MCD blame gardaí for Swedish House Mafia concert violence

The music promotors MCD have launched a strong attack on the garda policing of the July 7th concert in the Phoenix Park.

The music promotors MCD have launched a strong attack on the garda policing of the July 7 concert in the Phoenix Park.

MCD this evening published its findings into the events at the Swedish House Mafia concert during which a number of people were stabbed.

The music promotor said it accepted that the scale and level of incidents of anti-social behaviour witnessed on the night was unprecedented.

However it said the policing plan adopted a low-key approach, inappropriate to the event.

The Garda deployment on the day was below that indicated in writing prior to the concert.

It said gardaí appeared to have no adequate strategy for dealing with individuals refused admission to the venue.

MCD defended the search policy on the day which it admitted was, on occasions, relaxed, with the approval of the event controller and gardaí for short intervals to speed up admissions.

However, it said there was a serious lack of respect and disregard for gardaí and security, which appeared to have been contributed to by what MCD branded the relaxed approach policing adopted by the gardaí.