Justin Timberlake gig chaos in Chelmsford was ‘upsetting’

Traffic chaos that left thousands of Justin Timberlake fans stranded after a gig was “upsetting to see”, the event host said.

Four-hour queues led to people abandoning their cars and walking along the A131 when they could not exit Chelmsford City Racecourse on 4 July.

Chelmsford City Council ruled on Friday that the venue’s capacity for future music events should be capped at 10,000 due to a “catastrophic failure” in management.

Reacting to the decision, racecourse chief Nathan Holmes said: “It’s a setback but it’s not going to be catastrophic.”

Ten-time Grammy winner Timberlake performed to 25,000 fans on the first night of the three-day Chelmsford City Live festival.

Mr Holmes said Essex Police was partly to blame for the traffic as guests tried to leave the event, saying the force was an “integral part of the planning”.

He claimed: “We had actually asked them, as part of their special services, that this was where we were going to need support.”

But the force was praised by the council’s licensing committee, which found that without police action “serious injury or even death could have resulted”.

Extra officers and a succession of rolling roadblocks were deployed as hundreds of people were seen walking on grass verges and roundabouts after ditching their cars.

Mr Holmes told BBC Essex it was “disappointing and upsetting” to see how the first night of the festival ended.

“Months of hard work went into a wonderful event and it was let down by the end,” he added.

The traffic chaos was one of a series of issues that led to the council stripping the racecourse’s music event capacity back from 29,999 people.

The licensing committee heard ticket office staff “locked themselves in and shut the windows” after becoming “overwhelmed” by complaints at one point.

Mr Holmes said only “adequately trained people” should work at the venue’s future events.

“We use a number of third parties and we have to use staff supplied by them, and obviously they’re not as familiar with the venue as we’d like them to be,” he added.

“Unfortunately, the plan just wasn’t really implemented as it was supposed to be, which was obviously quite a shame.”

In its report, the city council also raised concerns about management on 5 and 6 July, when smaller crowds watched Olly Murs and Duran Duran perform.

It said the racecourse could apply to increase its capacity if music events went smoothly over the next two years.

Despite the issues, Mr Holmes insisted: “The overwhelming response was that the concert delivery was excellent.”