“Now I have been to Europe, I have been to Spain, but there’s nothing quite as beautiful as Malaysian rain. Whenever I’m down and whenever I’m in pain, I love to stand here in Malaysian rain.
”THOSE were the first two lines of an impromptu song performed by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin to 75,000 adoring fans at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Wednesday night.
The English rock star may have enjoyed and even revelled in the rain, but to the tens of thousands of concertgoers, the inclement weather proved to be the catalyst for a nightmare scenario on the night.
Poor crowd control, horrendous traffic, indiscriminate parking and, of course, the rain, marred an otherwise enjoyable and captivating night.
“There was zero crowd control. My friends and I were stuck in a crowd when we exited the stadium and we literally could not move because of the crush,” said communications manager Lola Wong.
She said the crowd heading towards the Bukit Jalil LRT station was prevented from entering the station. Wong eventually got home at 1am.
“Some of my friends reached home even later. I shudder to think what might have happened if there was a stampede,” she added.
The KL gig, which is part of the Coldplay’s Music of The Spheres World Tour, marked the British group’s first concert in the country since its debut in 1997.
The band should be commended for putting on a fantastic show complete with dazzling special effects, costume changes and even a fireworks display.
But the same cannot be said for the organisers of the show. The concert promoter, the stadium board and even the police should be taken to task for an evening that left a bitter taste in the mouth.
The authorities had already advised concertgoers to use public transportation to Bukit Jalil but the sheer number of people using the LRT network led to delays on the tracks.
An example was a couple who parked their car at the Sentul LRT station, only to be disembarked, put on a bus and then back on the LRT again – arriving at Bukit Jalil after two hours.
Thinking that the LRT would be packed, I decided to drive from Taman Tun Dr Ismail at 6pm. What should have been a 30-minute journey took me two and a half hours to reach my destination.
I finally got in five minutes before the band started. A lot of people weren’t so lucky because there was constant movement in the stands with fans taking their seats even 30 minutes after the show started.
Leaving the venue was just as bad. Many people who came by road were forced to walk two to three kilometres to the main highways to finally get to their vehicles. Traffic was at a standstill outside the venue.
Indiscriminate parking along the road shoulders did not help matters and in certain areas, double parking only allowed for a single lane to be used to disperse traffic.
Questions need to be asked as to why there wasn’t proper traffic control mechanisms in place? After all, the Coldplay date was known months in advance.
The irony was that there was a huge police presence in the stadium. The Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) was deployed following concern on possible protests over the concert.
Any planned protests fizzled out and the FRU personnel on duty were left milling around their vehicles. Meanwhile, outside the stadium where the chaos was taking place, there were far too few traffic cops to handle the situation.
Ride-hailing services were virtually non-existent because drivers kept rejecting ride requests and this put further strain on the LRT network.
It is puzzling to see hawker stalls allowed to be set up indiscriminately outside the concert venue. These stalls were selling everything from concert paraphernalia to raincoats and food and drinks. These stalls were even placed on walkways, making it even more difficult for the crowds to negotiate their way in and out of the stadium.
The Perbadanan Stadium Malaysia (PSM) has a lot to answer to. The statutory body under the Youth & Sports Ministry that manages the Bukit Jalil sports complex should ultimately be held responsible for the multitude of shortcomings on Wednesday night.
Malaysian concertgoers are a long-suffering bunch. We have had to look on with envy as the big international acts perform at our north and south across our borders. Coldplay was the first truly big, global band that came to our shores in the last few years.
And even then, there was no guarantee that the British act was going to perform. Days before the concert, PAS had declared that the show should be cancelled, and this was echoed by the FT Mufti.
The band had to even put up with a “kill switch” order which would stop the performance by cutting the power supply to musical instruments and sound systems, allowing authorities to pull the plug on the concert instantaneously.
And yet, despite all these obstacles, the much-anticipated Coldplay concert went ahead and the band did not disappoint – but the venue, organisation and lack of planning certainly did.
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Brian Martin
Brian Martin is the managing editor of The Star.
