Electric Zoo took place this past weekend in New York City at Randall’s Island Park. The festival, founded in 2009 is known for its big name artists and unique stage design. What was supposed to be a high-octane weekend of unforgettable DJ sets turned into a spectacular trainwreck. It all started on Friday when the entire first day was canceled abruptly just a few hours before the gates were due to open. Ravers across the city gasped, with their festival braids already done and two hours into the pre-game. Refunds were then issued to all Friday-only ticket holders and three-day ticket holders were given a credit for Friday.

In the official statement, the festival cited “global supply chain disruptions” hampering construction efforts on the main stage. According to Festive Owl on X (the platform formerly known as twitter), sources close to the festival indicated that the stage was far from complete by the time gates were due to open. Would-be attendees had to come to terms with missing Kaskade x deadmau5, Excision and Chris Lake x Fisher among many other heavy-hitters. After already getting hyped for such legendary acts at a major festival, people were understandably upset. Luckily, days two and three will go on as scheduled with gates opening at 1pm Saturday and Sunday. (Picture via Festive Owl)

Well….not exactly. Ticket-holders showed up in time to party, but were told that gates will actually be opening at 3pm. As a result, crowds quickly accumulated in the narrow queue areas just outside the fest instead of inside in its arena-sized main grounds. This led to a crush of people trying to enter, which caused hours-long lines. A photo posted by @J3ssCel shows the immense line of people. The photo was posted at 7:42pm, nearly five hours after gates opened, and seven hours after they were due to open. On the bright side, Zedd, Griz, and Alison Wonderland delivered superior sets. This feat was even more impressive considering rampant audio-visual issues. Attendees complained of sound bleed between stages, and broken stage screens. (Source) Consequently, people left day two (really day one ?) with a poor taste in their mouths to say the least. At least there’s still another day to make up for all these mishaps, right? (Source)

The answer is no, of course not, it’s about to get a lot worse. While gates did open at 1pm as scheduled, the festival unexpectedly announced that the festival hit capacity, “due to challenges caused by Friday cancellation.” (Source). With a capacity of 42,500, festival organizers chose to oversell the capacity limit by 7,000 on Sunday. This meant that people still in line to enter would be denied entry. Displeased with the festival’s offer of a refund, enraged attendees began to stampede through security to force their way in. This dangerous situation was the cherry on top of the spectacular debacle that was EZoo 2023.

Now that the dust has begun to settle, attendees and outside observers alike are left wondering, who is at fault here? As it happens, the mayor of New York City himself has an answer to that question. During an NYPD press conference on Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams told reporters that the event’s organizers will face consequences. The organizers are the same people behind Avant Gardner, which contains the famed Brooklyn Mirage in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. (Source)

While no serious injuries were reported, it is still important to recognize the lack of safety at EZoo this weekend. While the motivation behind overselling the event is unknown at this time, it is clear that this unsafe situation on Sunday could have been avoided. Ideally, Avant Gardner will walk away from this year having learned a few lessons for next year. Because if Astroworld festival was any indication, these situations can easily turn deadly.

Story by: Mitchell Arias-Elmore

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