UPDATED 14th of June 2024
Vivid Sydney‘s Love Is In The Air drone show resulted in 2 near-crowd crushes, 1 behind the Overseas Passenger Terminal in The Rocks & 1 at the intersection of Albert & Phillip Streets. The Rocks near-crowd crush occurred before the show had even started.
The Rocks near-crowd crush was the worst near-crowd crush since, though slightly not as bad as the one that occurred at the Moore Steps in 2016. It was 5 times larger in size but less serious in terms of medical incidents, of which there were none.
The scientific definition of a crowd crush is when crowd density reaches 9 to 10 people per square metre & this number is sustained for a significant amount of time but a density of 6-7 people per square metre is when people become uncomfortable & the situation becomes dangerous. When Circular Quay’s capacity of 70,000 for Vivid‘s drone shows are reached, the density should be about 1-2 people per square metre.
1 woman told The Daily Mail that Vivid Sydney 2024 – Humanity staff were failing to direct the crowd out of the chaos:
We waited 1 hour standing to see 10 mediocre drone formations & a bunch of ads & took us 30 minutes to just leave the spot.
We had to get on top of the grass bedding to avoid the crowded part. It’s half a metre high but we have kid & elderly.
In the crowd there are baby less than a year old crying. Even as an adult. I felt pushed around. Very, very badly organised. Don’t recommend.
Vivid Sydney attendee
Sydney Spectaculars believes 94,000 people were caught in it. Both near-crowd crushes lasted until 9:50pm – half an hour after the drone show concluded.
I felt like I was going to die. It was terrifying. All it would have taken was just 1 person pushing too hard or for someone to fall over for the situation to have catastrophic consequences. There was no form of crowd control. It was shocking & clearly poorly managed.
People were barging through the eating areas to try to find their way out of the crowd. 1 of the women sitting down to eat said people who came to the restaurant were leaving because so many people were in the alfresco area.
It’s sad that businesses were losing money when ‘Vivid’ is designed to bring business to the CBD (central business district). We decided to keep pushing through the crowd until we were at a laneway & were able to bail out & then we went home.
Vivid Sydney Attendee
After the drone show, New South Wales (NSW) Police reportedly weren’t told anything & according to Today, the riot squad had to remove metal barriers to let the crowd leave the area from all directions. According to 9News, the mounted unit had to be called in.
Absolutely dangerous scenes at Vivid festival. After the 9:10pm drone show finished, there was a crowd crush starting to happen by the overseas passenger terminal. Police had to step in to remove barriers because of how serious it was.
People management very poor. For example people flowing into dead ends like the food trucks near the passenger terminal entrance and had to turn back.
Last year, the extraordinary crowds for the Written In The Stars drone show created a ‘traffic jam’ from the Circular Quay railway station/ferry wharves after the show due to 98% of people trying to immediately go home. Last night, trains were still at capacity as late as 11pm – when the lights of Vivid go off each night, most likely as a result of the crowds which were anticipated to be 4 times as large as last year.
Australian Associated Press reporter Scott Bailey said people were squeezed in like cattle with no security or event staff to be seen:
Was as if organisers didn’t account for anywhere near the crowd they got.
Scott Bailey, Australian Associated Press Reporter
Saw lots of groups with small kids and prams pretty much stuck in the crowd, moving very, very slowly.
Nick McLaren, Australian Broadcasting Corporation Journalist
We were there part of this crowd & it’s very scary. We were pushed from side to side by the crowd. Many kids were crying & parents pushing prams didn’t know where to go. We heard the police saying they were not told anything. 1 mother was crying she lost 2 of her children. It was a total disaster. No proper coordination. They closed lots of areas which was a problem, so difficult to exit.
Vivid Sydney attendee (‘CitrusHoneyComte‘ Daily Mail commentator)
The Love Is In The Air drone show is on again tonight (Sunday 9th June 2024) and next Saturday – the final night of Vivid Sydney 2024 – Humanity, both at 9:10pm. Attendance is expected to be just as crowded tonight for the drone show.
Victor Dominello attended Saturday’s drone show and told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that crowd control was “non-existent from what I saw”.
It was human sardines. These are New Year’s Eve crowds but on steroids. No-one anticipated how many people would be on the foreshore
Victor Dominello, MyGov Advisory Group Chairperson
Vivid Sydney attendee, Anthony Warren, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, “something bad” was going to happen as people tried to leave the area saying he could not see any crowd control people:
Looking at the crowd, you could see it was all families and people with prams, and they were packed together like sardines. It could have gotten so much worse very quickly, if someone started running or shouted ‘fire’. They had nowhere to go.
People didn’t know where to go and started to crush. People with babies, prams, elderly people — I noticed some were quite distressed. It was quite confronting to see.
People looked a bit panicked but were trying to keep their cool.
People just could not get out – there were people stuck there for over an hour, just standing & I noticed some of the barricades were being disassembled, which eventually eased the crush.
Anthony Warren
Another attendee wrote that she was sorry she went to the event:
A huge crush saved by a random opening a barrier. Bloody lucky no one panicked. The worst crowd control. No coordination, direction & clearly untrained crowd management staff…
Vivid Sydney attendee
Sydney Spectaculars anticipated this would happen since the drone show was announced in late April, publishing on Friday an article on the drone show stating:
Whilst we cannot be 100% sure when predicting crowd numbers, Sydney Spectaculars is expecting 194,000 people to attend per long weekend drone show in 2024, about a 270% increase on last year, due to the limited number of drone shows. Circular Quay cannot handle this amount of people at once. As implied earlier, Circular Quay’s capacity for a drone show is around 70,000 people. To have nearly 3 times that amount is dangerous, especially with a Harbour on 1 side. People falling into the water, crowd crushes & impatience leading to violence is all very possible if this situation plays out.
