It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Mosh pit. (Discuss)

A Circle Pit is a type of mosh pit. It is a type of strenuous dancing associated with certain subgenres of music such as punk music, thrash, heavy metal, and even some harder rock music and is usually started by members of the crowd running wildly in a circle slamming into each other in response to the speed of the music and the beat. For example, a circle pit for a band like D.R.I. will be very fast, aggressive, and dangerous compared to a circle pit for a more calm band like Yellowcard. Tempo and speed of the music playing also plays a big role on how fast and intense the circle pit is; if a blast beat is being played, the mosh pit will be much more intense than a pit that would be danced to, say, a basic rock beat. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... This article or section should be merged with mosh. ... Audience members at a Dillinger Escape Plan concert moshing in front of the stage. ... Punk Rock is an anti-establishment music movement that began about 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified by The Ramones,the Misfits, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music, one of the extreme metal subgenres that is characterised by the high speed and aggression. ... Heavy metals, in chemistry, are chemical elements of a particular range of atomic weights. ... For other uses, see Rock music (disambiguation). ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Dirty Rotten Imbeciles. ... This article is about the band. ... Blast beats are the torrents of alternating snare and bass drums which increase the speed, density, and percussiveness of death metal, black metal and grindcore. ...

A circle pit is a large and usually roughly circular clearing in the audience of a music concert slightly apart from the front of the stage. The circle is formed from the members clearing the space and running in an counterclockwise direction. A circle pit varies from a mosh pit in that a mosh pit usually does not have any sort of orderly behavior: participants in a mosh pit often push, shove and bounce off each other rather than moving in a circle. A clockwise motion is one that proceeds like the clocks hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back to the top. ...

Fans of different punk, metal or rock styles often have their own rules or characteristics for pits, ranging from relatively friendly to deliberately violent. Originally associated with subcultures, pits have been seen more and more in association with mainstream acts. Typically, circle pits at mainstream concerts are considered to be relatively safe. In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a set of people with a set of behaviors and beliefs, culture, which could be distinct or hidden, that differentiate them from the larger culture to which they belong. ...

Origins and Characteristics

Circle pits can be traced to the Bay Area thrash metal scene in the early 1980s, as reported by numerous thrash metal artists. The first video recording of a mosh pit can be found in the movie Another State of Mind viewable here. Bay Area thrash metal, or Bay Area Thrash, referred to a steady following of heavy metal bands in the 1980s who formed and gained international status in the San Francisco Bay Area, California [1]. Along with Tampa, Florida, the scene was widely attributed as a starting point of American thrash... Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music, one of the extreme metal subgenres that is characterised by the high speed and aggression. ... Another State of Mind is a documentary film. ...

The early characteristic motions of circle pit participants were flailing of the arms, pushing one another, striking others with elbows, or exaggerated arm and leg movements somewhat similar to the '60s dance called "The Monkey".

Essentially, circle pits involve simply skipping, skanking, running, or power walking rapidly around the rim of the moshpit. The saying "Run fast, turn left" describes circle pit behavior: an anticlockwise rotation is observed by dancers inside the circle pit, and moving clockwise would be difficult for all but the largest and most determined. In American slang, a skank is one who is skanky. Originally associated with a bad smell and/or scummy or dirty surface, it has come to refer to someone who is either or both physically repugnant for their filth and morally or socially repugnant for their behavior and demeanor, most... Power walking is walking at a speed at the upper end of the natural range for the walking gait, typically 4. ...

Audience members not involved in the mosh but on the innermost part of the circle often act as "bouncers", "eye of the pit" or "pit boss", pushing moshers back into the pit if they are shoved out of the circle. Often, the innermost circle will try to catch anyone from falling over and into the crowd, or help up those that do.

Quite often somebody will yell out "open the pit" and people will move back to create the open circle.

Risks and dangers

One's likelihood to be harmed in a circle pit has a lot to do with the size of the audience and the genre of music.

Typically small audiences at rock shows will have "friendly" pits where dancers help up others that have fallen, smaller men, boys, women, and girls are able to participate equally with the larger males, and a feeling of "community" is generally pervasive. At such "friendly" shows, it's considered rude to try to incite more violent styles of dancing, and one would typically sustain no injuries at all. For other uses, see Rock music (disambiguation). ...

One is more likely to get injured when the audiences are larger, although audience members will typically try to pull dancers that have fallen over out of the way of serious injury as quickly as possible.

At concerts featuring heavy metal, more aggressive pits are often seen, yet the community spirit of the "friendly" pits generally remains; those who fall are helped up by fellow audience members, and the injuries sustained would be only minor bumps, bruises and scratches at most. Heavy metals, in chemistry, are chemical elements of a particular range of atomic weights. ...

Amongst the metalcore, screamo, and emo scenes, circle pits at times include fans standing about 5 feet away from each other wildly flailing limbs in a kung-fu fashion. This is often mistaken for a metal practice amongst the less experienced, but it is in fact highly frowned upon by the metal and thrash community since it is a "new style" that metalcore and screamo fans have adopted. Pits with this sort of dancing can be dangerous to both those involved and those in the surrounding area who can find themselves being punched, kicked and assaulted despite having no desire to join in the pit. A person involved with the "karate" dancing can often have very sore joints the next day, due to the fact that they swing with full force in their punches and kicks and that their limbs follow through without hitting anything to stop the motion.

At Download Festival 2007, DevilDriver fans attempted to create the world's largest circle pit around 6 pillars holding up the tent, covering the Dimebag Darrel stage, footage can be seen here. At Reading Festival 2007, Lostprophets lead singer Ian Watkins told the crowd to start many circle pits, during the Shinobi vs. Dragon Ninja. They also managed to make the crowd of 80,000 simultaneously jump. DevilDriver (initially called Deathride) is a death metal-influenced groove metal band from Santa Barbara, California. ...