A Fan Apparently Threw Their Mom’s Ashes at Pink

Pop stars have been getting a lot of weird things thrown at them on stage recently, but this item really takes the cake: During Pink’s headlining set at the British Summer Time festival in London on Sunday, in the middle of her song “Just Like a Pill,” a fan threw their mother’s ashes at her.

“Is this your mom?” the 43-year-old artist can be heard asking in fan videos as she picks up the plastic bag off the stage. “I don’t know how I feel about this.”

Pink then just continued singing, put the ashes down at the edge of the stage, and appeared to shake her hands as if to get rid of any of this fan’s mother’s literal remains that may have sprayed out of the bag.

Fan reactions to the incident have ranged from empathy to the individual who seemingly lost their mother to outrage that someone would violate Pink’s space in such a morbid manner. But the ashes mark yet another very recent occasion in which fans have harassed or attacked women performers in the middle of their acts. Just last week, a concertgoer threw their phone at Bebe Rexha’s head during a New York City performance, forcing her to end her show early and depart for the hospital where she received stitches. Nicolas Malvagna, the 27-year-old who was brought into custody for the assault, said, “I was trying to see if I could hit her with the phone at the end of the show because it would be funny.”

Less than a week after that incident, a fan climbed onstage during a Los Angeles Ava Max concertand slapped her. “He slapped me so hard that he scratched the inside of my eye,” she later wrote on Twitter. “He’s never coming to a show again.”

Whatever is driving the post-pandemic shift in concert-going etiquette—in which fans seem to think they should not only have 24/7 digital access to their favorite artists but also unlimited physical access—it’s clear that women artists have been targeted far more than their male counterparts. Though Harry Styles was hit with Skittles at a 2022 Los Angeles performance, causing an eye injury, almost all other noteworthy assaults have been taking place at women-led concerts and festivals, and these appear to be far more violent in nature.

Perhaps the behavior stems from rowdy crowds being locked up in quarantine for too long—but there’s really no excuse for throwing the remains of one’s cremated mother, or anything else, at a pop star. Please find another way to express whatever feelings you’re having.