London's NYE Fireworks Was a Dangerous Shambles
My first piece of the year, in the UK edition of The Spectator
“To most watching on TV around the world, it was big, fun spectacle with bright fireworks and New Year cheer. But for the people on the ground, who had waited in line to see the fireworks on Waterloo bridge, it was anything but. As with thousands of others in the ‘Pink 3’ queue, my New Year’s Eve was spent in an unmoving, unmanaged line, which was followed by a mad rush that led to a dangerously compressed, uncontrolled crowd. At around ten minutes to midnight, I feared for my safety in the packed crowd, which was pushing tighter and tighter. Thankfully I was able to escape, even though it meant I ended up missing the fireworks. The whole event ended up being more pandemonium than celebration, and it’s only good fortune that it didn’t become a crowd crush, of the like which killed 159 people in Seoul in 2022.
Out now in the UK edition of The Spectator: my piece on the danger of the London fireworks display, and how it was only luck that stopped this from becoming a repeat of the 2022 Seoul Halloween crowd crush. Give it a read!