If you spent any time on Twitter this weekend, you may have noticed a fair amount of traffic directed towards @BLOCWKND, the official Twitter feed for the Bloc Weekend Festival.
Overcrowding meant that queues built up at the entrances to the Olympic East London venue, London Pleasure Gardens, and once patrons were inside there were further queues to get into the tents housing the main stages.
With more and more guests arriving throughout the afternoon and into the evening, security and organisers began to fear that a dangerous incident may occur. And with heavy rain lashing down upon London, the festival was shut down at around 12:30am under advice from the Metropolitan Police.
Most of the acts booked to appear over the two day festival, including Steve Reich, Orbital, Richie Hawtin and Snoop Dogg, didn't even play.
But what caused the overcrowding? Some patrons suspect tickets were oversold. However, with an electronic ticketing hitch, allowing single tickets to be printed of multiple times, it may have been hard to regulate admissions. Also, London Pleasure Gardens had only been open a week, and organisers may not have been able to anticipate crowds moving through the space, causing bottlenecks.
Bloc has since issued a formal apology on its website.
Overcrowding meant that queues built up at the entrances to the Olympic East London venue, London Pleasure Gardens, and once patrons were inside there were further queues to get into the tents housing the main stages.
With more and more guests arriving throughout the afternoon and into the evening, security and organisers began to fear that a dangerous incident may occur. And with heavy rain lashing down upon London, the festival was shut down at around 12:30am under advice from the Metropolitan Police.
Most of the acts booked to appear over the two day festival, including Steve Reich, Orbital, Richie Hawtin and Snoop Dogg, didn't even play.
But what caused the overcrowding? Some patrons suspect tickets were oversold. However, with an electronic ticketing hitch, allowing single tickets to be printed of multiple times, it may have been hard to regulate admissions. Also, London Pleasure Gardens had only been open a week, and organisers may not have been able to anticipate crowds moving through the space, causing bottlenecks.
Bloc has since issued a formal apology on its website.
