KZBlog

The show was great on TV. I was hoping to see it live in the stadium as I had a ticket, but did not make it, explanation below. Excuse the essay but despite being in Kazakhstan for some time, I was still suitably shocked enough to want to tell people about this:

-For so called security reasons it was decided that the only way to get to the stadium was by bus, and this was stipulated on the tickets. The buses left from a handful of locations from around the city.

When I arrived at my pickup point near to KazMunaiGas (Exhibition centre ‘Korme’) there were a handful of buses already there that were already full so expected to wait just a short while to get the next one. It then became apparent that we all had to go through some kind of checkpoint, showing both ID and our tickets before actually getting on the bus. I joined the queue tucked close to the building and then noticed that they were checking people inside and we needed to wait. The queue soon became a mass of people at least ten to fifteen people thick and soon found I was being crammed against a wall and against
a very nervous security guard with an equally nervous looking police dog.
People were understandably getting impatient, it was turning into a but of a scrum. After about half an hour of being crammed like a sardine and barely being able to move my arms, they decided to open the door and let people in. People were cursing as some ineveitably decided to force
their way in. At no point was there anyone attempting to inform, direct or calm the crowd, just security people in a preventive role (i.e. don’t let anyone in until we tell you)

Once we were in, there was another inevitable densely packed crowd of people , A small team checked tickets and ID cards as we struggled to make it down some stairs without stumbling. Parents of children looked understandably nervous and in slight shock. At the bottom of the stairs another team of 3 or 4 people did a security check of pockets, handbags, and jackets. At this point, we half expected to be loaded onto a big wagon with a herd of sheep and driven to an undisclosed location on the Steppe.

OK so now SURELY we will find ourselves in the ‘already checked people’ area and gently ushered onto a waiting bus. But alas it wasn’t to be. We found ourselves walking amongst dozens of people that clearly had NOT gone through the checking process. My only guess is that they realised they could not cope with the sheer number of people and were just allowing boarding onto buses with no checks. Another fleet of buses arrive and due to the lack of any orderly queues, quickly turns into a push and shove match to get on. I decided not to stoop to this level and waited my turn. After another set of buses and another round of watching people pushing, shoving and cursing, I decided enough was enough and started my steady walk home, cold and not so much
disappointed as mildly depressed at what I’d seen. Scenes like that sparked thoughts of queues at rowdy nightclubs on drunken Friday nights, surely not at a huge profile, international sports event. As I walked passed the
crowd, a foreigner was sarcastically applauding all those responsible for the shambles.

In summary, well done officials for your incompetent organisation of the transportation for the event, at least from the ‘Korme’ pick up point. What should have been an exciting, fun day out had turned into a highly stressful experience, particularly for families with kids. Those who did get to the venue OK and who gave due consideration to other people, hope you enjoyed the show, (this was of course spectacular) and that you got home by sunrise.

Organisers, next time, I recommend you seek some consultancy from experts on logistics and crowd control, or at the very least muster up some common sense, getting thousands of people to a sold out event, all on buses, in the space of 3 hours, security checking everyone before they had even got on a bus to the stadium, was clearly never going to happen smoothly.

Here’s hoping.