Key information
Request reference number: MGLA030124-3279
Date of response:
Summary of request
Your request
I ask that you answer the following questions which may be provided to the press in due course. I request that you answer the questions, expect where they are specifically asked for Pink 3 zone, for all zones:
- How many tickets were sold, by zone, during the first release?
- Did you reach capacity during the first release? For Pink 3, did you sell all the available tickets based on the maximum number of people who could be on the bridge?
- How many additional tickets were sold, by zone, during the second release at the beginning of December?
- If you hadn’t reached capacity during the first release, did you sell more tickets than the maximum capacity after the second release?
- How many stewards were allocated, per zone or in total, to queue management and crowd control?
- Did the official queue for Pink 3 include that people needed to go over steps, barriers, plants and chairs? If not, why wasn’t access to these areas restricted suitably?
- How many people were allocated to ticket control at the entrance of each zone? Was the number of people allocated to ticket control based on their ability to allow all paying customers in?
- How many tickets did you sell in total for each zone?
- How many tickets were validated on the night before the gates were shut and paying customers were not allowed to view the show?
Our response
- Questions 1,3,8 and 9
Please see below table:
- Questions 2 and 4
Tickets were sold in two releases, with the majority sold in the first release and the remainder in release two, once final area capacity verifications had been completed. By the conclusion of the second (final) release of tickets all tickets for the event had been sold. The number of tickets sold was based on the assessed maximum safe capacity for each area and no greater number of tickets were sold for any of the areas.
- Questions 5 and 7
3,042 Security and stewarding staff were in operation on the night across the event, with roles and functions relevant to crowd management.
582 of those security and stewarding staff were specifically located and operating in the areas outside the event entrances, with duties for the management of queues, as well as hard and soft ticket checkpoints. The allocation of these staff per zone is set out in the table below. The number of staff at each zone varies due to the number of entrance lanes, physical infrastructure layout and size and geography of each zone. All these factors were designed in principle to allow suitable entrance flowrates to let all ticketholders in.
I can confirm that we are unable to disclose the number of people allocated to ticket control at the entrance of each zone for the following reasons:
Information withheld from disclosure under Section 24(1), Section 31(1)(a) and Section 38(1)(b)
- Question 6
The plan for Pink 3 did not require ticket holders or non-ticket holders to step over the street furniture.
The early stage of the Pink area pre-queue used India Place which is stepped, however, there was a step-free route around the western side of the Aldwych which was available to ticket holders where required.
There was no feedback from the 2022 event which indicated a need to fence off flower beds and street furniture in this area. Fencing off all the street furniture in a safe manner would have significantly reduced the amount of space for ticket holders and non-ticket holders to move around the area. This was discussed and agreed with all stakeholders, including Westminster City Council and Northbank BID.