NOTTINGHAM, UK (CelebrityAccess) — The Detonate Halloween Festival in Nottingham was abruptly ended three hours early, with organizers citing safety concerns due to crowd control issues.
The one-day festival, held at Nottingham Racecourse, is the largest music fest in the city and features an underground hip hop and EDM-focused lineup
According to the Nottingham Post, festival organizers announced the early shutdown with a tweet on Saturday night at approximately 8pm, writing "It's with regret, we have to end our Nottingham show early due to a health & safety issue with one of the tents. We're gutted."
In a subsequent statement, festival promoter Detonate reported that the shutdown was due to overcrowding in one of the tents.
"Our Health & Safety officer called for the show to be stopped due to concerns over people’s safety. The Police supported the decision and helped us clear the site. The safety issue was due to the majority of people wanting to be in one tent, which caused large queues. When some of the surrounding fence was breached and crowds surged, action had to be taken to avoid people being injured."
"Queuing systems were in place to prevent any one tent becoming overcrowded. In the case of The Boneyard, this meant that people inside didn’t leave, even when relatively small acts were on, as they could see it would take a while to get back in. As a result, there was very little flow of people in and out of that arena and long queues of people who were rightfully frustrated by not being allowed inside the tent. When this situation worsened and started to pose a risk to people’s safety, the music was switched off. Closing just one tent wasn’t an option as it would have caused the same issues at other arenas. From then on we had no choice but to start a phased closure of the site." – Staff Writers
