Festival Director Defends Handling of Overcrowding
Electric Picnic's festival director has dismissed crowd safety concerns as "bonkers" after a weekend that saw one set cancelled and attendees report overcrowding at several shows. Melvin Benn, managing director of Festival Republic, which organizes the event, described the handling of the Duke Dumont set as "the perfect operation" and said "there was no real drama at all."
"Quite frankly, I don't think it could have gone better," Benn said at a press conference on Sunday. He was responding to questions about whether improvements were needed in crowd control at the festival, which took place in Ireland over the weekend with an estimated 80,000 attendees.
Attendees Describe Overcrowding and a 'Crowd Collapse'
Several attendees described how "mobbed" the Armand Van Helden set at the Smirnoff Stage was on Friday night. One woman in her 20s told The Irish Times it was "way beyond capacity" and she was "getting pushed consistently for an hour." Another woman in her 30s described trying to leave the venue as "chaos" and "hell," adding that "Carnage is putting it lightly, to be honest."
Attendees also reported a "crowd collapse" ahead of Van Helden's performance. Aoife McKenna told The Journal: "Something happened in the middle and the crowd fell over in a split second all landing on top of each other. Then to make matters worse, the crowd kept coming from outside in."
The scheduled 90-minute performance was cancelled as arriving fans clashed with those trying to leave. Benn said the decision was made because organizers were "not willing" to risk injuries or people's lives. "I don't know why the crowd collapsed at that point, but the moment that it did, we stopped it," he said. "We had medics there. We had security there. We stopped Armand van Helden going on stage. He hadn't even got on stage at that point in time."
Benn acknowledged the DJ was "clearly" booked for a stage he was "too big for," but he defended the response, telling reporters who put it to him that attendees described the scene as "terrifying" and "very dangerous": "We were outside, and we stopped it immediately as soon as we could see a crowd collapse."
Duke Dumont Set Draws Large Crowds
A similar situation arose during Duke Dumont's set on Saturday night at the Electric Arena. Attendees received alerts on their phones warning that the set was at capacity, with a message saying: "Please do not make your way to the stage." Some commenting on social media claimed the set was "above capacity" and a "health and safety issue," and crowds were seen several rows deep outside the tent.
Footage circulating on social media showed large crowds tightly packed at the Smirnoff Stage on Friday night. Benn said the festival was "in a really good place in terms of how we handle crowds" and described the Duke Dumont situation as "the perfect operation."
Festival Capacity and History
Electric Picnic's current capacity is around 80,000, having risen from 70,000 in 2023. The festival began in 2004 with a capacity of 10,000.