Furious music fans delayed in traffic foul-up

HUNDREDS of furious Westlife fans didn’t get home until 3am after a major traffic foul-up at the weekend concert at Lissadell, Co Sligo.

And some people with special needs were in particularly severe distress.

Parents comforted weeping children as they waited for buses that seemed to get lost in the maze of country roads around the 400-acre estate where 30,000 fans also saw Leonard Cohen.

And hundreds of fans were walking in the darkness for hours before being ferried home from a concert that ended at 11pm.

One mother-of-four said it was a very frightening experience.

“It was so dangerous it was unreal. We went to the car parks where the buses were but there were a few thousand there before us.

“The concert was brilliant but we were like refugees shuffling along these dark unlit roads in the early hours of the morning.

“Nobody seemed to know what was happening. We were standing around waiting for a few hours. The gardaí told us to walk to the main road.

“We were walking in pitch dark on lonely country roads and it was very scary.

“We did not get home until about 3am. And nobody was there to tell us what was happening.”

Security sources admitted that the traffic management system had broken.

And wheelchair users were virtually abandoned, according to another fan.

“People were getting desperate and pushing each others get on the bus.

“It was dark, cold and raining and spoiled the night for us. There was no organisation whatsoever.”

Organisers of the concert, Pod, apologised to the 800 or so fans they said were affected.

POD director John Reynolds told the Joe Duffy show said they did their best to make everyone as comfortable as possible.

He apologised for any distress caused.

“We have learned a lot from our first experience in Lissadell and so have the gardaí as well.

“We were working with the Irish Wheelchair Association to cope with the situation.”