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A music venue has responded to reports fans missed a headline act due to overcrowding and extreme heat.
Some ravers who attended Bicep’s gig at Dreamland in Margate last weekend have taken to social media to share their complaints.
They say it was “absolute chaos” inside the venue and “just too hot” – and stewards began refusing entry to the Hall By The Sea where Bicep were performing.
Several concert-goers say they thought the event was over-capacity – but Dreamland has denied this.
A man who has put in a complaint with Dreamland following the gig said: “What I am most disappointed at was the heat in Hall By The Sea. When it got to the Bicep set it was just too hot.
“I’ve never had an issue with my tolerance to heat before, and I stopped dancing and got some water to try and cope.
“This did mean though I only got to hear one song at the start of the Bicep set, and I had to go outside for air – only to find I and dozens of others couldn’t get back in.
“To not get back into the headliner, leaving my female friend on her own, was disappointing and quite anxiety-inducing, and fellow ravers were getting angry at not being able to get back into Hall by the Sea.”
Another attendee posted on social media that there was a “semi-crush” of people.
“Absolute chaos last night and a dangerous situation,” they wrote.
“Stewards just trying to do their job and punters understandably p****d off there was no way to get up to the headline act, which clearly everyone who bought a ticket was there to see.”
A Dreamland spokesman told KentOnline that bosses did not sell the event to its full capacity in order to minimise the risk of overcrowding.
“The overall capacity across these venues is 2,600. 2,000 tickets were made available to purchase, with 1,600 people attending on the night,” the spokesman said.
“Dreamland made the purposeful decision with this event to not sell to its full capacity, to assist with minimising potential localised overcrowding.
“Dreamland takes the safety and security of all guests very seriously and despite another headline act playing at the same time in the Roller Disco, a large amount of event goers wanted to migrate to Hall By The Sea to see Bicep’s set.
“This resulted in a one-in one-out policy being implemented as per our stringent safety protocols, ensuring that the Hall By The Sea did not exceed capacity, at any point during the evening.
“The policy was in place between 00:30 and 01:15 which did mean that some event-goers who were not already in Hall By The Sea, missed the first section of Bicep’s 90-minute set.
“The restriction was lifted after 45 minutes, enabling free flow once more between the venues for the duration of the event.”
With at least one attendee having been denied a refund despite missing half the headline act, others are questioning the value of buying tickets in the first place if it fails to guarantee they will see the featured artist’s performance.
Ash Islam posted on Twitter: “We all paid for tickets to watch Bicep but then staff stopped us getting in and made us queue with a one-in-one-out system.
“We missed the first half of the set, what was the point in paying for tickets then?”
Another guest who missed part of Bicep’s DJ set said: “Shocking event organisation, oversold and many people not able to see the headline act as a result.”
The issues last Saturday follow an incident last month when fans excited to see Ocean Colour Scene fell ill and walked out due to the extreme heat at the venue.
In this instance, Dreamland again denied the band’s gig was over-capacity.