Lincoln Center went lowbrow last night — hosting a free punk-rock concert that turned into a mini-riot.
About 100 fans of the Brooklyn-based band Japanther rushed the stage during the Rock N’ Roll Circus in Damrosch Park at 11:30 p.m., said the event’s co-producer, Jessica Resler.
“People were crowd-surfing and jumping on each other. It was like, what the hell just happened?” Resler said.
A teenager who went to see her favorite band with two pals said she was scared to death.
“Oh, my God, it was crazy. I was off my feet for a whole minute. I thought I was going to die in there,” said Jessica Schmidt, 18.
“I thought my friend was going to get trampled because he fell and hit his head pretty hard.”
The event, which attracted more than 1,000 people, took place in the tent that normally houses the Big Apple Circus, which helped produce the event.
Circus security quickly responded, and within 20 minutes, threw out the clowns before anybody was seriously hurt or arrested.
Japanther played only three songs before the show was unceremoniously shut down.
Jim Roper, director of concessions, said everything had been mellow until Japanther’s hardest-core fans arrived.
“It’s not my job to be shoving around a bunch of crazy fans,” he said.
“We put out the lights and stopped the show.
“But they wouldn’t stop moshing.”