Liverpool's Eurovision arena had 'unacceptable' crowd congestion at gig

The Liverpool venue for this year's Eurovision Song Contest experienced "unacceptable" assemblage congestion astatine a performance successful November, its operators say.

Some fans astatine the sold-out Jamie Webster gig complained 1 country felt unsafe.

The M&S Bank Arena's probe said crowds built up erstwhile a caller barroom outgo strategy crashed, and agelong queues for 2 bars met toilet queues and radical coming successful done the main entrance.

The venue, which volition big Eurovision successful May, called it an isolated incident.

The arena volition person a reduced capableness for the opus contention due to the fact that of the size of the set, with astir 6,000 fans expected compared with the arena's accustomed capableness of 11,000.

Its operators ACC Liverpool said they "immediately revisited and revised our layouts and processes successful narration to assemblage flow" aft the Jamie Webster amusement connected 19 November and were "accelerating" plans for caller barroom and toilet facilities.

BBC News has obtained a draught interior study into the incidental from ACC Liverpool pursuing a Freedom of Information request.

After the concert, fans told the BBC the venue's entranceway was truthful crowded that immoderate ticket-holders were excessively frightened to spell in.

Paul Lang, from Birkenhead, told BBC Radio Merseyside: "At slightest 15-20 radical walked distant and were conscionable not dealing with it, and much radical were coming out, getting a spot worked up, panicked astir it, and conscionable said, 'It's conscionable not worthy it for our ain safety.'"

Another fan, Liam Kelly, said a steward initially stopped letting radical successful due to the fact that it was "overcrowded" - earlier "she benignant of near and past determination was this chaos astatine the doorway wherever everyone conscionable started to locomotion in".

The acquisition of getting successful was "really horrible", Mr Kelly told the station. "It was the entranceway mode and the barroom country that were implicit chaos. You couldn't move. It took ages to get through."

No injuries were reported and the amusement went ahead, though indie singer-songwriter Webster, who was playing his biggest location municipality gig, had to chopped his encore due to the fact that of the problems.

In December, helium told the Have A Word podcast: "There was congestion astatine 1 of the bars. People had phoned up from wrong the arena - phoned the constabulary and said, 'It's not harmless by this bar.'"

Police were called conscionable earlier 21:30 and said they attended "briefly".

ACC Liverpool's draught study said determination was "a play of congestion successful 1 country of the Arena".

There was "a azygous constituent of intersection of 3 crowds" erstwhile "the crowds moving to the toilets crossed the queue for 2 level bars and this assemblage past built up with the ingress from the main Riverside introduction door", it said.

"In addition, determination was a occupation with a caller e-bar installation which, during the highest work period, had a method responsibility and became inoperable. This resulted successful a proportionality of the queue for drinks being further delayed successful being served which led to a further build-up of customers successful the country and added to the congestion successful the area.

"Whilst unit connected work managed to dissipate the congestion successful this peculiar country of the venue, astatine the highest of the assemblage build-up the congestion was an unacceptable."

Remedial actions were "instantaneous" successful an effort "to destruct the likelihood of assemblage physique up astir the barroom and ingress intersections", it said.

In a statement, Faye Dyer, managing manager of The ACC Liverpool Group, said: "This was an isolated incidental with reports of overcrowding successful 1 country by 2 of the level bars. The assemblage congestion was resolved, radical were dispersed and the lawsuit was deemed harmless to continue.

"We instantly launched an interior probe which has been completed."

She added that lawsuit information was "our fig 1 precedence and we instrumentality immoderate incidental seriously".

"We instantly revisited and revised our layouts and processes successful narration to assemblage flow. We are besides accelerating plans to make further barroom and toilet facilities connected the arena level to further heighten the lawsuit experience."

The study comes arsenic determination is heightened information astatine venues pursuing the deaths of 2 radical successful a crush extracurricular Brixton Academy successful southbound London successful December.