The Bloc 2012 festival was shut down early on Friday night due to crowd safety concerns and will not be resuming this weekend, the BBC reports. Headlining sets at the London event by Snoop Dogg and Orbital have been canceled.
The annual electronic music festival, which opened on Friday at the Pleasure Gardens in East London's docklands, had quickly become overwhelmed by crowds, with hours-long lines forming both within and outside the venue. Following the advice of London's Metropolitan Police, organizers shut down the main stage around 9 p.m., with smaller stages gradually shutting down afterward.
According to an NME reporter who was at the festival, "The site was far too small for the numbers of punters who'd got in – all the tents were full with large queues outside, so festival-goers had nowhere to go but add to the queues. The security arrangements seemed inadequate and staff seemed overwhelmed."
The event's promoters released a statement on the festival website on Saturday. "By now everyone will have heard that Bloc 2012 was closed due to crowd safety concerns," the statement said. "We are all absolutely devastated that this happened, but the safety of everyone on site was paramount. Given the situation on the ground, we feel that it was the right decision to end the show early. Bloc will not open on Saturday 7th July so please don’t come to the site."
