexual assault during both Limp Bizkit's and
Metallica's performances.
Sunday, July 25 Due to continually deteriorating conditions, violence and misconduct escalated further throughout the final day. In a 2021 interview,
Jewel recalled a feeling of dread during her performance due to the audience's tension and bitterness; she described them as "really tired and very depleted." She, her manager, and the road crew immediately returned to their tour bus and fled the site following her set. Fans had begun regularly throwing bottles at the stage during her set, as well as Creed's earlier in the day.
Sevendust drummer
Morgan Rose recalled his band being escorted by numerous security guards to the stage for their set as attendees grew increasingly violent following Jewel's performance. Numerous witnesses recalled noticing a growing frequency of fights and property damage across the facility during
Godsmack's performance. The tension came to a head during the concert's final hours, as Red Hot Chili Peppers performed on the east stage and
Megadeth performed on the west stage. One fan shone a laser pointer at Megadeth frontman
Dave Mustaine in the middle of their performance, prompting him to criticize the crowd's behavior. A group of activists, led by the anti-gun violence organization
PAX, had distributed candles to those stopping at their booth during the day, intending them to be lit for a candlelight vigil for the victims of the
Columbine High School massacre during the Chili Peppers' performance of "
Under the Bridge"; this had not been mentioned to or approved by local firefighting authorities. Rome Mayor
Joe Griffo pleaded with the Chili Peppers to return to the stage and calm the crowd in the midst of the chaos. Frontman
Anthony Kiedis exclaimed that there was nothing he could do to quell the aggressive crowd as the fires continued to grow. After the band were convinced to return to the stage, Kiedis remarked of the fires, "Holy shit! It's, uh,
Apocalypse Now out there." Multiple media outlets blamed the Red Hot Chili Peppers for inciting the fires after performing a cover of the
Jimi Hendrix song "
Fire". Kiedis later wrote in his autobiography,
Scar Tissue, that Hendrix's sister had instead asked them to play "Fire" in honor of Hendrix and his performance at the original Woodstock festival. He continued: "It was clear that this situation had nothing to do with Woodstock anymore. It wasn't symbolic of peace and love, but of greed and cashing in." Many large, high bonfires were burning before the end of the final performances. Participants danced in circles around the fires. Looking for more fuel, some tore off plywood panels from the supposedly inviolable "Peace Wall" enclosing the festival grounds. ATMs were tipped over and broken into; trailers full of merchandise, food, and equipment were forced open and burglarized; and numerous abandoned vendor booths or tents were turned over and set on fire. Approximately $22,000 in total was robbed from ATMs.
MTV was hired to cover the festival extensively; however, as the environment deteriorated, attendees grew increasingly hostile towards anchors and MTV's staff.
Carson Daly recalls being pelted by bottles, rocks, and batteries frequently while he was covering the festival, noting that executives from MTV issued a statement to their staff on site that the network's parent firm
Viacom could no longer guarantee their safety. The network ultimately evacuated its entire crew amidst the violence on Sunday night. Longtime anchor
Kurt Loder likened the experience to covering news in a war zone, particularly during the final night as concertgoers began violently attacking the news trucks and reporters: {{Blockquote|text=It was dangerous to be around. The whole scene was scary. There were just waves of hatred bouncing around the place... It was clear we had to get out of there... It was like a concentration camp. To get in, you get frisked to make sure you're not bringing in any water or food that would prevent you from buying from their outrageously priced booths. You wallow around in garbage and human waste. There was a palpable mood of anger. By 11:45pm, the chaos had attracted attention from nearby law enforcement. A large force of 500 to 700 New York State Police troopers, local police officers, 25 firefighters, and various other law enforcement arrived. Most had
riot control gear and proceeded to form a riot line that flushed the crowd to the northwest, away from the stage located at the eastern end of the airfield. Some reports state that numerous members of the crowd offered strong resistance, and they dispersed back toward the campground and out the main entrance. Others claim that the riot line allowed the concertgoers to "tire themselves out" in the campground area and that the fires were not contained until "well after sunrise". A report by
SonicNet in 1999 estimated that it took law enforcement five hours to stop the riot. == Fatalities ==