Pharrell Williams pauses festival gig for fan safety

Pharrell Williams believes in taking good care of his fans.

The Grammy-winning "Happy" singer, producer and recent Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee stopped performing several times during the Something in the Water Festival on Saturday in Washington, D.C., to see that some members in the audience were tended to after suffering medical emergencies.

In a Twitter video posted by D.C.-area news station Fox 5, Williams and fellow performers take a break onstage as an overhead announcement is heard asking audience members to help locate the attendee who had fallen ill.

A separate incident of someone needing medical aid prompted this tweet shared by D.C. RealTime News: "@Pharrell stop[ped] the show to make sure this individual is attended to. Nothing but RESPECT for doing this."

Later that evening, Williams posted a video on Twitter thanking his fans for taking care of each other at the show. 

The festival, which ran from Friday to Sunday, was created by Williams in 2019 to unite communities and celebrate diversity as well as art, culture and music, and was produced by Redrock Entertainment and Live Nation. Among the top names appearing at the event were Justin Timberlake, Glen Cove-raised Ashanti (with Ja Rule), the Dave Matthews Band and Jon Batiste.

The full festival was streamed on the Amazon Prime app and on the platform’s Twitch Channel.