The full cancellation of most of Vivid Light on the just recent Saturday didn’t help. That meant about 174,000 people missed out their night and may return, most likely, on the drone show nights. That would add an extra 58,000 people per drone show to the numbers above. In other words, 252,000 people per drone show – nearly 4 times the amount of the average drone show audience of last year.
Sydney Spectaculars
Our article was only published on Friday, a day prior to the 1st drone show, for 3 reasons:
- Sydney Spectaculars is currently working on a major project, resulting in less time to write.
- Vivid Sydney should have learnt the lesson from 2016 plus they have issued capacity limits in the past.
- To avoid extra publicity of the drone show, adding to the predicted crowds.
I don’t think I’ve ever been this scared in my life. Everyone pushing from all sides with no escape.
Josh Rogers (as reported by news.com.au)
Our predicted quarter of a million people attending did occur as 7 News reported that 500,000 extra trips on public transport were made. If there was 1 trip to the drone show and 1 back home, that would equal to a quarter of a million people.
Staff described the events last night as like New Year’s Eve
Howard Collins, Transport For NSW
Vivid Sydney slowly realised the chaos about to ensure. They did deliberately hold off their drone show announcement by 3-4 weeks after the main media launch, most likely to avoid the publicity but last week, they announced the Facebook LIVE live stream would be screened near the stage in Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour & on the day of the 1st drone show they announced that Macquarie Street between the Sydney Opera House & the State Library Of NSW will be closed to traffic between 8:35pm & 9:20pm due to the Love Is In The Air drone show.
Unlike previous years, we believe Vivid Sydney did not enforce capacity limits last night. Instead they just encouraged people to “avoid” Circular Quay. If you are planning to attend, arrive before 8:40pm – that’s 40 minutes before the drone show starts. Vivid Sydney 2024 – Humanity Director, Gill Minervini, says capacity limits will be enforced tonight.
According to ABC News, Vivid Sydney & NSW Police met this afternoon (Sunday 9th of June).
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said this morning said that extra police would be on duty tonight for the 2nd drone show. As we’ve said before, more police just takes up more space. Mr Park also advised people not to go to the foreshore unless it was necessary:
It’s an incredibly popular event. It’s a long weekend. It’s good weather at the moment, people are out and about. Police advise that there was a lot of people there, a lot more than expected. They’re not saying anyone was injured or there was any serious incidents. The crowd was able to disperse, uh, very quickly.
We’re saying to people that if you can see the city, you’ll be able to see the light show. You don’t have to be right down there at the foreshore.
NSW Health Minister, Ryan Park
In regards to the drone show, the drone show only faces the southern side of Circular Quay so if you’re on the northern side while you can see the city & the drones, you will see a back to front drone show. The only view of the drone show is on the southern side of Circular Quay and from The Rocks, both places where you can see the city. However, for Vivid Light in general, the main walk is the 8km foreshore walk from Central Railway Station, via Barangaroo, to the Sydney Opera House. For Vivid Light in general, you do not need to be at Circular Quay as the NSW Health Minister states. NSW Police will also tonight more move barriers if needed to, according to 7News.
It’s slow & it’s busy but we will ensure your safety if you listen to what’s said.
NSW Police Detective Superintendent, Jodi Radmore
Vivid Sydney 2024 – Humanity Director, Gill Minervini, said that all agencies working at the event, including NSW Police, Ambulance & Transport For NSW, had vast experience in managing big crowds & were prepared. She said more police officers were sent to the near-crowd crushes when they occurred. She also urged people to exercise “patience, kindness and tolerance” at future drone shows:
The crowd did move safely through the festival. Yes, it was very busy but like when you go to a football game or a concert, it was a very big crowd, all moving out at once. Of course, we’re always reviewing our plans & have continued to do so today, as we do every day with this event. Police will have a lot of officers on site. We will be closing some of the areas earlier when they’re full & a variety of other operational things are in place for tonight so yes, we’re hoping that it will be a smooth & enjoyable experience for everyone.
It will be slow. If you need to stop & have a rest, stop and have a rest but we just ask for people to bring their understanding & their patience to see this fabulous drone show in the best harbour in the world. Some people weren’t comfortable in the crowds but we just, um, ask people to be very understanding to one another. Be very kind to one another.
Not all people felt afraid for their safety & of course, we’ve acknowledged that some people felt uncomfortable in the crowd but the crowd did move safely through the egress through the festival.
Gill Minervini, ‘Vivid Sydney’ 2024 – ‘Humanity‘ Director
Vivid Sydney organisers work with government partners & agencies to plan & deliver a successful & safe event including to manage the crowds that turned out to see last night’s drone show.
Event and security personnel monitor crowd flow & implement scalable measures to manage crowd flow at various points if required, particularly on the busy nights and peak periods.
This includes advising visitors that certain areas have reached capacity and adjusting infrastructure to support crowd flow
We understand that a large number of people leaving a major event at the same time can be slow & challenging and are grateful to the public for their patience and cooperation.
We encourage our festival attendees to plan for their Vivid Sydney visit & stay up to date including via our social media channels and the digital signage around the footprint.
Vivid Sydney spokesperson
At the conclusion of yesterday’s drone show (Saturday 8 June 2024), officers working for ‘Operation Vivid’ 2024 assisted the large crowd in leaving Circular Quay.
Larger than expected attendees resulted in pedestrian traffic congestion, particularly in and around the transport hubs; however, the crowds dispersed after a short period and there were no injuries or incidents reported.
NSW Police continue to conduct a highly visible and coordinated policing response to this year’s ‘Vivid’ event.
NSW Police
Were you affected and have a story to tell? Contact us.
Sydney Spectaculars 
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