A music festival in south London descended into chaos last night as people threw bottles and stormed the stage after security appeared to lose control of the crowd.
Thousands had descended on Addingdon Park in Croydon over the weekend for the SandZ Caribbean music festival, which had promised two days of ‘non-stop vibes’.
The festival, which advertises by inviting ‘micro-influencers’ to film content, had seen glamorous arrivals from 1pm – with music headliners Vanessa Bling and Aidonia set to perform until 10pm.
But footage filmed on Sunday evening and since shared on social media showed the moment the event spiralled out of control – with attendees now demanding refunds after splashing out hundreds of pounds on tickets.
Crowds were left in an awkward silence after Vanessa Bling’s microphone was repeatedly shut off, eventually causing her to throw it away and leave the stage entirely.
The event finished half an hour early at 9.30pm – while a lack of proper lighting saw attendees scrambling to use their phone torches in order to find their way out.
One clip, shared by @browneyesgirl15, who attended the festival, showed people screaming, swearing and throwing water bottles at the stage, which had been taken over by the crowds – while a horn blared in the background.
TikTok user Yasminda commented: ‘The event was badly organised, this is the second time I have been to an event ran by these promoters, and last time was shocking as well.
The SandZ Caribbean music festival, held in Addington Park in Croydon, descended into chaos over the weekend. Pictured: The crowd shouting and throwing water bottles
The crowd had stormed the stage with the acts. Pictured: Aidonia, who was headlining, struggled to reach the stage
‘The artist came out after 9pm it finished at 10pm! We could not hear them performing in the crowd. There were tons of people on stage, who were asked to leave and did not.’
While one user said not to ‘blame the event’ as ‘people should be held accountable for their own actions’, another attendee called Mima clarified that the main band had performed for ‘less than an hour’ due to ‘PA problems’, which ‘riled up the audience.’
Another added: ‘Also, I suppose the show being cut short had nothing to do with all the people that rushed the event without going through the safety checks! People need to be accountable.’
Zeli said: ‘We barely saw the first artist, the show was meant to finish at 10pm, first artist came on after 9pm her sound get chipping out, second artist came out for about 10 seconds we couldn’t hear him. Event finished at 9.30pm.’
One person said: ‘This event was so badly planned they should give us our money back,’ while another commented: ‘The UK is so unruly.’
Another video shared to TikTok showed people climbing over the gates, while helpless security watched on.
Footage filmed by one concertgoer showed the awkward moment Vanessa Bling’s microphone was turned off, and she was left trying to perform in silence.
The singer was then seen tossing the microphone away in anger, before appearing to leave the stage.
TC, who had attended the festival, said it was a ‘-1/10 experience’ and said police officers had no effect on the crowds
Another video shared to TikTok showed people climbing over the gates, while helpless security watched on
An advertisement for the festival had said ‘history is about to be made’
Performer Vanessa, who has almost four million followers on Instagram, posted afterwards: ‘To my fans, I love you sooooooooo much. We in this together forever.’
She reposted one story from a fan, which read: ‘For the five minutes we had you, we enjoyed you Queen!’
TC, who attended the event, shared footage of the stage after it had been stormed by members of the crowd.
Taking to TikTok, she said: ‘There were absolutely too many f***ing people on that stage at Sandz. Y’all are not promoters and y’all are not performers. So what the f*** are y’all doing on the stage?
‘Just look – we didn’t even get an introduction for Vanessa Bling. We just heard her through the silence because they kept turning the music off.
‘We tried to catch a vibe with her and then they turned off her mic. It was just a madness. And I don’t know if I was going mad or not, but I did not hear when Idonia came on that stage. I did not hear it.
‘By the time I realised he was on the stage, it was bottles throwing and the lights were off and everybody was like f*** it, we’re leaving. This event was just… yeah. I was really excited to go and I will never go again.’
In the end she said the crowd started to sing on their own when the music was turned off for the 11th time to ‘build their own vibe’.
Footage showed the moment Vanessa Bling’s microphone was turned off – and she threw it away before appearing to leave the stage
Kaydene Reanne, a lifestyle lawyer, said she had been booked to share content from the festival to her social media page – but was also left bitterly disappointed
TC then gave a review of the festival, rating it a ‘-1 out of 10′ experience’ and blasting the security for doing ‘an absolutely terrible job’.
Filming the queue and security officers she explained: ‘There was barriers, but there was nobody monitoring the barriers.
‘There were 10 securities at the gate but nine out of 10 times, they were just chatting, just chatting to their friends. They were not paying attention to what was happening.
‘People kept opening the barriers and cutting the queue. It was so bad, it was absolutely terrible.’
TC even said there were police officers present, but said ‘it made no difference, because this is Croydon’.
She said: ‘People who didn’t have tickets were getting in before people who had tickets and had been waiting in the queue for a long time. Two securities, searching hundreds of people.’
