SYDNEY — Pop star Katy Perry was surprised at her concert in Sydney on Monday when an attendee briefly ran up to her on stage and grabbed her before being escorted away by security.
Perry was midway through her show at the the 21,000-seat Qudos Bank Arena, the second of three sold-out dates in the Australian city on her “Lifetimes Tour.” Video footage posted by a concertgoer and verified by NBC News showed a man run down the circular stage, throw an arm around Perry’s shoulder and start bouncing and dancing wildly.
Perry, who appeared surprised, quickly moved away as she continued singing her 2008 hit “Hot N Cold.”
“There’s never going to be another show like this, so just enjoy it, Sydney,” she said, as the fan appeared to struggle with security guards.
“What the hell is going on?” Perry said to the crowd, as the man was dragged off stage.
A representative for Perry could not immediately be reached for comment.
The incident highlights growing concerns about poor etiquette at concerts, with audience members throwing items at artists such as Harry Styles and Lady Gaga.
Police in the state of New South Wales, which includes Sydney, told NBC News that a man had been arrested and charged with two offenses: entering enclosed land and obstructing a person in performance of work or duties. They said he had been detained by security after jumping on stage during a concert around 9:20 p.m. local time.
The man has been granted conditional bail and is due to appear in court on June 23, the police said, declining to name him in the meantime. He has also been banned for six months from Sydney Olympic Park, where the arena is located.
The man has been identified in Australian media as Johnson Wen, who describes himself as a “prankster” on his TikTok account, where he goes by the username pyjamamann and has a little over 1,100 followers.
“I was like, ‘Let me get on stage with you,’ and then she freaked out because I think she realized I wasn’t a performer,” Wen told Australia’s 9 News about the incident, adding that he was “about to do the extra Fortnite move, but security got there too quick.”
Previous videos posted on Wen’s account show him running on stage at a concert by The Weeknd in Melbourne last year, and onto the field at the FIFA Women’s World Cup final in 2023.
Wen told 9 News that his stage invasion days were over.
“I’m planning to quit forever, because you get in way too much trouble for it,” he said.
Wen did not immediately respond to a request for comment. By Tuesday, he had posted four different videos of him rushing the stage.
“Katy Perry your songs are my Childhood Memmory since 2008,” he wrote in a caption for one of the videos. Another caption read, “Me Hugging Katy Perry on Stage. I said to Her “let me dance for you””
Perry has not otherwise publicly commented on the incident. Her tour was set to continue Tuesday with another show in Sydney before she continues on to Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
