We’ve seen some pretty shocking footage from Wireless Festival. Not the incredible bit of Drake’s set where he brought out Skepta for a rendition of Shutdown then gave him the biggest, kindest bear hug – but the videos of hordes of gatecrashers literally breaking down the fences trying to get in.
Some footage shows one policeman trying to hold a whole crowd back using just one baton as a warning. Another shows security guards struggling to keep the doors shut as people try to bombard them, then a man wandering in and flipping the switch of the gates up, thus letting dozens of people in.
And then there’s this video, which shows the absolute chaos of security guards trying to clamp down against gatecrashers using metal gates as ladders and weapons, and then, at about 5.31pm, a woman who’s clearly injured, though organisers are denying anyone was injured:
Filmed by Arya Mosallah, 15, he told the Evening Standard: ‘All the people you can see in the video didn’t have tickets so they all gathered round and rushed through the gate.
‘It was really loud from the concert and all the people shouting. They were all having a go at the security. People that paid to get into the concert couldn’t go in – it was kind of unfair. It was really tense.’
Police confirmed to BBC Newsbeat that they’d made 24 arrests over the three-day festival, and Wireless’s organisers have released a statement to say: ‘There were a small number of incidents that were dealt with quickly where no-one was hurt, on an otherwise hugely successful Wireless weekend.’
And Haringey council, which is in charge of Finsbury Park, where the event took place, will meet with Wireless’s organisers before next year’s event is put together, saying that though the break- ins were ‘not representative of the whole festival’, they will ‘work closely with ShowSec, local police and other agencies... to ensure the event maintains an enjoyable and secure environment for all its customers.’
You’d hope so. For people who can’t afford big holidays abroad things like festivals and theme parks are meant to be a friendly place for people to cut loose in the summer without going into the red. Shame, then, that safety still seems to be a massive concern.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.