NYC Mayor Eric Adams addressed the chaos at this weekend’s edition of Electric Zoo, Gothamist reports. During a Tuesday NYPD briefing, he said, “It’s unfortunate that the organizers wanted to turn our city into a zoo, and we were not going to allow that to happen. And we will be dealing with them in the next few days based on their behavior and actions.”
The festival has a 42,500 person capacity, and the NYPD estimated that organizers oversold it by 7000 tickets on Sunday, leading to gates being closed to ticketholders starting at 6:30 PM. A large group of people rushed the gates not long after, as shown in footage posted to social media.
Electric Zoo has not posted to social media since the end of the festival, other than a message about items in the lost and found, but they issued a brief statement to Gothamist, reading, “The vast majority of Electric Zoo attendees had a great experience, but our job is to make sure everyone’s experience is phenomenal. We’ll be working closely with our partners to review the planning and execution of the event from start to finish.”
The festival’s 2023 edition was abbreviated, as its first day was cancelled hours before doors were to open because the main stage had not been completed. A message from organizers said the delay was due to “global supply chain disruptions.” On Saturday, doors were delayed two hours, and when they did open, the main stage remained closed off for nearly two more hours. Some ticketholders who tried to go on Saturday described waiting on hours-long lines at will call and security, as well, with some of them giving up and leaving before they got in.