'A waste of time': Over 5 hours' wait, 9,300 people in queue to enter Mercury Festival at Suntec City

Due to system issues and overwhelming crowds, thousands of attendees found themselves queueing for hours to enter the Mercury Festival from Jun. 5 to 7.

The bi-annual art and thrift fair for small businesses, held at the Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre with free entry, saw large crowds outside the convention hall waiting to get in.

At 4:22pm on Jun. 6, the organisers wrote on the festival's Telegram channel that there were around 9,300 people in the queue, with a waiting time of over four hours.

Shortly after, they updated that they had to close the virtual queue temporarily "due to the high volume of people in the online queue as well as in the venue".

"Five hours and still waiting," a person commented at 4:15pm on Jun. 7, under the festival's update that the online queue will again be stopped temporarily.

Another wrote on 5:41pm that she arrived at the venue at 11:30am and was still waiting for her number.

The festival was open from 12:30pm to 8:30pm each day.

Unforeseen circumstances

Festival organisers told Mothership that the three-day event saw over 32,000 visitors, with about 15,000 on Saturday alone.

"We are regretfully aware that it’s a significant number and we deeply apologise for this oversight," they said in response to Mothership's queries.

Online queues were closed early on all three days, with the organisers explaining on Telegram that they "truly could not foresee the crazy crowd so early on".

Those currently in the queue would not be affected, but no new registrations would be accepted.

On Jun. 7, a system malfunction occurred due to the overwhelming number of patrons registering for a queue number. It caused a lag in the queue system that the organisers said was resolved in a timely manner.

The queueing process

Mothership readers shared that the only official way to get a entry queue number was to get to the hall in person and scan a QR code on the sign outside, which would give them a queue number.

The online queue would open around 12pm each day shortly before the festival opened its doors, according to a reader.

She had visited on Jun. 6 and was able to enter the festival after getting a queue number around 12pm, which was called at around 1:30pm.

According to her, there was no time limit set for how long she could stay inside the hall when she got in.

A security guard outside the hall was saying that those who had just got a number could come back in three to four hours, she recalled, adding that the crowd outside the venue was huge also due to people queueing for an anime market right next door.

Another Mothership reader who went to the festival on Jun. 7 got a queue number at 12:53pm, but it was only called after six hours at 7pm.

When she first registered for a number, there were over 7,700 people in the queue in front of her.

She waited around for an hour and a half before deciding to leave, because there were still over 6,400 before her by that time.

TikTok user @zilliediaries described the queue situation as a "war zone". Posting on Jun. 7, she said she was unable to enter the festival as there were 8,000 people in the queue.

@zilliediariesat least the queues for public garden moved quickly… mercury fest this year goes crazy♬ original sound - zane and willie

Vendors' experiences

A vendor who boothed for all three days at Mercury Festival took to Threads to share her experience.

"It's sad that many of my regulars, friends and new customers were not able to enter due to their queue management system," she said.

Despite the crowds, her sales were "almost the same" as it was at the previous year's festival.

She claimed that other vendors said their sales were "not very good" either, possibly "because most of the crowd were browsing and not necessarily there to shop as it overlapped with the other festivals on the same floor".

Some vendors, however, shared more positive experiences.

In an Instagram story that was reshared by the festival, one vendor thanked customers for the unexpected turnout and support. She also apologised and expressed appreciation to people who were unable to get into the festival because of the queues.

Making improvements

On the last day of the festival, the organisers apologised for the long waits and responded to attendees' feedback by making some improvements to the queue system.

Through the Telegram channel, they informed everyone in the morning that the start of the queue system would be brought earlier to 11am, and informed everyone that the last ticket number accepted would be 4,700.

They also asked attendees not to circulate the QR code around to others to "ensure the actual queue count remains accurate".

TikTok user @groceryham, who initially included a link to the online queue website in a video, later removed it based on the organisers' request.

They explained that "some people are joining online with no intention to go", she said in a comment.

Many attendees who faced long waits expressed their frustration in comments on the Mercury Festival Instagram page, suggesting that the organisers make improvements to the queue system for future editions of the festival.

The organisers' response

In response to Mothership's queries, the organisers shared that higher queue number holders had to wait for up to five hours, though waiting times varied across the three days.

"We acknowledge that the waiting experience is not acceptable and inconsiderate to our patrons who came with the intention of supporting our vendors and we’d like to truly apologise for that," they said.

Instead of enforcing a time limit, the team managed the crowd entry flow according to the volume inside the hall.

There was regular communication from both vendors and staff on crowd control, to decide when to admit more visitors and when to stop.

Looking ahead, the team has been developing a strategy to manage the queues at the next event.

Solutions in discussion include potentially renting the concourse below to provide a spacious area for a physical queue, or implementing time slots.

The team will be seeking feedback on these ideas, and will also take other suggestions into consideration.

"We would like to thank everyone that took the time to come down for Mercury Festival and were so patient. The turnout exceeded what the venue and queue flow could comfortably handle. We are so grateful that we have patrons that are determined to support the local community and we will work hard to honour that."