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Christian Eede
5 September 2023, 20:45

Electric Zoo festival Sunday sees crowd rush following Friday cancellation and Saturday delays

Logistical hitches affected the event through the weekend culminating in a number of attendees storming the entry gates on the festival's final day

Electric Zoo festival Sunday sees crowd rush following Friday cancellation and Saturday delays

New York City's Electric Zoo festival was at the centre of a serious of logistical issues this past weekend, which forced the cancellation of parts of the weekend's programming as well as chaos at the entry gates on the event's final day on Sunday.

The music festival was forced to cancel its Friday programming after construction of its main stage wasn't finished in time. A statement shared just hours before the event was due to start was organisers  blame the issue on "global supply chain disruptions" that "prevented us from completing the construction of the main stage in time for Day 1".

Problems continued into Saturday with entry gates opened two hours late, and many attendees reporting that they were kept waiting for up to four hours in order to get into the festival site.

Chaos finally ensued on Sunday when festival organisers announced early in the day that the site had "reached capacity earlier than anticipated", with ticket-holders who weren't on site by 6.30pm subsequently denied entry into the festival. "We deeply apologise for this inconvenience and hope you understand that this decision was made with everyone's best interest in mind," the festival said at the time.

Organisers promised a full refund to those who didn't get in, but a number of those queuing outside the festival site took matters into their own hands and begun to storm the entrance in order to get in by any means possible. A number of video clips have been shared across social media showing people jumping over barricades and running past security and police officers in order to gain entry to the festival.

You can see some of those clips, as well as Electric Zoo's social media post confirming it had reached capacity on Sunday, below.