London: Hundreds of fans gathered in Hyde Park on Sunday afternoon to mourn Liam Payne, 31, a member of the British group One Direction, who died after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, last week.
Somber adults and teenagers waited -- some, for hours -- to lay flowers and handmade signs at the base of the bronze Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens to honor Payne. It was one of several memorials held around the world in the days after his death.
"We don't know loss like this," said Brooke Kurzeja, 18, who traveled three hours to attend the vigil. "This is what it was like when Prince died, my mom said."
The loss is profound in Britain, where fans watched Payne, from Wolverhampton, a town in central England, twice on British talent show "The X Factor": first in 2008, at 14, when he was eliminated after a few rounds, and then two years later, when he showed up with more confidence. The show's judges shuffled Payne into a group with four other British boys who had auditioned as solo artists -- Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan -- and the group, One Direction, quickly captured the hearts of teenagers around the nation -- before taking on the world.
Alicia Sinclair, 22, posted to social platform X the day after Payne's death expressing her desire to gather with other devastated fans. "If I need something, probably so many other people need something," Sinclair said. As the weekend approached, she and a few other fans started a group on WhatsApp, which quickly grew to nearly 1,000 members.
"I don't expect people that aren't in this fandom to get it," said Hollie Owers, 28, one of the event's organizers. "But this is bigger than music." She placed a bouquet of red roses alongside a photo of Payne as a child.
"Liam's my favorite," said Ashleigh Dawson, 25, rolling up her sleeve to show a tattoo of a verse Payne sings in the song "Irresistible." Dawson said she was admitted to a psychiatric ward nearly a decade ago after a suicide attempt. She recalled listening to One Direction's songs on her iPod -- they weren't allowed cellphones in the hospital -- and writing a letter of thanks to the group she said helped lift her spirits during the worst time of her life. "It sounds so stupid, but I say with everything I have: One Direction saved my life," Dawson said.
One Direction's ascent in the 2010s coincided with the proliferation of social media. Teenage fans created handles on what was then Twitter dedicated to the band, sharing updates from concerts and sightings and posting photo and video compilations.
"It feels like we do know them," said Kate Milner, 25, before quickly qualifying, "We all know that we don't, really." Milner, who runs a One Direction fan account on social platform X with nearly 9,000 followers, attended the vigil with three friends she met over the years through One Direction's online fan community. They all plan to get tattoos of arrows inspired by those on Payne's forearm, which they said represented the members of the group.
Payne's death also meant the end to fans' hope of One Direction coming together again as a quintet. "The next reunion will be at the funeral," suggested Kacey Hopkins, 22, her eyes glassy. Her 16-year-old sister, Lily, inhaled sharply and made the sign of the cross.
For many fans, the outpouring of support at the vigil was bittersweet. "I just feel that he's been let down by society," Lori Ramsay-Rouse said. "You could clearly see he was struggling. The help wasn't there."
Ramsay-Rouse, 55, traveled from East Suffolk, England, to attend the vigil with her daughter, Chloe Rouse, 22, who lives in London. "It was such an important part of her life growing up," Ramsay-Rouse said of her daughter's devotion to One Direction. "When you're involved in that, it becomes part of your life, too."
The two camped out for floor seats at One Direction concerts, and after the group broke up, they did the same for solo concerts for Harry Styles and Niall Horan. It brought them closer.
"As much as it's sad to come here, it's also comforting," Rouse said. Fans bonded over concerts they had attended and old One Direction T-shirts they wore for the occasion. When the irresistibly upbeat chorus of "What Makes You Beautiful" drifted out of a Bluetooth speaker, the mood began to lift.
As the crowd started to thin, the sun broke through the clouds. The event's organizers cued up the group's cover of Alphaville's "Forever Young" and started to dance around the colorful mound of handwritten notes and metallic balloons. The crowd joined in.
—International New York Times