Over a quarter million people visited the seventh Guangzhou International Festival of Light on Saturday evening, causing police to shut down the event shortly after 7.30pm.
It was only the second night of the 24-day event, which is supposed to run until November 19.
According to a report by xkb.com, a total of 270,000 people visited Zhujiang New Town’s Huacheng Square for the music and light shows, with 120,000 people crammed into a 50,000-square-meter area at one point during the evening.
Predictably, the crowds resulted in both metro and traffic mayhem.
According to a Weibo post published on the official Tianhe Public Security Bureau account on Saturday, authorities asked the event’s organizing committee to close displays at Huacheng Square due to large crowds and to avert the risk of individuals being trampled.
Going forward, police have said the event will see a closure of “personnel-intensive music areas and most of the lighting works” on weekends to ensure public safety.
The Guangzhou International Festival of Light hosts light exhibits across Guangzhou and, as best we understand at present, only Huacheng Square will be affected by the weekend display closures.
[Images via WeChat, Weibo]
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