Dancequakes

The Tramlines Festival, Sheffield 

A chance recording 

A seismometer was installed in the control room at Sheffield Wednesday Hillsborough stadium on the 19th of June, 2019. By coincidence the Tramlines festival was taking place in the adjoining park across the following three days, with its main stage only about 300m from the seismometer location.

 The seismometer clearly picked up vibrations from the concert, caused by the crowds dancing.   On the Friday night, the headline act was Two Door Cinema Club whose set started at 8:15pm (19:15 GMT).  The first three songs on their set list were Talk, Undercover Martyn and I Can Talk, and the seismometer record picked up the low frequency vibrations caused by the crowd dancing. The dancing (and hence the vibrations) match the beats per minute of each song, giving rise to a characteristic frequency of vibrations in each case. Using just the seismic data, it was possible to identify which song was being played, its chorus and verse structure and which section produced the greatest crowd response.    

The Courteeners

The headline act on the main stage were  Courteeners at 8:45pm (19:45 GMT) .  They started 15 minutes after Annie Mac, who was playing on T’other stage at 8:30pm (19:30 GMT), the seismic signals from the crowds dancing to these acts can be seen overprinting each other.    The vibrations from Annie Mac started earlier and had a lower frequency (BPM) than Courteeners.

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