BLOC cancelled

[wolf89]

It was shut down due to the fact that loads of people turned up and didn't want to be outside due to the weather however the stages couldn't handle that many people in doors at them at once so it became a safety hazard.

That's what the policeman told me while I was angrily wandering about shouting asking what the fuck was going on when they wouldn't let me in.

[pulkpull]

I gather that of the four venues the largest single capacity was circa 2500. For a festival with supposedly 20000 people going (although conflicting reports have tickets sold between 25000-40000) that was never going to work. Although that doesn't seem to have been the sole reason it went wrong.

Quite a few of my mates went and were at me all week to get the last of the friday tickets but made a decision that it couldn't possibly live up to the hype and would be a let down... The message I was getting from people on the boat at about midnight made me rather jealous but I guess I was lucky I didn't go.

Gutted for those that did...

[AxeD]

Feel for the people who dropped pre-hand

[ezza]

Really feel for the people who came from abroad theres no chance they're gonna refund travel cost

[Hedley King]

The Boat was really good (Ben Simms, Oneman, Loefah), and not too busy, huge crowds to get onto it though- the crowd nearly stormed it through security! Gutted it was all cancelled from 1am, would have been a quality festival if it had half the people.

[Perej]

got evicted last year, karma. fuck butlins!

[skimpi]

I've heard the ticket scanners stopped working and they weren't checking tickets, word got out all you needed was a copy. We won't know until the statement obvs.

Can confirm this as my mate said he didn't get searched or ticket checked. Could this be one of the main reasons why there were bare people if friends of friends kept passing tickets?

The queue was held up for ages, and peopel were syaing it was cos the ticket scanners were fucked, someone on twitter said this happened at coachella 2010 because of scanning fake or duplicated tickets or something. There was a massve queue outside, and then once inside, another massive winding queue still before showing tickets. I think this area got too overcrowded so they decided to just let people through without scanning tickets, cos by the time i got in that bit it was empty and then the dude just took my ticket and said weekend or day, I said weekend and he sent me to the man with the wristband. I dont even think he looked at the ticket.

[Dead Rats]

So is this going to be it for them, then? Does anyone here know any of the organisers? Seems almost impossible to come back after this...

[autobot]

Festival was a joke - so many people trying to get into already packed stages - we left the boat after pinch, then lined up to go see nicholas jarr - then realised we couldn't get in, so tried to turn around to find out we were gated in - there was a queue to get into the queue. basically spent the whole night queuing.

Although most of the security guys were going a good job, some were acting so stupid - like pushing the gates back, so squishing those queuing into an even smaller space, some guy got beaten up by one of the security guys for speaking up about how ridiculous it was.

The fact that the entrances and exits to each stage funneled people into a tiny space meant the flow of people was majorly stunned - should have spread the tents out more across the whole venue (like put the RA stage where the rides were) so then people didn't have to line up so much.

From what I've read, it sounds like the venue wasn't completely finished, bloc sold too many tickets, more people got in due to the scanners malfunctioning, security weren't briefed correctly.

Feeling so bad for the organisers though - I mean they fucked up majorly, but not like they would have anticipated anything like this would have happened. This is their livelihood and reputation down the drain.

Only thing I think that saved some serious injuries was the fact it was an older crowd and there weren't many munters there who would have started some serious shit towards the security / police.

And big up to the London police, I think they handled the situation so well.

[meanmrcustard]

My day:

Arrive at about 5.
2-3 hour queue to get in (including a queue that went right alongside a busy main road).
Nicolas Jarr too full, not happening, notice the QUEUE for the MAIN STAGE(!!) was huge so got in that as I really wanted to see Amon Tobin.
Queued for ages.
Saw Amon Tobin which was pretty good, and about 15 minutes of Doom, terrible sound.
Tried to get on the boat, told by security it was being shut down.
Went to the dome for Mosca.
Queued for ages.
Saw Mosca. Terrible sound.
Mosca plays double set because Joker 'didn't turn up' (though It's more than likely that by this point he wasn't even let on site as unbeknown to us in the dome, the police had already by this point moved in and started shutting things down).
Rumours flying round that there were riots outside the dome and that the festival had been cancelled.
Got outside to see no riots but a few hundred people banging on the shipping containers outside the production office.
3 hour journey home.

It was shit. I'm actually really pleased today was cancelled as it would have been shit as well.

[skimpi]

Ahh shit, I thought it was a huge queue cos I got there late when everyone else decided to turn up, thought it would have been better earlier on

[esfandyar]

what a mess, sorry to hear about it

i was actually looking at how much plane tix cost/fantasizing about going to this

good thing i would never spend $1000 on this sort of thing b/c if i did... there's no refunds for plane tickets

man if i bought tickets for bloc and this was the result... there would be hell to pay.

[OllieScott]

We arrived around 5, one of the stewards checked our tickets and said to go the right, which was the express que. Didnt have express tickets mind. We said to the bloke at the front and he was like no worries and just let us through and got in easily.

[AntlionUK]

[dublerium]

Feel for the people who have had their fest ruined. Was going to get tickets for this aswell well glad I couldn't be bothered.

[say_whut]

Thats piss, but it's cool how a lot of the artists are making their own parties all over for free/cheap entry.

Bok Bok on here http://www.justin.tv/bok_bok#/w/3383987888

[them]

The Boat was really good and not too busy,

Yes but thats the problem, not enough people let, in, not enough capacity in the first place that boat. All the arenas arranged on one side of a large horseshoe, no people on the ptherside, because nothing to do on the otherside. bottlenecked.

[8022]

I feel physically sick

[cosmic_surgeon]

Wow, this was a disaster - feel for the people who attended hoping for a great weekend + hoping the rumours about deaths aren't true. It's pretty terrifying when order breaks down at a thing like this...

[Woker]

Interesting to see what will happen next year