Bloc Weekend Organisers Apologise After Over-Crowding Cancellation
Monday, 09 July 2012
Written by Elliott Batte
Organisers of the doomed Bloc Weekend festival which (barely) took place in London over the weekend have apologised to thousands of fans, after they reportedly oversold the event by 20,000 tickets.
The yearly event, which was held in London’s Pleasure Gardens rather than Pontins or Butlins for the first time, was set to be an epic three-day event headlined by hip-hop hero Snoop Dogg and many others, but ended up being cancelled within hours of starting after the venue reached breaking point.
Festival-goers who didn’t arrive before 12 midday were forced to queue for at least two hours to get in, whilst there was huge queues for each arena and tent inside. Some reports have told how festival workers abandoned proper ID and ticket checks to allow more and more fans in quicky. Then things only got worse for attendees, as rain poured down and people continued to flood in - until at 1am, organisers announced that the festival must be shut down.
The festival’s Facebook page was hit with abuse and critism well before the cancellation of the event, with people posting from the festival using their smartphones. One unhappy attendee wrote: “Worst organisation ever! Thanks for wasting my time and my money!”, whilst another said: “2 hour queue to get in. 3 hour queue in there and we saw nothing but more queues. £5 a beer. Worst festival ever, shameful.” You can read more responses here.
The festival’s organisers have since commented on the cancellation, and wrote via their Facebook page: “We are currently gathering information about Friday night's events. We are also working to ensure that everyone will be refunded for their tickets. Please bear with us while we do this. Thanks to all of you, as well as the many artists and crew who travelled across the world to come to Bloc - we are so sorry that we couldn't deliver the experience we had planned. And thanks so much to the event control, security, stewards, police and public who worked together to ensure that no one came to harm during the peaceful evacuation. This is far and away the most important result of the night. For those of you who are frustrated and angry - we hear you. For those sending love and support - thank you. More news soon.”
We’ll update you on this story as more information surfaces.
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