Kaydene Reanne, a lifestyle lawyer, said she had been booked to share content from the festival to her social media page – but was also left bitterly disappointed.
Taking to TikTok, she said: ‘I don’t know what happened today. It started off as an 8/10. The vibes were nice. And then it just went down, down, down. I actually thought today was going to be so good.’
Taking to social media, people were quick to say they wanted their money back
Kaydene said at one point there was a half an hour break with ‘no music playing’, while people ‘stormed the doors’ leading them to be locked off.
She had a VIP ticket, but said people were ‘packed like sardines’ – and at one point the barrier was taken down, meaning the general crowd stormed the VIP area.
She said: ‘I saw people throwing bottles, they were booing. The lights went off and it was pitch black, so we had to use torches to get out of there safely.’
And rating the festival, she also gave a brutal verdict: ‘8/10 for when I arrived, but minus five out of 10 for when it ended.
‘I’m fuming because I was really looking forward to Aidonia and Vanessa Bling was amazing and she deserved to be able to showcase her skills and sing her songs properly.
‘Aidoni wasn’t on the stage for longer than two minutes, and when I was watching my videos back, there are people on the stage fighting.’
Part of the Caribbean music festival world tour, one advert for the festival had read: ‘LONDON… HISTORY IS ABOUT TO BE MADE!
‘The SOAK’d Pineapple x SANDZ ULTRA WEEKEND drops the HOTTEST international DJ lineup the UK festival scene has ever seen!
Filming the queue and security officers TC explained: ‘There was barriers, but there was nobody monitoring the barriers’
People had stormed the stage alongside the artists and weren’t stopped by security
‘TWO DAYS. NONSTOP VIBES. GLOBAL SOUND. We’re bringing the best from across the Caribbean and beyond to shut down Addington Park, Croydon!’
Following backlash on Sunday night, the festival has limited comments on their posts on Instagram.
Negative comments have still managed to get through, with one attendee telling the festival: ‘You guys should be ashamed to even put this up don’t act like it was a success because it wasn’t it was appalling’;
‘I hate when so many people are on the stage. Why would you do this, and you’re not security’;
‘This was poorly organised!!! This Artist was on stage for 2mins before it got locked off 2 mins for £110 absolutely disgusting.’
Prior to the event, Amity Security, the festival’s security contractor, had shared an 124-page security plan for an expected crowd of 5,000 people.
The Daily Mail has reached out to SandZ music festival, Amity Security and the Metropolitan Police for further comment.
Sandz Caribbean Music Festival was first launched in 2014 by Carlton Davy.
Aidonia was joined by members of the crowd onstage – leading to the audience complaining that they couldn’t hear the acts
He told World Music Views previously that the festival experienced immediate success: ‘The demand was overwhelming – so much so that we had to go back to the vendor and pay more money. Social media lit up because, for the first time, nine different people from different teams all activated their niches online. It went viral.
‘We’ve never done a TV ad. What we do is tap into micro-influencers—maybe not famous, but impactful in their own circles. We give them tickets, have them post, and it becomes a chain reaction. That’s the Sandz formula.’
First based in Jamaica, SandZ has since held shows in Florida, New York, Atlanta Toronto and the UK.
It described itself as the ‘largest Caribbean music festival’ and is held four times a year in Jamaica.
In 2019, an event held by SandZ in Toronto previously raised security concerns after a security guard came forward with allegations of poor planning.
Panicked crowds had been filmed running for safety, while national news outlets reported that a man was left lying in a pool of his own blood.
A security guard, who asked to remain anonymous, told Canada’s CBC News at the time: ‘It was impossible for security to effectively do their jobs. Immediately, we were like, “Oh, this is going to be hell.”‘
‘When we first pulled up, we said, “There’s no way this is it.”‘
Describing the set-up she said it looked like ‘a cage’, adding: ‘You cannot cage people in like that because that’s what triggered the panic and that’s what sparked a lot of the other injuries like people getting trampled, stampeded over.’
Toronto police had initially been called to the Woodbine Centre in Etobicoke over reports of gunfire, according to spokesperson David Hopkinson.
Hopkinson said at the time: ‘We did find one bullet, not a spent shell casing…’
The previous year, the festival caused chaos in 7th Harbour, Kingston, after partygoers parked along the Palisadoes strip, causing disruption to traffic to the Norman Manley International Airport, according to the Jamaica Observer.
A spokesperson for Sandz said at the time: ‘We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused by the traffic on the Palisadoes strip.
‘It is important to note that traffic recommendations were raised and agreed to before permission was granted to use the venue.
‘Security plans were shared with and approved by all superior bodies, consisting of the hiring of police patrol on the strip, the rental of additional parking space0/shuttle buses, advertising of the designated parking, and the placement of adequate signage on the road.’
