Investigation after Bloc Weekend shut down

The festival was closed down by police and security staff on Saturday (7 July) morning, just before rapper Snoop Dogg was set to headline the two-day event.

London Pleasure Gardens said in a statement: "At 00:45 on Saturday morning, following advice from the Metropolitan Police, Bloc was subject to a controlled shut down due to crowd safety issues. Egress from the site was carefully managed and nobody was harmed throughout the process. By 02:00 the site was clear."

It added: "The decision to cancel the event’s second day was taken to ensure public safety as a measure against the potential for more overcrowding."

In a statement that morning, organiser Baselogic Productions said: "We are all absolutely devastated that this happened, but the safety of everyone on site was paramount. Given the situation on the ground, we feel that it was the right decision to end the show early."

Yesterday (8 July) Baselogic updated the statement to say: "We are currently gathering information about Friday night's events." It added that it is working to ensure all visitors receive refunds.

Garfield Hackett and Debs Armstrong, co-directors of London Pleasure Gardens, said: "We are hugely disappointed that Bloc Festival had to close early. We are fully investigating what happened and will provide further information when we are in a position to do so."

Ticketing company Crowdsurge provided the software for Bloc's ticket sales. It told Event the number of tickets sold for the weekend was under the maximum specified by Baselogic.

Angry visitors took to Twitter to complain about the festival on the #Bloc hashtag. On Friday night writer Dan Hancox (@danhancox) said the event was "a disaster" with "queues to join queues to join queues".

Bloc Weekend is in its sixth year and moved to London for the first time after previously being held in holiday resorts such as Butlins.

The festival was the second major event at London Pleasure Gardens, which opened on 30 June with the Paradise Gardens festival.

London Pleasure Gardens told Event the Africa Stage for the upcoming stage for BT River of Music on 21 – 22 July would not be affected by the crowding issues as it will use a different site layout from Bloc.

Comment below to let us know what you think.

For more in-depth and print-only features, showcases and interviews with world-leading brands, don't miss the next issue of Event magazine by subscribing here.

Follow @louiseridley