Hundreds gathered in Kensington Garden in London on Sunday, Oct. 20, to mourn Liam Payne, the One Direction member who died after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Wednesday.
It was one of many memorials that took place around the world — fans from Glasgow, Paris, Sydney, and New York left tributes for Payne over the weekend, as The Associated Press reports.
In London, the crowd assembled near a statue of Peter Pan, where handmade signs, balloons, and flowers were placed to honor Payne. His loss deeply resonated in Britain, where Payne first rose to fame on the reality television series The X-Factor. Fans watched as the Wolverhampton, England-bred Payne competed in 2008 at age 14 where he was cut early from the show, and then returned to audition again two years later. The judges paired him with Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, and Niall Horan, and together the quintet became One Direction. They won the hearts of fans in Britain, and soon after the beloved boy band had fans the world over.
On Sunday, Lauren Anderson and Natasha Bradley, both 23, told AP they went to the London park because they wanted to be with others who shared their grief. “Your parents, they don’t really understand how much (One Direction) really meant to you growing up,” Bradley said.
Meanwhile in Paris, grieving fans gathered in Tuileries Gardens, where they sang songs, brought flowers and photos of Payne, alongside letters and notes.
The weekend vigils followed ones that took place in the hours after Payne fell from the third floor of his hotel room at CasaSur Palermo Hotel. Hundreds of Argentinian fans gathered at the singer’s hotel to add to his vigil, where they sang One Direction hits and mourned together. “As soon as I heard, I dropped everything and came running, hoping it was just fake news, that it wasn’t real. But when I saw them taking him away, my heart broke,” Ariana, a fan from the city of Lanús, told Rolling Stone Argentina. “I couldn’t take it anymore, I broke down. All those hopes were completely gone.”
The four surviving members of One Direction issued a statement on Thursday. “We’re completely devastated by the news of Liam’s passing. In time, and when everyone is able to, there will be more to say. But for now, we will take some time to grieve and process the loss of our brother, who we loved dearly,” they wrote. In the wake of Payne’s death. Styles, Tomlinson, Malik, and Horan each wrote tributes to their late friend and bandmate.
