Boiler Room Seoul event shut down due to reports of overcrowding

A Boiler Room event in Seoul, South Korea, was shut down due to reported overcrowding. 

Safety concerns are said to have arisen at the Sfactory club last Saturday 27th July. Emergency services responded to calls reported to be regarding overcrowding by dispatching 11 fire engines and 42 firefighters to the Seongsu-dong address at around 1AM, bringing proceedings to a close. 

There is said to have been no casualties, although a number of people experienced breathing difficulties and are reported to have required treatment on site.

According to officials, 4,500 tickets are said to have been sold for a venue with a registered capacity of 2,000. However, subsequent reports in national and international press have put the number of attendees closer to 6,000. 

These claims, made by titles including Korea Times, Korea JoongAng Daily, and Hindustan Times, have not been verified, and Boiler Room has since stated the event was not over capacity at the time it was closed. 

“Contrary to what has been reported, we sold to the capacity that was instructed by our partner in Seoul,” Boiler Room said in a statement posted to Instagram Stories this week. “At the time the event ended we were under capacity.”

Boiler Room has gone on to suggest that crowd-flow through the venue was an issue, rather than the number of people inside. A statement has also confirmed all ticket holders will receive a full refund. 

Writing in Reddit’s r/Living_in_Korea thread, EffectiveCar6118 gave a detailed description of their experience, explaining that “before entering, I already felt there were too many people. I have been to many events at Sfactory, but I have never seen so many people packed inside, probably two-three times the capacity.” 

The post goes on to list a number of issues, including “non-functional” bathrooms, excessive queues for one of the stages, poor access to water, insufficient air conditioning, and security not allowing people to leave the building for around 20 minutes before the cancellation. 

“My personal takeaway is that it felt like they oversold tickets and didn’t invest in essential precautions for this massive rave, such as easy access to water, a place to cool down, medical tents, and helpful staff,” EffectiveCar6118 said. 

“With the growing prevalence of the rave scene in Korea, venues and event planners need to research and adopt protocols from abroad,” they continued. “I did see one person pass out and need to be removed, and I saw others having a terrible time and begging to be let out of the crowd. I am extremely disappointed and disgusted by the dangerous situation we were all subjected to.”

The show was pulled just ahead of a headline set from Peggy Gou, who was joined by artists including Elkka and Jyoty. Xing Xing, who was also on the bill, told RA she was “still very overwhelmed” as a result of the experience. 

Soichi Terada, who was due to perform later, also spoke to Mixmag. He explained: “Due to too many attendees who were eagerly looking forward to seeing Peggy Gou, nobody could move. So they had to abort the show before Peggy or I could play.” 

“I am deeply upset and heartbroken that my performance was canceled before I even had the chance to play my music due to the organiser’s operation and safety issues,” said Gou on Instagram, before offering reassurance she would be back in Seoul soon. “We are working on scheduling the next performance as soon as possible for those who came today and those who couldn’t get in. So please wait a little longer.” 

The incident comes less than two years after a crowd crush killed 159 and injured 196 people at a Halloween event in Itaewon, Seoul. Less than 12 months earlier, Travis Scott’s Astroworld music event was cancelled due to overcrowding, with 10 fatalities, 25 hospitalisations, and over 300 attendees treated for minor injuries. 

In the UK, two people died and one was critically hurt during a crush at Brixton Academy, London, in 2022, resulting in the venue having its license suspended. Earlier this year, a new safety guide for events was published by the UK Crowd Management Association, Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), LIVE, and the UK Door Security Association.