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Electric Zoo Festival is an electronic dance music event that takes place during Labor Day weekend on September 1, 2, and 3 at Randall's Island. As per the New York Post, the organizers posted on X, formerly Twitter, about the venue reaching its "capacity" and people being halted at the gates. As such, the festival organizers faced a lot of challenges throughout the three-day show.
Chaos ensued as the crowd started to barge into the venue, disregarding the notice. As per NBC, the first day of the festival was canceled because the stage wasn't built in time and the second day started several hours late.
By the end of the concert, fans were fed up, with many calling it the "worst experience."
Details about the stampede at the Electric Zoo Festival
The three-day electronic dance music festival started to go wrong when people haphazardly began entering the Randall's Island, New York City venue on Sunday.
According to NBC, the Electric Zoo Festival, which brings top DJs from across the world to perform at four stages, had stopped people who had already paid to attend the event.
The organization explained:
"We reached our venue's capacity earlier than anticipated for today, Sunday."
They continued:
"For the safety and well-being of everyone on site, we will not be admitting any additional attendees today. If you are on your way or were planning to come later, we kindly ask that you refrain from coming to the festival site."
The statement added that the cause for the abrupt halting of attendees had something to do with Friday, the first day's cancelation, although they didn't specify any details.
The Electric Zoo concert was eventually stopped because the stage was not properly built. The organizers said it was due to "global supply chain disruptions."
In a separate post, the organization added that the people who were denied entry would get a full refund but only for single-day ticket holders. The multiple-day ticket holders would get credit, as per NY Post.
People's experience at the Electric Zoo festival
The incident caused a ruckus and many people didn't adhere to the notice and started to enter the venue despite the capacity being filled. One concertgoer, Jeff Wang, told Rolling Stone:
"I’m never coming back. The worst experience of my life."
Another attendee, Eileen Tayam recalled how her sister decided to just leave the premises of the Electric Zoo Festival when she was told that the venue had reached its capacity and she saw people rushing through the gates.
A third festivalgoer, John McGuire, told ABC News:
"We just saw all of the equipment, the tents, stuff like that being knocked down so we didn't know what to do. It was a crazy situation. And after that it was impossible to get to any of the sets. It was hard getting out last night, so we thought, might as well just get out of there."
People also reported to the New York Post that a security guard lost their balance and fell during the stampede, probably injuring themself.
One of the security guards told the outlet:
"Every single staff that is at Ezoo is mad at Ezoo. Why would you oversell tickets?"
The NYPD has said that no arrests have been made yet. They had previously also said that the shuttles and roads leading to the New York City Island venue would be shut down, resulting in several attendees getting stuck at highways for hours, as per NY Post.
The Electric Zoo organizers apologized for the inconvenience and reassured their audience that they would "make it up to you." However, many are still blaming the Festival's poor organization.
