Sarah Beaver and her boyfriend joined thousands of people celebrating New Year’s Eve at Petco Park with a two-day electronic music festival. Or they would have, had they ever made it to the stages on the field.
They bought tickets for the Proper NYE event hosted by event promoter FNGRS CRSSD, tickets many attendees complained were oversold. After waiting two hours to be let on to the field, a person next to them attempted to jump the fence, before security threw him back. He collided with Beaver’s boyfriend and they crashed into the bleachers. “That was the tipping point for us, we decided to leave because we’d seen enough,” Beaver said.
It was the pair’s first time attending Proper NYE and they do not plan on trying to attend again.
While other attendees praised the music and the entertainers, many complained about a lack of organization crowd control. FNGRS CRSSD did not respond to a request for comment. On its Instagram, the promoter said day one tickets sold out early, with day two tickets and two-day passes also almost gone ahead of the New Year’s rave.
All tickets were sold as providing access to the four stages on the Petco Park field, although those stages quickly reached capacity with hundreds waiting for entry at the stands. (Photos courtesy FNGRS CRSSD)
Some on social media viewed the ticket sales as scammy since they were for field access when in reality the field was at capacity for most of the two nights, leaving attendees to wait in long lines at the stands to try and enter the stages. Even people who bought VIP tickets were not guaranteed timely access to the four stages on the field according to complaints on social media.
Some who had been to the annual festival in its past two iterations said this year was worse, with the overcrowding leading to long waits, chaos, and aggressive security actions as the crowd grew impatient.
Proper NYE has been held at Petco Park for three years, with the complaints about overcrowding only occurring this year.
One attendee said she missed a couple sets while standing in a crowd at a blocked entrance before waiting at a different entrance, where she was let in after 45 minutes. “I never ended up leaving the field out of fear I wouldn’t be let back in which was a shame because I wanted to go to some of the other stages,” she wrote. Her criticism was mild compared to some of the more scathing comments on the Petco Park events and Proper NYE Instagram pages.
Accidents on escalators, difficulty finding exits, and the long wait for the bathrooms made people uncomfortable. “There was zero crowd control which left many people feeling unsafe,” wrote Chanté Coleman. She thought it was “ridiculous to oversell the event and provide no organization.”
Nathaniel Ryan, a local dj, posted a video showing several altercations between Elite Security officers and attendees attempting to jump fences after they were told one of the main stages was at capacity. Tackling, shoving and pulling ensued, with members of security facing off aggressively with the incensed crowd. Ryan posted the video, saying “Things got out of hand a bit and security was nuts.” He described the festival as “very overwhelming.”
Wendy, who needed ADA access, waited for two hours to get let on the field. While waiting, she witnessed people move to exit the field to use the bathroom to learn they would not be let back in. When they tried to return to the stage without officially exiting, she said uniformed police officers “manhandled” them. She worried had there been an actual emergency, people would have been trapped without the means to evacuate.
Oscar Yerushalmi reported for EDMTunes.com that the exit process was rushed and unsafe. “The sense of community and camaraderie that should have defined Proper NYE was overshadowed by the greed and negligence of those in charge,” he concluded.
Despite complaints about the management, FNGRS CRSSD is moving forward with other events, from concerts at the Music Box to its flagship festival.
CRSSD Festival Spring ‘25 is having its 10th anniversary in March at three stages at Waterfront Park.
TOP PHOTO: Long wait times and altercations with security occurred more around the main stages, although some attendees had general complaints about poor management of entries and exits.