Incident at the Wireless festival, Finsbury Park on 8 July 2022

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.025641

I note you seek access to the following information:

I would like to request information on what happened in the street outside Finsbury Park on Friday 8 July.

My friends and I had exited the Wireless festival and were walking towards Finsbury tube station as the crowd became very dense and backed up. The street was lined with barriers each side so the crowd was unable to disperse. My friends and I were luckily near the barriers when screams came from the middle of the street and we saw the crowd part, people were screaming that there was shooting, guns, knives, motorbikes driving into the crowd. All police on the other side of the barrier had ran off, we were able to get over the barrier and run away as one of the security guards who stayed directed us back into the festival telling us to run away. There were many people we left behind the barriers being crushed and screaming for help. We were able to go round the back of the street and saw the tube station was closed. We walked down the street further away from the incident to catch our breath and minutes later the crowd was running again and people were screaming. We ran and were able to get a lift from a kind stranger away from the scene. This was a very traumatic experience, hundreds or more people were screaming and running and it is particularly worrying that there’s no news reports on what happened. I'm certain there were people who were injured and I'm sure there are people mentally struggling as we do not even know the cause. Me and my friends were genuinely scared for our lives!

I believe it is within our rights to know what happened that night. I'm shocked there has been no statements made from wireless or any news reports published on the event. Wireless festival itself was very dangerous, the capacity of the event seemed extremely overcrowded, throughout the weekend people were fainting and being crushed in the barriers during performances and I also know there was a surge of people entering the festival who did not have tickets. I feel the public need to be warned of this for future events and there must be better organisation for dealing with large crowds and preventing such incidents.

For me and my friends we would just like clarification on what happened. Wondering what it could have been is really affecting day to day life, I have an intense job and I feel the incident is affecting my performance as I'm always wondering what happened?

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

We are sorry to hear about your experience at the Wireless festival.

We are aware of a crowd reaction, it was seen on CCTV and officers were present. No shooting or stabbing was witnessed by or reported to Police. Nor has anything similar come to light since the event.

Enquiries revealed that a large metal road sign was pushed over which caused a bang and this may have been what caused the crowd to react.

Order was quickly restored and everyone was able to access the train station via the queueing system.

Police, organisers and other partners will ensure that this incident is debriefed in full and there were no similar issues on the event days that followed.