Festival-goer says people were being ‘trampled’ in crowd outside Finsbury Park

After being driven through a small Finsbury Park entry by police, Wireless Festival audiences were “forced to climb over fences to avoid being trampled,” but new video from the event shows fencing being torn down as throngs stampede into the venue.

A video posted on social media shows a crowd outside the festival pushing back at police, who appear to be attempting to control the crowd’s movement.

Another video showed people tearing down fences as they stampeded into the area and jumped over existing park fences while others yelled.

Nicki Minaj performed at the event on Sunday night after SZA and Cardi B gave performances on Saturday and Friday, respectively.

Festival-goer Elia Morrow said on Twitter: ‘On the last day of a major festival, surely the Met Police should have been more prepared for crowds.

‘Having only the smallest opening at the singular entrance to Finsbury Park, with no regulated flow of pedestrian traffic. People being trampled and forced to climb tall gates.’

Police said crowd issues were a matter for event organisers and security.

Elia Morrow added that people were fighting to ‘climb over fences away from the shoving’, with others in the crowd ‘crying and having panic attacks’.

According to a Met Police spokesperson, a small number of persons attempted to access the premises while others were in line, and entry was ‘briefly’ stopped.

They said that during this break, a crowd grew and police officers helped with event security.

People can be seen pushing against massive metal doors as event security attempts to close them in a video uploaded by Scarcity News on Twitter and viewed more than 48,000 times.

Some individuals squeezed through spaces between the security officers’ legs and ran inside the festival area.

The video then cuts to show throngs of people pouring into the event, some of whom are seen scaling a white-covered wire fence.

The temporary fencing is then destroyed, and people enter by leaping over a permanent wooden fence and stepping over the second fence, which is now flat.

As the fence climbers are being pushed back over the fence and out of the festival grounds, police officers can be seen running toward them.

One festival-goer, who did not want to be named, said it was the ‘scariest experience of my life’.

‘I’ve never been scared for my life before in a crowd,’ she told MailOnline. ‘The event was a shambles with major lack of crowd control or any control in general.

‘I can’t understand how it even got that bad, but the human traffic was so bad that I was pressed against a police man who had been shoved away from the human wall that they made that failed.

‘There was screaming, I saw four people faint alone in my part of the crowd and two people be sick. I can’t speak for the rest of the crowd but it went on for miles. It was the scariest experience of my life.’

Tommy Durbin told MailOnline that ‘I was there, and haven’t been treated like that by the police since the bad old days of being a football fan in the 80s.

‘Herded along a narrow gap, police seemed totally surprised that so many people were there. Disgusting.’

Julie Cavalli told MailOnline that her daughter, who is at the event, called her at 3pm to say that ‘no one was checking if they had tickets’.

‘She was concerned as lots of people were just pushing through and past the security checks with no checks being carried out at all,’ Ms Cavalli said.

‘She said she was hoping no-one had taken anything dodgy in. This is a security issue and an incident waiting to happen!’

Another attendee said that they had been stuck outside the venue for hours.

‘People passing out, dehydrated, abused by police with horses,’ they said.

All passengers were also been asked to immediately leave Finsbury Park underground station, due to a reported emergency.

People passing out, dehydrated, abused by police with horses – what is going on? We’ve been stuck outside for hours @WirelessFest #WirelessFestival2022 #FinsburyPark pic.twitter.com/jRtkUC11dQ

— Rens (@_rxnai) July 10, 2022

In a video on social media, a tannoy announcement can be heard urging passengers to leave, as the gates are semi-closed across the entrance.

Paula Tucker criticised the event organisation on Twitter.

‘Finsbury Park utterly unsuitable for Wireless Festival — park gates shut, tube station closed, helicopter overhead for an hour,’ she wrote.

‘Haringey Council must not ignore the needs of residents and let this event ever happen again here.’

Another critic added: ‘There needs to be more security at Finsbury Park for Wireless Festival.’

Once inside, attendee Nicole Barrett said her experience was enough to put her off returning.

‘Little to no security at all in some parts of the pen, the speakers were blown and most acts were late or cancelled,’ she told MailOnline.

‘All in, about £1,000 was spent to come here to enjoy ourselves as a treat. It’s actually put me off coming next time, as the toilets reeked of ammonia from people’s urine —I felt like I was going to pass out.’

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Force said the issue at the entrance began at around 3pm this afternoon when ‘a small number of people tried to get through an entrance to Wireless Festival while others were queueing’.

‘As a result of this, security staff put in place a brief hold on people being admitted to the event to ensure the safe flow of people into the site.

‘This caused a large crowd to form in the area around the site.

‘Officers assisted security staff with managing the crowd to keep people safe.

‘We continue to work closely with the event organiser and other partners to prevent further disruption and we thank people attending for their patience, particularly in the hot weather.’

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