Stage diving
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Stage diving is the act of getting onto the stage at a concert while a band is playing—usually heavy metal or punk rock—and then diving into the crowd below, hoping they will catch you. If they catch you, you can then attempt to crowd surf: people remain supine while being passed from person to person by the audience.
Iggy Pop and Peter Gabriel are among the first musicians to have stage dived. Initially seen as confrontive and extreme, stage diving has become common at rock music performances. Many musicians have made stage diving a part of their stage act and grunge band Nirvana popularized it. It represents an exciting act of audience participation and musicians have found that it can make an ideal climax to a show.
Stage diving has caused some serious injuries when the stage diver has not been caught by the audience below and they have hit the floor with some force, sometimes head first. Stage divers can also injure the people they land on top of, or knock them over to be tramped by the dancing crowd. As a result of this most larger venues and festivals will now have a barrier between the crowd and the stage partrolled by an army of security stewards. This means that it is often impossible for an audience member to get onto the stage and jump off again. Any audience member who attempts to stage dive will usually be ejected from the venue.
See also: headbanging, moshing, air guitar, list of dances