Last night, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Music Festival held in Makati’s Ayala Triangle Gardens was abruptly canceled after its organizers failed to control the number of people coming in.
The free event, organized by the National Organizing Council in conjunction with the ongoing ASEAN Summit, was promoted online.
A number of local artists like Franco, Parokya Ni Edgar, and Sandwich were slated to perform with acts from all over Southeast Asia including D’Hask from Brunei, Asia 7 from Thailand, and Nading Rhapsody from Malaysia.
According to a report by ABS-CBN News, the Southern Police District chief estimated that 15,000 people were at the concert.
Some fainted as people pushed each other while local band Parokya Ni Edgar was performing.
Concertgoers also started to lift up monoblock chairs and passed them around in the tight space, as seen in this video shared on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/htmleann/status/930399334083915777
At about 9pm, two hours after the festival opened, Southern Police District Chief Superintendent Tomas Apolinario announced that it had been canceled by the organizers.
“For reasons of public safety, the organizers have decided to stop the show. As of now people are already slowly leaving the venue to go home. The organizers are very sorry for the inconvenience,” a statement from the organizers read.
According to ABS-CBN News, the Department of Health (DOH) attended to those who fainted and blacked out.
DOH treating those who can’t breathe and have blacked out here inside the Makati Stock Exchange. PNP also here. #aseanmusicfestph #asean2017 @ABSCBNNews pic.twitter.com/V8uprjVS0X
— Gretchen Ho (@gretchenho) November 14, 2017
Parokya Ni Edgar frontman Chito Miranda took to Twitter to share his comment on the incident.
“May this serve as a lesson to be more prepared nextym (sic),” he said.
https://twitter.com/chitomirandajr/status/930462200904298496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.abs-cbn.com%2Fentertainment%2F11%2F15%2F17%2Fheres-what-chito-miranda-has-to-say-about-asean-music-festival
