Chaos at Electric Zoo: Music festival gates closed early, resulting in fan stampede and venue entrance frenzy

Fans rushed gates and hopped fences at New York's Electric Zoo music festival after being informed of venue capacity.

By signing up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider and other partners. You also accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

On Sunday evening, attendees of New York's Electric Zoo music festival were given the disappointing news that the venue had reached its capacity and would be closing its doors early. However, instead of accepting this, many festivalgoers chose to take matters into their own hands. Viral videos circulated showing crowds rushing gates, hopping fences, and forcefully making their way into the festival.

This incident was just one of several mishaps that occurred during the festival, which took place on Randall's Island from September 1 to September 3. Rolling Stone reported that the first day of the festival had to be canceled due to issues with the global supply chain, and the second day started two hours later than scheduled.

At 6:35 p.m. on Sunday, the final day of the event, organizers took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to announce that the venue had reached capacity "earlier than anticipated." They expressed deep regret and explained that due to the challenges caused by the cancellation on Friday, they were unable to admit any additional attendees for the day. The festival organizers assured everyone that refunds would be issued to those who could no longer attend.

Shortly after this announcement, videos began to surface on social media, showing large crowds gathered at the festival's entrance as they received the news. These videos depicted fans stampeding through the entry point and bypassing security.

One TikTok user, @suitelifeofcody, posted a video capturing the chaos as festivalgoers ran and screamed. In the caption, they described how everyone had been made to wait for over an hour before the crowd started pushing through. They also witnessed security guards shoving and tackling people trying to escape the stampede.

Another TikToker, @renergy203, shared a series of videos documenting the scene leading up to Electric Zoo's announcement. In one video, chants of "Let us in, let us in" can be heard as thousands of ticket holders waited to enter. Another video showed people aggressively pushing each other through metal detectors.

According to Rolling Stone, there were still three-and-a-half hours remaining in the festival when the capacity announcement was made. A security guard interviewed by the outlet expressed frustration, stating that every staff member at Electric Zoo was upset with the overselling of tickets.

In addition to the capacity issues and cancellations, festival attendees have taken to social media to express their overall disappointment with this year's Electric Zoo. One TikTok video posted by @dannyllenium highlighted several issues observed on-site, including a pile of uncooked fries near the port-a-potties, a medical tent without earplugs, a four-hour wait in the will-call line, and broken water stations.

Insider reached out to Electric Zoo for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

Share With Others