Attendees at Vivid Sydney’s drone show have taken to social media to express concerns about crowd control after some festival goers were reportedly left “trapped” in large crowds at Circular Quay following the event.
One social media post said that amid fears of the chance of a crowd crush, someone stepped in to remove some barriers to allow the crowd to start flowing.
One attendee, Anth, said in a post to X that “there was a crowd crush starting to happen by the overseas passenger terminal” after the 9.10pm drone show finished.
“Police had to step in to remove barriers because of how serious it was,” he wrote.
He described the incident as “absolutely dangerous”.
Another festival goer, Josh Rogers, said he was trapped in the middle of the crowd.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this scared in my life,” he wrote.
“Everyone pushing from all sides with no escape.”
Another attendee, Emilie, wrote that she was sorry she went to the event.
“A huge crush saved by a random opening a barrier,” she wrote.
“Bloody lucky no one panicked. The worst crowd control.
“No coordination, direction & clearly untrained crowd management staff…”
The reported incident came shortly after event organisers posted to X about 8.30pm advising festival goers to avoid Circular Quay.
“We are experiencing large crowds for the #vividsydney drone show this evening,” the post read.
“Please avoid Circular Quay
“The show will also be live streamed at Tumbalong Park in Darling Harbour on the big screen and on the Vivid Sydney Facebook page.”
A Vivid Sydney spokesperson said it worked with government partners and agencies to plan and deliver a successful and safe event, including to manage the crowds that turned out to see Saturday night’s drone show.
“Event and security personnel monitor crowd flow and implement scalable measures to manage crowd flow at various points if required, particularly on the busy nights and peak periods,” the spokesperson said.
“This includes advising visitors that certain areas have reached capacity and adjusting infrastructure to support crowd flow.
“We encourage our festival attendees to plan for their Vivid Sydney visit and stay up to date including via our social media channels and the digital signage around the footprint.
“We understand that a large number of people leaving a major event at the same time can be slow and challenging and are grateful to the public for their patience and cooperation.”
NSW Police has been contacted for comment.
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