The festival-goers who contacted Iltalehti say that they were stuck at the Helsinki City Festivals. According to the producer of the event, it was a momentary puddle caused by people holding rain covers and pushing from behind.
Photographs of the rush hour of the Helsinki City Festivals. The photo in question was taken a few hours before the mass of people blocked the entrance. Niilo Helminen
According to the contacts received by Iltalehti, a distressing situation occurred at Helsinki City Festivals on Saturday evening.
According to contacts, before the last headliner of the evening, an American artist Macklemorethe mass of people got stuck at the entrance of the Helsinki ice rink. There has also been a discussion about the matter in the anonymous Jodel message service.
The festival-goers who contacted Iltalehti say that they got stuck and lost their friends in the crowd. According to the descriptions, some people were anxious and tearful.
Organizer: No danger
There was a rush at the festival on Saturday. The photo in question was taken a few hours before the mass of people blocked the entrance. Niilo Helminen
Responsible producer of the festival Vilho Riihimäki confirms to Iltalehte that one of the entrances to the ice rink was momentarily crowded on Saturday evening.
– Before Macklemore’s gig, the group from inside the ice rink went outside. Since it was a bit rainy outside, some had stayed inside the front doors to keep the rain out. This caused overcrowding, Riihimäki says.
– Some individual people who were behind got the idea to start pushing, and there was a shout from there that “just push through”. However, the situation was resolved. There was no dangerous situation, but it was more of a momentary customer frustration.
According to Riihimäki, the situation was resolved quickly and the queue moved again.
– Yesterday’s situation was the sum of two bad coincidences: some people had stayed at the door to keep the rain out, and some individuals in the back were able to push the idea. However, the matter was resolved in the blink of an eye, and there was no danger.
According to the contacts, the law enforcement officers were nowhere to be seen. According to Riihimäki, this is not true.
– We have orderlies at the doors and corridors, which means there were staff around all the time. The situation was resolved very quickly. It didn’t even take a minute when the matter was already resolved and the queue was moving again.
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What to do if you get stuck in the middle of a crowd?
- Stay upright, save your energy and protect your chest. Compression caused by a crowd can be life-threatening, as it prevents breathing.
- Keep your elbows away from your body and your fists in front of your chest as if in a boxing position. This creates space around the chest so you can breathe deeply as the mass moves.
- Don’t try to push against the mass, it will drain your strength. Move along with the flow of people, but try to move diagonally towards the edges or sparser spots.
- Don’t try to push against the mass, it will drain your strength. Move along with the flow of people, but try to move diagonally towards the edges or sparser spots.
Sources: US health authority CDC , The New York Times
This is how queuing chaos is prevented
According to Riihimäki, there have been no other similar situations during this weekend.
In the past, there has been news about the queue chaos at Helsinki City Festivals. This year, the arrangements have been changed to prevent something similar from happening.
– There will be a momentary queue when moving between platforms or from inside to outside and from outside to inside. It’s because we slow down traffic on purpose by the orderlies, explains Riihimäki.
– We let the group go in smaller queues, so that there is not as much congestion and crowding.
According to Riihimäki, the event organizers have received one contact so far from Saturday’s crowd. In the e-mail, the visitor asked about what the situation was.
So far, there has been no other feedback to the organizers.