Rapper Snoop Dogg who was due to appear at the cancelled Bloc Festival.

The north Norfolk company behind a cancelled major music event in London this summer has spoken for the first time about what happened.

The Bloc festival, headlined by US rapper Snoop Dogg on the opening night and due to feature Gary Numan on the second day, was cancelled just a few hours into the event at a new docklands venue.

Thousands of concertgoers, who paid from £55 to £125 for their tickets, were turned away with the help of police.

Promoters Base Logic Productions, based at Letheringsett, near Holt, went into administration, and have now issued a statement explaining what happened and saying sorry.

The company said the cancellation at 11.45 on Friday, July 6, was due to crowd safety concerns including “potentially dangerous pressure on the searching lanes leading into the festival.”

Some 15,000 tickets were sold for the event, which had previously been held at other venues such as Pontins at Hemsby.

Failure to finish building some of the London Pleasure Gardens venue also added to congestion causing “unanticipated overcrowding” which fuelled concerns.

The Pleasure Gardens had also gone into administration and closed since the event, said Base Logic, which added the venue had “seemed like the perfect new home for Bloc so we’re really sorry that everyone was let down”.

For information about refunds, visit www.parkerandrews.co.uk/news/bloc-ticketholders

richard.batson@archant.co.uk