Mumbai: A mix-up with ticket bookings at a concert organised at the NESCO Complex, Goregaon, on Saturday, led to utter chaos among spectators. Police rushed in responding to calls of a stampede and allegations of cheating by the organisers. It took the cops a couple of hours to control the situation and the crowd dispersed only after they were assured a refund on their tickets, as the concert had to be cancelled.
According to Vanrai police, the control room received several calls from people at NESCO at around 7 pm on Saturday. The callers told the police that a stampede-like situation had arisen at the venue and that visitors to the concert, featuring popular artistes like Nucleya and Gully Gang, were furious because they were not being allowed inside despite booking tickets online.
One of the fans at the venue was a relative of a senior Mumbai police officer. As a result, several teams, as well as the senior police inspector, the assistant commissioner of police and the deputy commissioner of police rushed to the spot immediately.
“We found that there was some confusion over the booking of tickets on behalf of the organisers, due to which more than the expected numbers had turned up. Most of them were teenagers or in their early 20s, as both artistes have a massive draw among people from this age group,” said senior police inspector Rajesh Nandimath, of Vanrai police station.
An agency called Viral Fission was the organiser of the event.
“Tickets were made available through online ticket aggregator websites and also offered at the venue, which led to overbooking. Hence, while the people who had turned up were technically within their rights to demand entry, the organisers, too, were justified in not letting people beyond the capacity inside as it would have led to security issues, especially with celebrity artistes performing,” an officer said.
The refusal of the organisers sparked off anger among the people, who broke down some of the barricades and barged inside. After calming the crowd, police brokered an understanding between the attendees and the organisers.
Fans were disappointed, as one of them, Sambhav Jain, said, “I was looking forward to watching Nucleya and Gully Gang, especially Nucleya. When he came up on stage, I was on my toes to dance to the beats but when the crowd wasn’t managed well, Nucleya himself addressed the audience; even that did not work. I came away disheartened.”
“People ultimately decided to leave after the organisers assured them full refund on their payments, through the same ticket aggregator websites where they had made their booking. Faced with such chaos, the performers called off their acts and the concert was cancelled,” Nandimath said.
He added that some people had complained about mobile phone thefts but once the crowd had cleared, they found their devices at the venue itself.
The situation was resolved around 9:30 pm and no FIR was registered. HT reached out to Viral Fission for their comment on the matter but did not receive any response.