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Bloc Weekend asks festival-goers for input into investigation

By | Published on Tuesday 10 July 2012

Bloc Weekend

Organisers of Bloc Weekend, the dance music festival that ended in chaos on Friday night, when over-crowding at the event’s new East London site necessitated an impromptu shutdown, have invited those who attended, and who think they may have information relevant to the investigation into what went wrong, to get in touch.

As previously reported, it’s not entirely clear what caused the over-crowding at the festival which, after five years being staged at holiday parks, was run at East London’s new Pleasure Gardens complex this year. But shortly after midnight on the first day of the event, police recommended a shutdown to avoid putting festival-goers in danger.

There are various theories doing the rounds as to what went wrong. Some reckon that there were problems with the CrowdSurge ticketing system the festival used (either problems with the scanning of tickets, or maybe that it was easy for users to replicate other festival-goers’ barcodes before the event, causing confusion once gates opened). Others have speculated that the site, certainly as it was set up, just wasn’t able to accommodate the festival’s 15,000 capacity, and relied on nearly half of the event’s audience standing outside of performance areas, which may work at a holiday park festival, but not at a city-based event of this kind.

Either way, in its third statement since the premature shutdown of this year’s festival, Bloc organisers said they would welcome input from ticket-buyers as they investigate what happened on Friday. The statement read: “We wanted to reiterate that we have launched an investigation into the events of Friday night. To that end we have opened an email address to which we would like you to submit any information you think may be relevant. We are keen to hear from you so we can build the most accurate picture and report of what happened. As ever, you guys are at the heart of what we do so please drop us a line with any comments on bloc2012@baselogic.net“.

Stressing again that the safety of audience members is always the number one concern, and how with that in mind organisers still believe the shut-down was the right decision in the circumstances, the statement did add an apology to those who attended the event, saying: “We would also like to make it clear that we are deeply sorry for all of the frustration and disappointment this situation has caused all of you. No one is more gutted about it than us”.

Information on refunds is expected in due course.



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